Can chicks eat ants?

[mmtillman]

I live in MO and we dont have the red ants here...but we do have the standard little black ants that are everywhere....can I give them to my 3 week old chicks? I figured ants would be a good starter bug for them being so small?

I just dont wanna get ants started in the coop if they wont or cant eat them.....Anyone have experience with this?
I do get worms out of the compost pile about every other day and treat them with small ones....they go insane over them!!!

 

[thechickman04]

whenever i put baby chicks outside for the first couple of times i will watch them pick out and find every ant they can in the grass and gulp it down and it has never hurt any of them

 

[Buck Creek Chickens]

I put the chicken tractors right over an ant hill it gets cleared out real fast.

 

[mmtillman]

ok...good! I will go out and scoop up some ants right now...

 

[miss_jayne]

they can eat them but most don't. they are very bitter tasting.

 

[Big Chicken Little]

Let them eat all they want... it is fun to watch them go after them!!

 

[KattyKillFish]

or course they can! mine love ants. it's cute watching them grab one and run away with the others chasing!

 

[Hillbilly Rooster]

Heck if you dont watch the stinkers they will eat plastic, styrophom, and anything else you dont want them to eat. Mine will chase things like a dog if it blows threw the yard.

 

[Buck Creek Chickens]

tug of war with a worm

 

[farmerlor]

My chickens dug and scratched until they got every single ant out of a hill that some really stupid ants decided to build in the middle of a chicken yard.