Cicadas

[wxdude99]

Do chickens eat cicadas? I just read in the news that this year there will be a bunch because of the 13 year cycle. Maybe I could put some in the freezer.

 

[GiddyMoon]

yes

 

[GoChick]

My chickens are eating so many cicadas, they barely touch their feed! Even the chicks, the mamma hen would kill the cicadas and give it to then when they were one week old. Now, at three weeks, they can get them themselves, it is the cutest thing to watch. Primetime chicken TV!

 

[Kudzu]

My five Red Stars do not eat bugs, we are working on that.

 

[debid]

Delilah the Dominique sampled one today -- she killed it but didn't eat it.

Of course, this was during outdoor time when they're more interested in greens and scratching than bug catching (they do most of that at night...) I sure hope they decide to eat them eventually!

 

[Theapplechicks]

oh gosh we are covered in them here in GA and I have been finding lots of "pieces" of them around so I guess my girls are getting them???

 

[harmona1]

Mine LOVE them!

 

[debid]

The kids found a couple on the deck this morning and came in squealing that the chicks love the bugs with the red eyeballs (I'd told them about cicadas and that they were OK to feed to the chicks). After I dropped the kids off for school, I went out with a produce bag and harvested about 2 pounds of them. No joke! They're in the freezer on "power freeze" right now. I quit when they warmed and dried enough to start flying away as I approached but my goodness, they really were everywhere. Let's just hope DH never opens the bottom drawer in the freezer...

And, of course, I tossed some in to see the reaction and they went crazy for them. I hope they'll continue to enjoy them as long as the bounty lasts and that they'll be just as excited to have defrosted cicadas with their winter kitchen scraps.

For anyone who hasn't done this, the newly emerged cicadas are very easy to catch in the early morning. Their defense is to let go and play dead. I caught some of them by tapping the leaf they were on and letting them fall into the bag. It also works to just grab them by the wings. It really couldn't be easier. And, the newly emerged cicadas are small enough that even a 3-weeker can eat them whole.

 

[franklinchickens]

As with GoChick, mine are hardly touching their feed, they are gorging so much on cicadas. They leap in the air to catch them and gobble them up. I'm hoping they are still getting enough other nutrition because I do believe that is all they are eating. They barely touch the greens and scratch since the cicadas came out. This is also the first time they've touched the oyster shell I've always left out - I suspect it is because they are feeling deficient due to not eating as much of their feed.

 

[colebarnhart]

I keep hearing about people on BYC having these and I don't have any

and normally have a ton and it's usually so loud in the evenings that it sounds like people mowing yards. But this year nothing so far, WTH? I'm dying to watch my chix eat some!!!!