DH's new free fun food for the chickens!

[Wolf-Kim]

DH accidentally discovered a new source of free fun chicken food for the chickens the last couple of days and I thought I would share.

He discovered it when he happened to glance into a feed bucket we had sitting outside the barn. The bucket happened to be sitting underneath the outside light of the barn. When he glanced into this bucket he noticed there were a couple hundred trapped beetles. They had hit the barn light in the night and fallen into this bucket which had collected a couple inches of rainwater.

We fed the beetles to the chooks, who were wary of this new treat at first.

We reset the bucket and in one night, it was again completly filled with beetles. This time the flock knew what that bright red bucket meant and swarmed!

We were standing outside the coop watching them. It sounded like a school bus of children all smacking on popcorn. You could hear every beetle crunch, even outside the coop. It was funny to watch them eat their new snack.

Best of all it was FREE, healthy, and fun for the chickens!

-Kim

 

[My Little Sister's Farm]

That is so awesome!!! Free food is free food, that is au natural alright!

I'm confused about how beetles get trapped, do they fly?

 

[d.k]

* They are probably what we call "June bugs", and yep-- they fly. Not well sometimes, but they do fly. They are attracted to light.

(Great idea, Wolf-kim! Tell your DH thanks from me. I'm gonna try it.)

 

[Wolf-Kim]

My Little Sister's Farm :

That is so awesome!!! Free food is free food, that is au natural alright!

I'm confused about how beetles get trapped, do they fly?

They fly around at night. They are very attracted to the light, the beetles usually hit the light and fall to the ground, but since the bucket was so conveniantly located they fall in the bucket.

They can fly, they usually don't after being waterlogged. They don't fly off fast enough that they get away from the chickens. I have noticed that both nights produced the same amount collected. We got one full layer across the surface of the water. I think that we won't get multiple layers because when they fall onto the original layer they are still dry enough to fly off.

-Kim​

 

[Wolf-Kim]

d.k :

* They are probably what we call "June bugs", and yep-- they fly. Not well sometimes, but they do fly. They are attracted to light.

(Great idea, Wolf-kim! Tell your DH thanks from me. I'm gonna try it.)

I'll let him know.

We always called a larger very green beetle a June Bug. The beetles we call June Bugs are usually around the size of a nickel. The beetles that get trapped in this water are little Black/brown beetles probably about the size of a dime or less.

-Kim​

 

[krjwaj]

That's funny!

 

[bluey]

That's awesome! My favorite feeding game is "lift the log". Since we use a wood burner in the winter, we always have lots of spare logs sitting around the property. I've placed many on the perimeter of the yard on purpose.

I walk around the perimeter and roll over the logs every so often and volia!... the chickens go nuts!

It's funny, everytime I walk toward the perimeter of my yard, I feel like the Pied Piper of Hamelin with my posse marching behind me in a straight line!

 

[FisherMOM]

I keep hearing the term "chook"
what breed is a "chook"?

I just cant figure out put? lol

 

[JennsPeeps]

"Chook" is affectionate term for chicken (from what I've figured out).

 

[Wolf-Kim]

Chook is just a nickname for chicken. LOL Sorry, it was just something I picked up from the internet forums.

I have taken to calling stuff by nicknames since being a member of BYC.. DH, roo, chook, ladies..etc


-Kim