Clduff506
In the Brooder
- May 27, 2015
- 2
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Is it ok to feed horn worms to my chickens? I gave them a couple and they acted like I gave them chicken caviar so thought I better ask seems we have a good supply of very hungry caterpillars!
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They may be mildly toxic but should not cause issues unless many are consumed at expense of other items.
Exactly!!!
Back in my 20s and 30s I had about a 1/2 acre garden spot that doubled as a nursery for my young chicks. All the mama hens were housed in 4 X 4 X 3 foot flat coops held off the ground just far enough to let the chicks come and go but that kept the hens confined.
It was the chicks job to patrol my bean plants, tater patch, and tomatoes for insect pest, but without their mothers teaching the chicks bad habits I never lost very many bean and pea blossoms or tomatoes to my young chicks.
Even today when I find a horn worm I always look at him closely to see if it has any little white rice looking things on the worms' body. If it does I leave that horn worm alone because it is as good as dead already. You see the little rice looking things are the pupa of a tiny parasitic wasp that preys on horn worms.
In my opinion there was way too much thought put into the Idea that horn worms a.k.a. tobacco horn worms are harmful to chickens.
Well, personally I don't intentionally feed my girls things I know are toxic, even if only "mildly toxic".