Feel Sorry For the Bugs, Actually Not Really

[3GChicks]

Being new to the chicken world my husband and I gave our new additions some baby meal worms (my husband breeds meal worms to feed to the crested geckos and bearded dragon he has) any way we thought we would see what our Silkies would do with them because the breeder we got them from said we could give them to them as a treat. OMG they went crazy,they were like attack chickens.

I do not think we are going to have a problem with bugs in our backyard this spring or summer, they are ninja chickens when it comes to bugs!

 

[Mahonri]

Oh yeah, chickens... a bug's worst nightmare.

 

[3GChicks]

The chicks are so sweet and nice....until they see a bug...lol. Free pest control and safer than spraying the back yard, especially since I have a 6 year old and an 11 month old who will probably be running around with the chickens this spring and summer

 

[gryeyes]

Bug reduction is one of the top three reasons I GOT chickens in the first place. I didn't realize how effective they are at it until I picked up an old strawberry bag (the kind you put the dirt and strawberry starts into and hang on a fence) which had been on the ground for a few months.... Earwigs had made a nest in it, as they prepared to take over the entire Western hemisphere. Hundreds of them poured out, running every which way, and - incidentally - dropping onto my lower body.

I flung that bag and screamed like a banshee, hopping around and flapping my hands at earwigs on my jeans.

The Chicken Stampede occurred next. OMG.

Chickens LOVE earwigs. I only had eight chickens at the time but they took care of the Incipient Earwig Invasion in very short order. It was such an amazing sight I have often taken an old newspaper, rolled it up into a tube, dampened it with water from a hose and placed it in my garden overnight. In the morning, I pick up the newspaper and unroll it in the area where I feed treats to the flock. Om nom nom!!!! Happy chickens!

 

[Nitrous]

If it's smaller than a chicken and moves AT ALL, chickens go insane for it. God forbid the bug might fly. I think if a June bug could get to 1000 feet, a chicken would flap hard enough to meet it there.

Last year was supposed to be a huge year for grasshoppers, but I never saw one. Before I got the chooks, I had inchworms all over, in the grass. Not anymore. Oddly, they don't eat houseflies or blowflies. The kind that are attracted to chicken poop. Nah, Those get a pass.

 

[Carols Clucks]

As a kid, one of my garden jobs was to hunt the tomato hornworms. I would put them in a can to take back to the chickens. Now we have our garden in the center of the chicken yard. Knock on wood...what horn worms?

 

[3GChicks]

Lol, these post are too funny. Last night my 6 year old and I took the chicks out of their temporary Rubbermaid house and my son had on these crazy slippers and one of the chicks attacked his slipper, it was too funny.

So do the chickens eat mosquitoes? We always have a huge problem in the summer with mosquitoes. My husband and I have considered getting a fogger for the backyard but if the chickens will eat them then that solves that problem. It is nice to know I have protection for my roses this year, last year the aphids dismantled them!

 

[ChickenPeep]

Chickens are ninja when it comes to bugs!

 

[Nitrous]

My chickens ignore aphids. Too small?

 

[gryeyes]

Quote:

My chickens ignore aphids. Too small?

They don't see the aphids when they are destroying the roses.....

Umm.... chickens love rose bushes. A LOT.