Maple, if you give the ants grits or cornmeal, dry-straight out of the package - to eat/carry off, you can have lots of entertainment watching them for about three or four days. Then they don't come back anymore. And grits/cornmeal is totally non toxic to your chickens if they find and eat the ants wherever they are going. The grits/cornmeal theoretically causes the ants to explode because they can't digest it. Don't know if it's true; do know that they disappeared out of my kitchen after three days and haven't been back.
