Hunting in the Compost Pile!

[rebbetzin]

If you had told me a year ago I would be out happily hunting for grubs in my compost pile, I would have thoght you were nuts!!

But, here I am every day turning the compost to find nice fat grubs to make the girls happy!!!!

Not for the squeemish!!

 

[NancyDz]

Nice grubs, my chickens would go crazy over those!

Do you let your chickens in there at all? Another chicken group I'm in, a guy lost his fav chicken letting her go in the compost pile. He chased her out and she dropped dead a minute later, almost like she choked on something. Very sad.

 

[rebbetzin]

Quote:
No, my poor chickens will never be able to free range, unless I put a cover over my entire backyard. They have a tractor that moves around the yard.

I just go digging for the grubson my own. I rinse them off and "serve" them on a platter!! I cut the grubs up for them the first few times, since they looked so huge!! Now I let them "Kill" the the grubs, they fight over them and pull them apart, pretty gruesome but, it keeps them from being bored.

I could see a chicken choking on a huge grub if they didn't peck at it for a while first.

 

[island.girlie]

Now those are some nice grub fatties. I have a vermi-composter with a big population of red worms or red wigglers. Fisherman like them for bait. Does anyone feed these to their chickens? I would imagine that they'd like them.

 

[LindaN]

island.girlie you should should DEFINITELY give some of those red worms to your chickens. I started a worm bin in my home last year for just that reason.

Of course, I'm in Chicago where there are no bugs for them to scratch up for about 4 months out of the year...

 

[joanc]

Our girls (and 1 roo) knock down the compost pile every chance they get. They've spread it around and are doing a great job of "turning" it.
About 6 weeks ago I noticed a couple of the girls running around with something red. I went over to the compost pile and lo and behold, there was a tomato plant that had sprouted and the red thing was a small ripe tomato they treated as a great prize!
I'm sure they have found many grubs there as they hit the pile every day when we let them out of the pen. During the summer we always get big juicy bugs and the chickies lov 'em.

 

[island.girlie]

Thanks Linda! I'll be sure to give them so worm treats. Woot woot.

 

[thunder123]

Do you know what grubs grow up to be?

 

[Attack Chicken]

This page has two of my favorite chickens on it....The one that Rebbetzin has and the Silver Spangled Hamburg. I want some chicks sooo bad.. Just don't know where to get them. My girls loves worms,grubs,crickets and other bugs. My roo just turns his nose up to them unless its beemoths. Which they go NUTS for!!!

 

[cjstanman]

I'm glad you posted this - I was working in the yard, removing some rocks and stuff, and we have these grubs too. Isn't it funny how now everything is magically chicken-related? lol!

I did think about throwing them in for my guys, but wasn't sure about it. Now I know these are just treats, free for the taking!