Japanes beetles

[chickensista]

Hi,
Has anyone seen their chickens eating Japanese beetles? They are a major problem around here - just wondering if I can feed them to my girls. I pick them off my veggie plants and ususally drown them. But if they would make a nice snack...
Already thinking about the garden - can't wait for spring!
Terry

 

[chicknmania]

We tried to feed ours some and they seemed to find them hard to see. But, I have read they can eat em.

 

[hypnofrogstevie]

mine love them. we have bamboo plants that the beetles terrorize. I love watching the chickens eye them up then hop then eat.

 

[claud]

Mine love them. When I put up their run there was a big bush in there infested with Japanese beetles. In a couple days they were gone - they'd wait until the beetles higher up on the bush would fall off or come down on the lower branches. That was about 9 years ago and I've haven't seen a beetle on that bush since.

 

[chickenlady]

I would collect them in a jar and dump them in the chicken coop. Within 3 seconds they would be completely gone. The chickens cleaned up all the bushes of them around my house this year.

 

[chickensista]

Awesome!
Maybe I'll set up a ladders next to the hibiscus so they can get the higher up buggers too! LOL Oh, this will be a fun year. Can't wait to see all those pesky beetles meet their doom. Now to train the girls to pick bugs of the veggies with out eating the veggies. (a gal can dream)
Terry

 

[Dawn419]

Ours love them also.

I started out catching the bettles by hand and tossing them to the chickens as I caught them. Quite entertaing to watch, I assure you!

Skip brought home a couple JB traps and we hang them inside the runs. I cut the bottom of the bag off, so the beetles can fall through and down to the ground. Ours didn't notice them at first, with this method, so I placed light colored plastic plates on the ground...under the traps...they can see them better and go to town!

Dawn

 

[treeclimber233]

I put up some JB traps last year and fed the beetles to my chickens. I just dumped the bag of beetles into a container with ice water in it. Let them soak for a few minutes and then poured them into the pen. The chickens ate them before they warmed up enough to fly away. This year I may try just hanging the trap in the pen and let the chickens eat them as the fall. I caught about a zillion of the pesky things.

 

[chickensista]

Hi,
I really like the idea of JB traps in the run! I've stayed away from them because they would just draw more beetles to my yard - but now I have JB eating machines. Can't wait to try it.

Terry

 

[Dawn419]

Quote:
Hi Terry!

I, too, worried that the bags would attract more beetles but I honestly think that we didn't have any more of them because of the bags. We do live in the country, so that could play a part in the # of beetles, or lack thereof. A friend of ours, who lived in town, complained about more beetles than usual after hanging traps for them.

Dawn