Official BYC Poll: Do You Feed Your Chickens Cicadas?

[WannaBeHillBilly]

My Ducks actually are doing a good job eating all the ticks! The spot i mowed on Saturday was the fenced in drake-jail, which is unoccupied at the moment. There the tick population is sky-high. - I need to jail some drakes… They are just too fast for me...

 

[3KillerBs]

I need to jail some drakes… They are just too fast for me...

Get them at night while they're asleep.

 

[PioneerChicks]

Apparently we have them in our area, but I have never seen any. I'm sure the chickens have eaten a few.

 

[WannaBeHillBilly]

Get them at night while they're asleep.

They won't! - At least one drake is always on patrol.

 

[BigBlueHen53]

My Ducks actually are doing a good job eating all the ticks! The spot i mowed on Saturday was the fenced in drake-jail, which is unoccupied at the moment. There the tick population is sky-high. - I need to jail some drakes… They are just too fast for me...

Move them at night? That's when I "catch" my chickens. Learned that many years ago when I was getting my very first chickens. The lady was trying to catch some of hers and one or two of them got so stressed from the chasing and the heat, they died! Came back that night after sundown and just plucked them off the roosts, no worries!

 

[BigBlueHen53]

Oh ... you already said that won't work. Bummer.

 

[CreveChris]

We don't get Brood X in Florida, but have the regular species. If the flock finds them, they'll eat them during supervised free range time.

My Huskies snatch cicadas out of the air, wound them, and watch them spin around in circles buzzing away. Guess I could euthanize their catch by tossing the wounded to the hens once the Huskies lose interest.

 

[CreveChris]

I will not freeze bugs.. bugs in my freezer doesn't sound very appetizing to me.. Right now we still don't have any in our area. But soon to come our ground temp isn't to par for them. As for the chickens. They will get their bellies full while free ranging during the day.

You mean you don't have a chicken snack fridge in the garage??? Omg, am I the only one--?

 

[CreveChris]

In the pacific Northwest we only have the small yearly cicadas. They make an annoying electric-like buzzing noise but, isn't anything like the east coast hatches or the ear ripping noise they make.
I'm sure that the chickens eat them as they are pastured under the trees and the cicadas come up from the tree roots.
They definitely aren't big enough or plentiful enough for harvesting.
Now, paper wasps, hm. They need harvesting lol.

If you can figure out how to remove a paper wasp nest right in the middle of my organic marjoram, I'm all ears. I needed to cut it back, but noticed the nest before I did.

We have cicadas every year and it sounds like an alien invasion film. Or like the south.

 

[Mvan42]

You mean you don't have a chicken snack fridge in the garage??? Omg, am I the only one--?

Nope no garage, and the deep freezer is full of people food. No special frig or freezer for the chickens. I do freeze water bottles for their water when it gets hot though.