Official BYC Poll: Do You Feed Your Chickens Cicadas?

[BDutch]

We have very few cicadas in summer because its a bit cold for them in the Netherlands. But the numbers are increasing with the climate change.

If my chickens can find one and catches one, I’m sure they will eat these nutritious insects. But actually I’ve never see them do it. I did see a chicken catch and eat a salamander and a grasshopper though. These are not common either.

My chickens love insects, worms, young frogs, and eat whatever they can catch what is not to big to tear apart or to swallow.

 

[CreveChris]

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.

The frozen strawberries are popular with my flock, so yes, the freezer is also helpful. Do you use bucket waterers with the frozen water bottles? I've been considering moving the horizontal nipples to a bucket in the new coop.

We have a second fridge in the garage (it was in our office before we sold that) and I've adapted it for chickens so the biosecurity is less troublesome when I inevitably forget something while outside with them. Maybe frozen cicadas are in our future. I'm not eating them as the NYT suggests.

I'm several days into a silkworm hatch for chicken treats again, though, so might be a bit chicken obsessed.

 

[3KillerBs]

The frozen strawberries are popular with my flock, so yes, the freezer is also helpful. Do you use bucket waterers with the frozen water bottles? I've been considering moving the horizontal nipples to a bucket in the new coop.

We have a second fridge in the garage (it was in our office before we sold that) and I've adapted it for chickens so the biosecurity is less troublesome when I inevitably forget something while outside with them. Maybe frozen cicadas are in our future. I'm not eating them as the NYT suggests.

I'm several days into a silkworm hatch for chicken treats again, though, so might be a bit chicken obsessed.

My sister keeps Dubia roaches for her pet reptiles and sells her surplus. She gives me some regularly and the chickens are nuts for them. They are very little trouble and don't smell.

 

[MysteryChicken]

I haven't fed them cicadas in about a year, or two. We would literally go out bug hunting, collect a ice cream bucket full of bugs. This bucket would usually have ACV at the bottom, with spices mixed in. We'd dehydrate the flavored bugs, & mix them into their feed as a protein booster.

 

[MMPinVA]

My hens are feasting on the cicadas! I let them out every morning, and it's a race to the best bushes. They quickly learned exactly which bushes and trees have the most. At first they just picked them off the ground, but now they hop up and pluck them off the leaves... makes me laugh every time! Free entertainment and free chicken food, it's the best!

 

[SASnCoBYC]

Haven't heard or seen cicada's here in Illinois yet. Will be later this month before they start emerging en masse since we've had cooler temps up until the past couple weeks. My flock has been enjoying the June bugs right now though so I'm sure they will love the cicadas once they have the opportunity to try them.

 

[WannaBeHillBilly]

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!

Ducks are no chickens! They don't roost but sleep on the ground and someone from the flock is always awake and alerts the rest if something is going on.
And i don't want to walk into the duck-house and extract those drakeholes there, because in the panic that i will cause other's may hurt themselves or become injured by the other's and i want the ducks to feel safe in their house and run. Absolutely safe. Even safe from me. So that should something unusual ever happen they will retreat into their house/run where they are safer than outside. It has already worked when we had that violent downburst from a nearby thunderstorm that snapped two trees: They all ran for - not the hills - but the duck-house!

 

[WannaBeHillBilly]

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

I have a dedicated storage-shed for the ducks. - It has electricity available, so a little, tiny freezer for some duck treats sounds like a really good idea!
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[Birdsonghill]

When the cicadas arrive, you can't stop chickens from eating them! In our area, they are thick everywhere, when a big hatch out occurs. If the chickens are outside they will get cicadas! They run into you and land on people frequently and any other upright object! If chickens like anything more than cracked corn, it is bugs! Welcome cicadas!

 

[CreveChris]

My sister keeps Dubia roaches for her pet reptiles and sells her surplus. She gives me some regularly and the chickens are nuts for them. They are very little trouble and don't smell.

I used to grow silkworms for my lizard and now I grow them for my other dinosaurs. The roaches look a bit too much like our native light bugs for comfort, but it's certainly the same concept. Your chickens are lucky fir their connections!