Official BYC Poll: Do You Feed Your Chickens Cicadas?

[WallyG74]

My area looks like the end of days/locusts with the infestation of cicadas. I've grown up with them and always thought they were neat...but this is beyond anything I can describe. I don't recall this 17 years ago!!! The noise is deafening to the point it drowns out the rooster!!! Initially the chickens were interested in the first to emerge but now the swarm is too intense/noise too much that the are not even bothering with them.

In 2011 our 13 year brood emerged here. I have to agree that I don’t remember anything like that ever! I’m 47 and you’d think I would remember something like that. The sound is maddening. That many for 3 weeks is definitely something to stick in the mind. I hear the normal annual cicadas every day and it’s just like hearing the fridge run. I hear some right now as I sit on the couch and watch baseball. There’s just no comparison between the two.

 

[Dinogrrl]

Mine eat the whole thing. Can't leave any behind because that means someone else might get it

 

[MadamContrary]

I haven't seen them yet, but I live in an area that they should be. Chickens are free to eat whatever they like, but I won't actively collect. Let them procreate!

 

[topochico225]

I'm in Louisiana... don't think I have much of a choice

ETA: I just saw that Brood X is in the Eastern states! Shucks! I was excited for my girls

 

[BigBlueHen53]

I keep thinking about an experience @WannaBeHillBilly, I think it was, had with their ducks, when they got hold of a swarm of grasshoppers, and gorged till they puked. Wonder if anybody's chickens or ducks are going crazy over the cicadas, or are they being more sensible. (The story was hilarious at first until you realized they were really in trouble!)

 

[m1chelle1]

cicadas have been out here in central Florida for about a month already. I don't think were included in brood x specifically, but cicadas are always a special part of our summers. I love cicadas so does my flock

 

[AntiqueB]

Here in NJ, they haven't emerged yet, which isn't surprising. The media always get excited about Brood whatever, and then. . . nada. Maybe we don't get them, or don't get as many as other places.

We do get a few in my yard later in summer, but the cicada wasps usually get those. I doubt the chickens would take on one of those wasps!

Of course, I wouldn't stop a chicken with a cicada in her beak, not that I could anyway! They are fast and determined girls!

 

[indianaducks]

My ducks have been keeping the yard cicada-free for the past few weeks. They LOVE them. They will eat them from my hand, even when they won't eat anything else from my hand.

 

[WannaBeHillBilly]

I keep thinking about an experience @WannaBeHillBilly, I think it was, had with their ducks, when they got hold of a swarm of grasshoppers, and gorged till they puked. Wonder if anybody's chickens or ducks are going crazy over the cicadas, or are they being more sensible. (The story was hilarious at first until you realized they were really in trouble!)

Oh no, that grasshopper incident - i actually thought about that when i heart about the 17-year cicada event this year. So far it seems that my area is not the home of any n-year cicada breed. (Blanca Duck is really disappointed when she heart that and asked for the car-keys!) No more cicadas here than usual, but if a duck manages to snatch one it will be eaten. What we have this year is a sh¡tload of ticks! - I hate ticks! I was mowing the grass on Saturday and when i sat down for a break, Katharina Duck snatched one right off my leg.

 

[589205]

There’s a ton of bugs around here but not enough cicadas starting to make music just yet. It’s a bit too early (or fashionably late, should I say?) cause they’re still going through molt phase. It’s been unpleasantly hot weather and only seems to be getting hotter every summer. I agree with @WannaBeHillBilly, the tick populations are booming like crazy this year. There’s so many that I’m tempted to try raising some guineafowl