TRY THIS! Attracting Japanese Beetles to Pens of Chickens!

[centrarchid]

Something interesting is going on with penned juveniles chickens when the beetles are exceptionally abundant. They appear to be tasting them, rejecting most, and eating a few. Two things might be going on. First they may be tasting for nastiness to reject those that taste bad. Many of the beetles do settle on and consume toxic plants. They may also be tasting for fattiness or softer exoskeletons. I do both with crayfish so possible for the chickens.

 

[TheErinBraun]

This is fascinating! I love it!!

 

[Redhead Rae]

Something interesting is going on with penned juveniles chickens when the beetles are exceptionally abundant. They appear to be tasting them, rejecting most, and eating a few. Two things might be going on. First they may be tasting for nastiness to reject those that taste bad. Many of the beetles do settle on and consume toxic plants. They may also be tasting for fattiness or softer exoskeletons. I do both with crayfish so possible for the chickens.

Hey, if they are dead when they spit them out, it's still a win.

 

[centrarchid]

I will check for that later.

 

[centrarchid]

Hey, if they are dead when they spit them out, it's still a win.

Most the beetles rejected are able to walk and fly away after hitting ground below pen.

 

[Redhead Rae]

Most the beetles rejected are able to walk and fly away after hitting ground below pen.

That stinks

 

[centrarchid]

That stinks

Those that died will if not eaten by anything else. Within 30 minutes of juveniles being released after about 5:30 PM, all on ground with be consumed. The young birds are pretty thorough poking around for dead and wounded.

 

[Nifty-Chicken]

Wow, this is all so fascinating! It's amazing how other parts of the country can be experiencing such drastically different situations!

I'm loving the combination of science, bugs, chickens, feed, and process optimization... all packed in these wonderful threads!

Great job @centrarchid !!!

 

[Shahann]

For giggles and a departure from another thread where Japanese Beetles are to be used as a feed stuff, I put out the pheromone pieces on two elevated pens and boy are we having fun! Major bio-attractor with potential of a joke to pull on friends and others.

View attachment 1451568

Beetles coming to look like a small swarm of honey bees. Numbers high enough the chickens, most anyway, are backing away. A couple juvenile chickens are getting right in the middle of the mess. All are eating a couple have what appears to be crop fill in less than 5 minutes. Normally the chickens do not even approach feeders this time of day yet many are coming out into full sun to eat the beetles.

View attachment 1451573

Second image shows beetles landing all over where I touched my self after handling pheromones. A good joke would be to touch someone hat or other clothing after you handle the pheromone containers then walk away. Beetles if about will then swarm where you touched!

Thanks for that reminder. I haven't used beetle traps since I was a kid.