Would you feed this to your chicken?

[cmom]

I just looked up Osmoderma. There are 15 species of Osmoderma. I'll research it further and see what species are most abundant. Just curious.

 

[aart]

Isnt the rear end of a worm technically in the middle?

But these aren't 'worms'.
Red is head, legs are near head.
Leg count and pics are another good thing to have for ID.
Blue is the rear.

You could toss a few into a 'secure' container with a bunch of the rotten wood and see if they will transform into the beetle next spring.

 

[Ninjasquirrel]

But these aren't 'worms'.
Red is head, legs are near head.
Leg count and pics are another good thing to have for ID.
Blue is the rear.
View attachment 1940022

You could toss a few into a 'secure' container with a bunch of the rotten wood and see if they will transform into the beetle next spring.

If I find any more I might do just that. That would give us a definative answer. Do they just eat that dirt/compost?

 

[aart]

If I find any more I might do just that. That would give us a definative answer. Do they just eat that dirt/compost?

I'd make sure there was a good chunk of the rotting wood in there too, enough depth that they can burrow, and put in a place that was semi protected from windchill and too much 'wet'.

 

[Ted_Harrell]

The chickens would see them as land shrimp, a delicacy

 

[sorce]

I wouldn't feed that to my chickens...

Know why?

They'd have ate it already!

Sorce

 

[SW31]

Mine love any grubs they find.

 

[aart]

land shrimp

 

[tn_artist]

I've seen grubs that big in trees that we've harvested for firewood. Just freakin huge! As long as my index finger and almost as big around. Yep, chickens love them. I even saw one of my Fayoumi hens running around with a huge hornworm that she found on one of my tomato plants. I always thought they would avoid those as they 'tasted bad' to birds but nope. She gleefully beat it into submission and then downed it like a big hot dog.

I've put pieces of wood that has been infiltrated with ants in their run also. They love to pick through the wood.

As for the composted dirt you found in your tree, I've mixed that with potting soil and planted flowers in it. They loved it also! It must be nutrient rich.

I picked about 10 of those horrid horn worms of my tomatoes about a month ago. Stinking birds wouldn't touch them. Had to smoosh them myself to save my tomatoes. They are green on the inside too. Yuck.

 

[Pterocactus]

The large grubs in rotting wood are likely stag beetle larvae. The beetles lay eggs in already dying trees, so the grubs really aren't killing the tree. They'll live in there for years eating deadwood until they turn into adults. I collected some of these from a rotten tree I cut down last year in the winter and left them in a container full of that rotten tree dirt months. In July they hatched out as adult beetles.

They should be perfectly fine to feed to chickens.