Killing 2 Birds with 1 stone

2062 Views 7 Replies 5 Participants Last post by Beeorganic, Jun 25, 2012

Beeorganic

Discussion Starter · Jun 20, 2012

Edited to delete

1 - 8 of 8 Posts

Oh, yeah. Chickens like their beetle bugs.
I had a friend that wired up a 5' diameter fan to turn real slow and hung a windsock bag behind it. The fan would just gulp down passing insects, and every morning he'd have a pound or two for the chickens. He had the happiest flock in eleven counties.

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Roslyn

· #3 · Jun 22, 2012

I remember the first time I found one of those Japanese Beetle grubs in the garden. EEeewwwww. I dug it up with my trowel and flung it to one of the girls (they were never far away back then) and then they all came running. It kept them busy for quite awhile. One would run away with it, then the others would chase, then someone else would get hold of it and then others would chase.

Makes you wonder, if the first chicken would just keep quiet, and then carry her prize away she wouldn't have to share!!

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JackAubrey

· #4 · Jun 22, 2012

Beeorganic said:
The Japanese Beetle has wreaked havoc on my garden and fruit trees for the past couple of years. I tried the sprays, dusts, you name it to no avail. This year I started using the pheromone bait traps. The collection bag fills up within an hour. Those bags are rather expensive so I just empty the contents into a Ziplock bag and rehang it. Even though the trap was hanging about 6 feet up, I noticed the chickens congregating underneath snatching up the beetles that dropped to the ground. I lowered all the traps to chicken height- now they're grabbing em out the air, off the trap, and off the ground. The beetles in the baggie don't go to waste either. With so many beetles packed into the baggie, it doesn't take long for them to suffocate. Just unzip the bag and pour em onto the ground and the chickens come a running. Pest control and chicken feed at the same time.

Brilliant! Not being familiar w/ these traps. Is there any toxic substances involved? JA