Chestnuts for the chickens

I
got a batch of wormy
chestnuts that the
fruit stand was going to throw out, thinking that the nuts would be
perfect for my flock.  After a quick bang with the hammer to crack
the shell, I tossed a handful to the chickens, and was disappointed to
see the nuts being largely ignored.



Since my compost pile is
currently in the chicken pasture, I poured all of the chestnuts there
to dispose of them.  And suddenly my hens
got excited!  They pecked up all of the plump grubs that had come
out of the nuts and then looked up at me, waiting for more.



Although I have to
consider chestnuts a failure as chicken feed, my flock’s behavior makes
me wonder if there might be some way of using chestnuts as part of an insect
farm?