While I was out in the woods
gathering leaves to refresh our deep
bedding Monday, I
noticed several periodic
cicadas recently emerged from their skins. Cicadas spend most
of their lives as ground-dwelling nymphs, tunneling up to 8.5 feet
below the surface to suck the juices out of roots. You’ve
probably seen the skins they shed after crawling up out of the soil and
unfurling their wings, and have likely heard their mating songs in the
summer as well.
Since the cicadas I was
running into were newly transformed into adults, they were slow and
easy to nab by pinching their wings together. I tossed cicada
after cicada into the chicken pasture, and the same Black Australorp
scarfed down each one.
Cicadas actually enjoy a
history as human food, so it’s no surprise our chickens liked them so
much. I’ve read that a cicada has the same proportion of protein
per pound as would be found in lean beef, and the taste has been
descibed as similar to almonds or pistachios. There are quite a
few cicada recipes on the internet, and now I’m starting to wish I’d snagged a few for
our own dinner instead of tossing them all to the flock. For
tastiest cicadas, find them young when they’re still whitish and toss
the insects in the freezer to die a slow death before cooking them (or
eating them raw).
Given the level of
enthusiasm our chickens showed when offered cicadas as
treats, Mark started pondering how to raise or catch cicadas to feed
the flock. Any crazy ideas for catching cicadas in bulk?
Chickens and people eating cicadas
About The Author
Anna & Mark
Anna Hess and Mark Hamilton are a pair of back-to-the-landers who have been homesteading for over a decade.
My chickens love cicadas, but I never see enough to actually collect for feed. They love grasshoppers equally and those are abundant and easy to catch with a net made from an old feed bag in tall grass. Maggots and grubs are chicken delicacies.It is also easy to collect nocturnal bugs attracted to your porch light…cave crickets,June bugs, moths, etc.I am thinking they could be dried and saved for winter. As for vegetarian sources acorns would be good…they are the primary food source for wild turkeys although you may have to leach out the tannins and grind them to be palatable to chickens. Johnson Grass seed is fairly easy to collect and they love it. Mesquite beans are another high protein wild food source…the seeds are about 35% protein and but hard as rocks… boiling softens them. They love prickly pear fruit that is also full of seeds. Planting amaranth (pig weed) would also go a long way in feeding them..I will leave off here… I could go on and on…lol
Hannah — Lots of great ideas for wild chicken food! Which of these have you tried firsthand? I’m always looking for solid data on what wild foods chickens will really eat, because I’ve read lots of things in books, and my chickens only seem interested in about half of those choices. (Clearly, they need to learn to read…. 🙂 )