How to train chickens to eat slugs

[qhale1]

We have two chickens that run free around the yard. They play with our dog and two cats. They all get a long great; eat together, sleep together, the chicks even walk the dog around the yard when he has his leash on. Anyway, none of the animals know not to leave the yard even though our gate is open all the time, but is there anyway we can train the chicks to NOT go in the house? none of the other animals do, it's just the chicks that come inside..

[secondhandedsoul]

i want the chicken at 1:16 he was bossin it up XD

[TheGraniteFlaneur]

Just started to feed mine cut up slugs today. They are still young chickens and up until now have never touched a large slug.

[illtrax]

Ahhh, so entertaining =]

[tappakeggaday1]

I've heard of flag foot ball but slug football?this is really fun to watch!!thank you for posting it.

[yellowmetalcyborg]

I live in NY and surprisingly there are no slugs or snails where I live. Are there any other invertebrates that chickens can eat besides slugs?

Nice video by the way.

[Jefferdaughter]

@yellowmetalcyborg - Ah, but there ARE slugs and snails where you live! When the weather is appropriate, place some boards on the ground and check underneath them in the morning. They will likely be smaller than those in this video.

[yellowmetalcyborg]

@Jefferdaughter Yes indeed, I saw some the other say, but they are no longer than half an inch. They are few, and small, so there aren't enough to feed to a population of chickens.

[noahwang615]

better not use the scissor for paper

[noahwang615]

CAPTURE THE FLAG FOR CHICKEN, CAPTURE THE SLUG

[mzaul]

Does the slug eating affect the taste of the eggs/meat? A friend of mine fed her chickens with fish residue and they started tasting fish:P

Here in Sweden we have big problems with large Spannish slugs, we call them "killer slugs" They are big orange and very discusting, no animals wants to eat them because they send out a very sticky and nasty goo when they are in danger or hurt and once they are dead their smell will attract even more killer slugs

[magprob]

My grandma had 30 chickens. We went looking for her one day and found her pecked to death and half eaten by the chickens. When we tried to pull her out, the chickens attacked us. We finally had to get a shot gun and blast them all. By that time, there were only bones left of grandma. Please be careful!

[centervilletn]

@magprob lol funny stuff

[Yarokinator]

who spends their time training chickens to eat slugs?

[FinalFates22]

That's quite entertaining

[vention4wh]

EEEEEWWWWW! Gross me out!

But if it makes eggs, I'm all for it.

(-:

[jujutubes]

Awesome! I let my pullets and cockerels out for a couple of hours every evening so they can free range and a couple of weeks ago one of my cockerels caught a frog or toad... a nice one about 3-4 inches long from head to feet. It took him a while but he ate it.... I love them they are so entertaining ;)

[radtwelve]

I've kept chicken for so many years in our yard. they kinda eat almost anything. i'm surprised you said they don't usually eat big sluts...

[paulwheaton12]

@radtwelve Typo? :)

Slugs?

Chickens raised by hens that go for the slugs will teach the chicks to go for the slugs. In general, chickens will go for the little slugs, but ignore the big slugs. And there will (obviously) be exceptions. Many people with slug problems will raise waterfowl to control slugs even though they are not otherwise keen to raise waterfowl. Now, I think there is a solution for those folks.

[hurchel]

I dust my chickens once a year, for mites and ticks, that is not poisoning them, sevin will not hurt animals. They can bite the ones in the front of them, but they can't do their backs. The mites and ticks are parasites too. Too many mites and ticks can bring them down and kill them also. I am in California, the federal inspectors killed almost all the chickens in the city over the newcastle epidemic,

They tested my chickens three times, 30 at a time we passed each time. It is not poison

[paulwheaton12]

@hurchel your ignorance is astounding. You put the poison directly on your chickens and then you say that that is not poisoning them. How that poison works is that it poisons the mites more than the chicken, but the chicken is still poisoned.

I find this behavior utterly unacceptable.

Google for "sevin msds" and look at the LD50 rate. If "sevin will not hurt animals" as you say, then I challenge you to eat a cup of it.

Well cared for chickens naturally have no parasites.

[hurchel]

If you are going to keep them in a small space, like that, you can treat them to a can of beef dog food, keep them dusted for mites with Sevin, or garden and poultry dust, use Sulmet it is nine bucks and it will last for years, especially when the weather is turning hot to cold, sulpha drugs were used on chickens in the fifties to test drugs for pneumonia, a quarter capful to a gallon of water will keep

any infections away,

[paulwheaton12]

@hurchel and now I have to stop talking to you. You are poisoning your chickens in the name of helping them. No wonder your previous posts did not make sense.

Sorry hurchel, I am years and years beyond using anything as toxic as sevin. You can find my full article about raising chickens at richsoil.

[hurchel]

each worm can lay 200 thousand eggs, the medical books on the common red round worm, that most animals get hatch and you can worm them but the wormer will only kill the adults, you must worm again within 21 days because the scientists cannot find a picture of them not copulating right after hatching, the eggs can float in the air, so if you love your chickens, do not feed them slugs, they are in the fluke category of parasites.

[hurchel]

Right now I am nursing three baby chicks born with parasites, that I rescued from a feed store. yes while a chicken might graze and eat bugs, you still must worm them, 1 worm/slug can hatch eggs inside the chicken and they will start to eat the chicken or animal from the inside out, I have roosters that are twelve years old, most people think they will only live two to four years. They are probably starving for protein in that little area, feed breeder mash that has 17 percent protein

[hurchel]

Each chicken needs a quarter acre to graze on, make sure you are feeding breeder mash, for the protein, the worms can pass from the mom to the baby in the egg, you must give them wormer, you aren't helping them, haven't you ever studied parasites? they can cause pneumonia and the bacteria causes lost of sugars necessary for brain function.

[paulwheaton12]

@hurchel I'm having a really hard time reading what you are writing. Are you saying that your chicken feed is giving your chickens parasites?

[hurchel]

I raise chickens, those snails can hatch and kill them, it is every important you worm your chickens are you trying to kill them?

[paulwheaton12]

@hurchel I'm rereading this several times. Are you saying that the snails are killing the chickens? Are you asking me if I am trying to kill the snails? While snails are very similar to slugs, this video is about slugs. Do you mean to say slugs?

[robotsongs]

Any chance you can get them to eat snails too? I'd love to have a snail eradication team living in my backyard doing all the work for me.

[paulwheaton12]

@robotsongs I see no reason why not!

[robotsongs]

@paulwheaton12

Well, you know, because of the shells. Little bit harder to eat.

[TheJabbaPoint]

chickens are so multifunctional. thx

[jihadacadien]

Man I so want chickens!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[jihadacadien]

Awsome! the slugs are big there! Well compaired to the one I get here. Wow gets the chicken exercising too!

[juanthestabber]

You can train them to eat humans the same way.

[paulwheaton12]

@juanthestabber do you have a video of that? :)

[tmgibs34]

@paulwheaton12 No. I just opened up an area that wa filled with snails that had gone dormant for the drought and low and behold-no more snails. I believe it was mostly our white rocks but I am sure everyone else caught on. The ducks cleaned up everything that was left deep in the bushes.

[johnlvs2run]

They do the same thing with mice.

[paulwheaton12]

@johnlvs2run True - but they don't like the skins as much. The mice end up looking like they took off their skin and their skin was the victim of a drive by shooting.

[johnlvs2run]

@paulwheaton12 I only saw that happen once, and ended up feeling sorry for the mouse!

Those chickens sure were running around like crazy, trying to catch the one with the mouse.

[Elmapelki]

The earwig are very useful also against the caterpillars of the fruit-lofts.

[dalecalder2003]

That made me feel good for several reasons, glad to see something that eats slugs and I don't feel so bad about our east coast slugs anymore, yours are twice as big. I don't have hens anymore but when I did and they were allowed to go where ever they liked I didn't even see an earwig, now without hens the miserable things are everywhere. Thanks for the great video.

[hobbexp]

that was really cool

thanks for showing

'

[tmgibs34]

I use my electroplastic fencing to keep the chickens into an area that I want them to keep clean. I will run the chickens through the rest of the vegetable garden and fruit trees in the fall and winter. Chickens will also clean out apple maggot and fruit fly larvae.

[tmgibs34]

My chickens just cleared a large area of snails.

[paulwheaton12]

@tmgibs34 Excellent! Any chance you can post a youtube video of that?

[enchantedsb]

My chickens LOVE the big slugs! The bigger the better. They also love snails.

[paulwheaton12]

@enchantedsb Were your chickens raised by a hen or did they come from the hatchery?

[enchantedsb]

@paulwheaton12 They came from a hatchery, and they have never met a bug, worm snail or slug they they didn't want to eat. :)