Feeding flies to chickens

Flies love to live out their entire life cycle flying in circles on our back porch. We’re going to hang some of these. Any reason we shouldn’t feed the chickens large amounts of flies caught in these traps?

Black soilder flies grown in your "compost" sounds like a cool idea.
Feeding wild flies/rats to your meat chicken, sounds doable, don't know if I would do it personally. But why not, if you kill them might as well use, them.

Bethany Brown wrote:Flies love to live out their entire life cycle flying in circles on our back porch. We’re going to hang some of these. Any reason we shouldn’t feed the chickens large amounts of flies caught in these traps?

What are these traps using for bait? That would be my question.

Having said that, I have used similar types of traps and if I were going to try to feed, I would wait until the flies produce larvae and feed those.
I observed larvae in traps that I left up probably longer than I was supposed to do. Sorry, I can't give you a time factor, it's been a while.

I have often wondered why my chickens don't "go after" all the flies in their pen.
This is what would give me pause. I don't worry if a fly gets into my fermenting feed but I
hesitate to intentionally feed flies since I haven't seen my chickens eat them in the wild so to speak.

Not exactly on point to your question, but ...

Another way to feed flies to chickens is to pick up roadkill. Tie the dead animal to a stake three feet or so above the ground. Flies will lay eggs on the carcass and produce lots of larvae. The worms fall to the ground and the chickens get a good nourishing meal.

Bethany Brown wrote: Any reason we shouldn’t feed the chickens large amounts of flies caught in these traps?

1. Yes, I would check the bait. If you use something organic as bait - like some fly attracting food you aren't going to eat because it got too old - that seems fair, however the traps I have like that count on you drowning the flies, and the bacteria level likely is very high unless you're emptying the trap daily, because the flies will be bringing who knows what bacteria with them.

2. Getting them to lay for you and raising grubs is fair game!

3. I haven't seen chickens catch adult house flies. I have seen Muscovy do so - in fact some of them are incredible at it. My friend thought that "Venus" was a lovely name for my Muscovy. I told her that was only her first name... full name is Venus Fly Trap!

4. Just because I haven't seen it, doesn't mean that either they can't, won't, or can't learn if you put them in a small enough space along with them. I have seen them catch flying bugs (flying termites and some smaller bugs are things I have seen them catch.) If it were me, I would try to find a way to experiment and teach them. I'm not worried about the bacterial load if the fly is still alive - but it could go up fast if they're dead.

Jim Fry wrote:

Another way to feed flies to chickens is to pick up roadkill. Tie the dead animal to a stake three feet or so above the ground. Flies will lay eggs on the carcass and produce lots of larvae. The worms fall to the ground and the chickens get a good nourishing meal.  

Two problems with this:
1. The stink ticked me off.
2. I was worried about attracting raccoon.

I've heard of doing this to feed fish - I wouldn't have to get as close to it, or could at least stand up-wind! It would partly depend how desperate one is. If Black Soldier Flies are in your ecosystem, I'd try that route first.

Traps arrived today. I didn’t realize that the flies fall into liquid. Probably not going to feed to chickens.

Bethany Brown wrote:Traps arrived today. I didn’t realize that the flies fall into liquid. Probably not going to feed to chickens.

Depending how the flies get into the trap, decide whether you actually have to add the liquid. The liquid is to kill the flies, but if you're able to take the trap outside into the chicken coop - I've had birds happily eat treats right out of a bottle before once they learn they like it.

Chickens really are insectivores to a great degree. If you can make it work without it being too much work for you, your chickens may be even more excited to have you visit their coop!

One of my goslings is determined to be a Great Hunter and has started chasing moths and butterflies when we're outside.

I have seen chickens eat flies and all sorts of things. They seem to be of the "eat it before it gets away" mindset, and then they'll decide if they liked it enough to try for another.
They do most of their fly hunting later in the season when we're all just a bit done with all kinds of annoyances, but they've been going after the flies that are attracted to the fermenting dropped mulberries pretty heavily. I'm not sure if that's because the flies are different or they're just annoyed by the insects. However it worked out, they're full of flies and mulberries.

You can make a fly trap with a container, some sort of "bait"(I'd probably use old fruit), and enough water to keep the fruit underwater by a good inch. Something slick around the first couple of inches of the rim to keep them from getting out, and it's healthier to feed to your birds, if not as effective.