Chickens love eating bugs. They even eat slugs, a gardener's worst enemy. Although we have the chickens completely confined to their tractor in the spring and summer months, we let them free-range in the fall and winter, we let them out for a couple of hours each evening. They cruise around the yard eating bugs, slugs and whatever else tickles their taste buds. I really notice a decrease in garden pests in comparison to the years we gardened without the girls. Since they are only out for a few hours, they don't have a chance to be destructive and destroy my flowers. Another huge bonus of having chickens and hens in the spring and summer months is they even eat mosquitoes and black flies and they eat them all day and night. We have a flap of screen over the door to their house in the tractor, however the flies and mosquitoes still find their way in. You can hear the girls and meat birds beaks hitting the walls as they grab the pests. You can also encourage bats, sparrows and toads to make homes on your property to help keep the insect populations down. Making sure you do not have standing water on your property is another way to discourage the bugs. I usually still have to hand pick the slugs, first thing in the morning usually seems like a good time, then I feed them to the girls. I can hardly believe they eat them.
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