Do chickens eat slugs?

buster · Post by **buster** » Mar 10, 2005 6:22 pm

Someone in the paper has "free roosters"...got me to thinking

buster....

newtohosta-no more · Post by **newtohosta-no more** » Mar 10, 2005 7:13 pm

Hmmmm....they eat bugs, so I don't think it would be too much of a stretch of the imagination that they would eat slugs too!

Marietta · Post by **Marietta** » Mar 10, 2005 7:21 pm

My experience with chickens as a kid tells me that you can't
have more than 1 rooster in a flock, so I think that means
you couldn't have 2 roosters as they will fight. Hens, yes,
roosters alone, no. Marietta

leafmould · Post by **leafmould** » Mar 10, 2005 7:52 pm

If a rooster layed an egg on.....the problem here woud be how to attach tiny flashlights to their heads as all the slugs are nocturnal

thy · Post by **thy** » Mar 10, 2005 8:28 pm

Yes, chickens love to eat slugs. If you let them go free in the garden you wil have no slugs and snails, but some orther damages, if you collect the slugs and snails and give them to the chickens, the chickens will love you
Pia

RCM · Post by **RCM** » Mar 10, 2005 9:18 pm

Ducks and geese do a fine job eating slugs and don't scratch the ground or your garden guests like chickens do.

shadylanejewel · Post by **shadylanejewel** » Mar 10, 2005 11:21 pm

There are benefits and draw backs to any domestic birds in the garden.

The chickens will eat slugs but also scratch around I've had them pull new plants back out of the ground. They will also eat seedlings. Chickens can make great pets but as Marietta mentioned on Rooster is plenty.

Our ducks also ate slugs but they also liked to follow me everywhere including into the house and they pooped everywhere they went.

Geese make GREAT guard dogs but otherwise are like bigger ducks.

Unfortunately racoons ate the chickens, the neighbor dogs killed the ducks and my FIL said no to the free Geese!

Old earth dog · Post by **Old earth dog** » Mar 11, 2005 2:02 am

My youngest brother had a HUGE pet rooster years ago. It went over the fence and beat the h#(( outa the neighbors Doberman. Then, after about the 2nd time one of the neighbors called at 3 in the morning about the crowing, the rooster ran away............dad said.

hagranger · Post by **hagranger** » Mar 11, 2005 7:13 pm

Toads I tell ya!
Toads ...
Get yourself some toads!

... Helen

JoshS · Post by **JoshS** » Mar 11, 2005 9:10 pm

hagranger wrote: Get yourself some toads!

Yup, good advice! With 3 ponds here, the toads far out number the slugs.

Chickens are too destructive and ducks and geese are too messy.

buster · Post by **buster** » Mar 11, 2005 10:45 pm

O.K....I'll forget the rooster and look for "free toads" in the newspaper..

buster....(in search of toads)

JoshS · Post by **JoshS** » Mar 11, 2005 11:01 pm

Find someone with a pond and I bet they would let you catch all you wanted in the spring when they are mating. Of course, you'd have to put in a pond to get them to stick around...

Greygardener · Post by **Greygardener** » Mar 11, 2005 11:42 pm

I'll second the toad idea. But again, drawbacks to everything. I have TONS o' TOADS! No slug problem, but certain times of the year, can't walk across the drive without stepping on a baby! UGH!

And the 'singing' can get terribly loud at times! LOL!

My Mother used to have a bunch of chickens. I'm with Leafy...slugs and chicken sleeping habits aren't compatible. I remember the chickens eatin' lots of other stuff though.

Wheasie · Post by **Wheasie** » Mar 16, 2005 10:44 pm

I second Helen's vote for TOADS - they have voracious appetites and (in my opinion) are just too darn nifty! Love the little guys! You do need LOTS of them to be effective and then you have to be careful to not mince them with the lawnmower. I have no lawn, just ivy and have put mesh around the lower portion of my fence to discourage them from traveling to neighbors to commit suicide.

Wheasie

wishiwere · Post by **wishiwere** » Mar 17, 2005 9:39 am

Weasie! Are you serious? YOu put up a fence to corral your toads! Too funny! But cute

jgh · Post by **jgh** » Mar 17, 2005 1:48 pm

Reminds me of the old days... riding the prairies on the great old toad drives... campfire singing drowned out by the toads croaking under the full moon... then driving them into the giant toad corrals and the end of the trail, shipping them off to city slicker gardens all over the world... ah, those were the days!

Wheasie · Post by **Wheasie** » Mar 17, 2005 10:18 pm

Yup - I corral those little suckers! Seriously, I'm one of only a few without lawn (or minimal - it lines my paths, that is it). When my neighbors reported hitting toads with their lawnmowers I knew that I had to do something to keep my slug control intact.

W.

Linda P · Post by **Linda P** » Mar 18, 2005 9:04 am

Have I mentioned lately that I love this place? Where else can you open a post about chickens, only to find nostalgia for the old wild west toad drives erupting?

Oh, Wheasie..the thought of a toad being shredded by a lawnmower is toooooo much to bear. A decent person would do toad patrol before firing up the engine, wouldn't you think?
Linda P

wishiwere · Post by **wishiwere** » Mar 18, 2005 9:15 am

Yes, they would Linda!
I remember one year while doing childcare we set up tarps in the sandbox to create kind of a water/sand thing for the big trucks and older kids. It was a riot.

Till the next day!

As we started digging in the sand, we found tons of toads all over the place! They had dug into the cool sand and were lying in wait for who knows what!

Everytime anyone dug for a couple days after we tore it down, we were careful to make sure we didn't chop anything in two! I couldn't believe how many we had.

Same year (must have been a wet one) that we literally would have to run the mower a bit before putting the blade down to scare them away. A couple times, we had to put off mowing for a couple days. They seemed to come in waves that summer. LIke traveling bands of them?

wild4flowers · Post by **wild4flowers** » Mar 18, 2005 4:35 pm

Gather up all your slugs and send them to Fear Factor. They make the contestants eat them or blenderize them and then drink it. CHAR