Unfortunately, they do not like Japanese Beetles, although they love their grubs, as I have mentioned in previous posts. After throwing adults into their pen and watching them fly away as the chickens looked on, confused, I began knocking them into a bowl of water so the chickens could go “bobbing for beetles.” Because I am not sadistic, even given my aforementioned pleasure at feeding tomato hornworms to the chickens, after I found them still swimming desperately in the bowl for an hour, quite uneaten by the chickens, I added some dish soap to the water. It kills the bugs quickly, and I presume, does not harm the chickens. In either case, after some initial fun in grabbing the beetles, the chickens have decided they don’t like the taste of beetles, and so I have gone back to drowning the beetles in soapy water, without offering them to the chickens, as I do every summer. I guess the adults are too crunchy for them.
They peck at snails and eat out their soft bodies, and they like slugs. And as they scratch away in the ground I know they are devouring many little creatures. They also dislike squash bugs, and adult potato beetles, I guess because the squash bugs emit a foul odor I can smell, and I presume, also taste bad.
When the corn earworms arrive, I’ll feed them to the chickens, and I remain vigilant whenever I dig to feed any grubs or larva I find to the chickens. I have spoiled them and they now come running to the fence, clucking away, when they see me approach, saying “What do you have for us this time?”