"Professor Bromenshenks  point on chickens"
 
Charles:
 
1) Last chickens I kept were as a child, and the best tasting was one specific rooster that attacked me in the morning, ended up on the dinner plate that night. 
 
2) I was simply reporting that some beekeepers have claimed that chickens plus diatomaceous earth (which is an inhospitable substrate and also something that chickens liked for dusting) could help reduce reduce the reproduction of the SHB population, especially the beetles laying eggs, beetle eggs, and beetle grubs in/on the ground - no one claimed chickens were taking beetles off of or out of the hive boxes.

3) Re: the comment about sand under hives - sand holds moisture, while I was in grad school, we used to raise any number of insects that go to ground for laying eggs, in sand.  Course sand like that for sandboxes is actually a good media for the larvae and pupae of many insects.

Playbox sand is not the same as diatomaceous earth, which is more abrasive and a bettter dessicant.  Very fine silica sand has some of same properties as diatomaceous earth, as does volcanic ash.

4) If one wants to change the 'soil' under hives in a yard to try to suppress beetle reproduction, I'd think I'd experiment with gravel.

5) Fortunately, we don't have a problem with SHB in MT and I'm not importing them just to experiment with them.
 
 

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