"it's my experience that chickens love small hive beetles"

Did the consumption of the SHB have any effect on the quality of the eggs (presuming these are layers)?    Some people tried to feed the Japanese Beetle (much, much larger) to their chickens and reported the consumption of the Japanese beetles negatively affected the taste of the eggs laid.

As an IPM control they had knocked the Japanese Beetles off of plants into vegetable oil (instead of soapy water), and then threw the beetles into the chicken yard.    They chickens gobbled them up,  but the eggs started having an off taste to them so they ceased the practice.

If the SHB did not negatively affect the egg quality, then I know where some frames of SHB and wax moth are going to get cleaned up (these are plasticell.

Steve
Central Illinois

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