How would you like your ants' eggs sir? Business booms for farmers of Indonesia’s most bizarre food

dailymail.co.uk ^ | 04:36 EST, 8 April 2014 | Jill Reilly

[BenLurkin]

The ant eggs are an alternative food that is rich in protein and vitamins.

They can be used in a variety of recipes - some people boil them in a soup - the 'texture of the eggs should be comparable to a soft boiled chicken egg.'

Another popular way to use them is to put a few tablespoons in a salad and mix them into the leaves.

[cuban leaf]

This explains a lot. When I find ant hills full of eggs, my chickens go nuts over the eggs but don’t touch the ants.

[Zhang Fei]

My guess is that the eggs don’t keep well, meaning you have to eat them quick before they turn into little ants. Perhaps they freeze the eggs first to prevent that from happening.

[Mr. K]

I was thinking of getting some chickens for my daughter to raise this year - is it hard?

We have 3 acres of land, someone told me they keep the insects down quite a bit by eating their fill

I am worried about the giant birds that fly overhead too... should I keep them caged? ( I was going to build a big movable one on skids I could reposition with my tractor )

[cuban leaf]

Ours are free range, running around the yard. The only ones we lost that were not because of our own ignorance were the first five. One day we came home and five were just gone and the rest were nervous. No feathers or anything.

Regarding the big birds, we have turkey buzzards, which don’t bother them, and hawks. Hawks find them tasty. But you want to have a nice big rooster. His job is to watch the sky and warn the others that there is something to run from. I don’t know how they do it, but they take on these roles effectively.

And yes, they REALLY keep the bugs down. The chickens have learned to follow the riding mower and chase down and eat all the bugs that it brings out. It’s very entertaining.

The only hard part is when they are very young. You need to keep them warm and feed them a LOT. But once they are full grown, they are pretty self sustaining. I built a simple 8x8 hen house on the cheap and it works beautifully. There is a shelf inside with four laying stations.

BTW, we were down to five this winter, with one being our rooster. They lay an average of 3 eggs a day. Very delicious completely and utterly natural. We have ten chicks that will be pretty much full grown in a month. They are in a “nursery” that is an 8’ long shelf above the laying stations. Then we’ll have eggs coming out our ears.

The one down side: They get on the porch and poop.

[cuban leaf]

I was going to build a big movable one on skids I could reposition with my tractor

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We were going to do that too. Too much work. We just let them out in the morning and in the evening take all the egs and close the door to the coop. That’s it. When it’s REALLY cold we use a 250 watt heat lamp at night to keep them from dying, and they eat more feed, but during the summer they are about as trouble free as you can imagine. They get most of their food forraging around.