Chickens absolutely eat flies, and they’re surprisingly good at catching them. Insects are a natural part of a chicken’s diet, and any backyard flock owner who has watched their birds snap flying insects out of the air knows how enthusiastic they can be about it. Chickens will eat adult flies, fly larvae (maggots), and just about any other bug they can get their beaks on.
Why Chickens Go After Flies
Foraging for insects is hardwired behavior. Even chickens raised in commercial settings with no prior exposure to bugs will instinctively chase and eat them when given the chance. They may hesitate at first, but insects quickly become one of their favorite foods. Hens given access to live insects spend noticeably more time foraging, which is a sign of natural, healthy behavior for the bird.
Chickens are omnivores with sharp eyesight tuned for movement. A fly buzzing through the coop or a maggot wriggling in bedding is essentially irresistible. They’ll also scratch through soil and compost to dig up fly larvae and pupae hiding below the surface.
Nutritional Value of Flies and Larvae
Flies and their larvae pack a serious nutritional punch for chickens. Black soldier fly larvae, one of the most studied insect feeds for poultry, contain roughly 30 to 46% protein by dry weight. They’re also rich in fat (ranging from about 10 to 49% depending on what the larvae themselves were raised on) and carry meaningful amounts of calcium, a mineral laying hens need in large quantities for eggshell production.
Wild houseflies are smaller and provide less per insect, but the protein content is still significant relative to their size. For a free-ranging chicken catching dozens of flies throughout the day, those small protein boosts add up. Insects supplement the amino acids chickens get from their regular feed, and the act of chasing and catching them provides physical activity and mental stimulation that reduce stress behaviors like feather pecking.
The Salmonella Risk From Wild Flies
There is a real downside to chickens eating wild flies, particularly houseflies in and around the coop. Houseflies readily pick up bacteria from manure and other contaminated surfaces. USDA researchers found that 45 to 50% of houseflies hatched in contaminated environments carried Salmonella enteritidis within the first 48 hours of their lives.
The same study found that simply being around infected flies didn’t cause healthy hens to become sick. But eating the flies did. The researchers concluded that a hen eating contaminated flies is the primary way Salmonella transfers from flies to birds in a poultry house. Once inside the chicken, the bacteria can end up in eggs, creating a food safety concern for you as well.
This doesn’t mean you need to stop your chickens from eating flies entirely, which would be nearly impossible anyway. It does mean that controlling the fly population in your coop is about more than comfort. Fewer flies mean fewer potential carriers of harmful bacteria reaching your flock.
Managing Flies in the Coop
The single most effective fly control method is keeping the coop clean. Flies breed in wet manure, and a buildup of soiled bedding is their top attractant. Cleaning out damp spots and refreshing bedding regularly removes the environment flies need to reproduce. This alone can dramatically cut fly numbers.
Food-grade diatomaceous earth (DE) sprinkled in bedding and dust bath areas works mechanically rather than chemically. It dries out insects and larvae, making the environment less hospitable for breeding. Use a mask when applying it, since the fine particles can irritate lungs, and let the dust settle before allowing chickens back in.
Fly predators, tiny parasitic wasps that feed on fly pupae, are another pesticide-free option. They target flies before they hatch and pose no harm to chickens. One thing to watch for: chickens love to eat the predator pupae too, so place them in spots your flock can’t easily access, like under structures or behind barriers. Otherwise your chickens will eat your fly control program before it has a chance to work.
Farmed Larvae vs. Wild Flies
If you want your chickens to get the benefits of eating insects without the disease risk of wild flies, commercially raised insect larvae are a good option. Black soldier fly larvae are widely available as poultry treats and are raised in controlled environments, eliminating the pathogen concerns that come with wild-caught houseflies. Their high protein and calcium content makes them especially useful for laying hens or growing pullets.
You can also raise black soldier fly larvae yourself using kitchen scraps and compost. The larvae convert organic waste into high-quality feed, and because they’re raised in a controlled setup, you have more say over what they’ve been exposed to. Chickens given live larvae as a supplement tend to forage more actively throughout the day, since the wriggling bugs keep them engaged even after most have been eaten.
Wild flies will always be part of the picture for any flock with outdoor access, and the occasional housefly snack is perfectly normal chicken behavior. The goal isn’t to eliminate fly-eating but to keep the overall fly population low enough that your birds aren’t consuming large numbers of potentially contaminated insects every day.