Weevils in seed... bad or not?

I swapped a pair or my fancy pigeons and some bantam chicks for bird food.

When I got home I opened the bag to see that there was lots of black weevils of all sizes running about in it.. and out into my house!

I feel like I got conned by person who I gave my birds to.. with them giving me this infested feed.

Is it still safe to feed to my chickens and pigeons?

There is no smell, its dry and not mould... but there are a LOT of weevils in it.

I have read different views on the net.. some saying it means the food is spoilt and the weevils have eaten all the nutrients from it. Others say the birds like to eat the weevils.

My concern is that there seems to be a lot of dust or weevil poop in the bottom of each bag. Maybe sieve out the fine powder?

Thanks for advise.

jak2002003 said:

I swapped a pair or my fancy pigeons and some bantam chicks for bird food.
I feel like I got conned by person who I gave my birds to.. with them giving me this infested feed.

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You did not get conned. Weevils are good food. Besides I've never come across anyone who barters AND cons, it's an oxymoron. Barter ALWAYS allows both parties to come out ahead. Fish cost a fisherman nothing to catch in comparison to what it would take a farmer to get fish, a sack of wheat to a farmer is easy when he has a barnful, but not so to the fisherman. When you barter, you get the best deal possible, because you bypass all the people and shops whose job it is to be parasites on your livelihood.


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OH yes ! for sure. I find that my little chickens, being small, go crazy for small things like flies and weevils. They get a lot out of them. Remember that people feed chicken food to mealworms so that they can feed the mealworms to the chickens. You have it for free and no effort. Win Win. You can feed it all to your birds, they'll all be either ignoring it or loving it. None will dislike it or have problems with it. Can't happen. " Waiter there's food in my food "


Quote:
It's all true. They DO eat some single digit percentage of the food, no doubt about it same as if you fed the food to grow crickets, mealworms or other live food for the chooks. Is it worth it ? YES. It provides what all chickens and all people NEED. Variety in their diet. Something other than oatmeal for the 1,000th meal in a row. It only matters for evil people ( rich people ) who keep chickens in dungeons called factory farm cages, do not feed them greens, or anything except ' bread and water ' pellets. They would worry. You should not. Who cares if they ate 5% of the food if the chickens love them ? Do you even know how much food you got exactly to the gram ? see who cares.


People who say it is ruined are missing something. If 5% is eaten, then the food is 95% what it was to the chickens, plus they have weevils to eat.

If the weevils ate 50% of the food and flew away, you'd only have half the food.

As for the wheat grains being incomplete, well that is WHAT YOU WANT when you crush and pulverise grains so that small chickens can eat it. It's still all good.

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You'll get covered in it if you do. Or you can choose a remote spot and winnow it all. Been there done that, don't care anymore. The chooks do the work. Just dump it on the ground and the dust becomes life " from dust to dust " back to the soil. It's all good.

You're welcome

GodofPecking said:

You did not get conned. Weevils are good food. Besides I've never come across anyone who barters AND cons, it's an oxymoron. Barter ALWAYS allows both parties to come out ahead. Fish cost a fisherman nothing to catch in comparison to what it would take a farmer to get fish, a sack of wheat to a farmer is easy when he has a barnful, but not so to the fisherman. When you barter, you get the best deal possible, because you bypass all the people and shops whose job it is to be parasites on your livelihood.



OH yes ! for sure. I find that my little chickens, being small, go crazy for small things like flies and weevils. They get a lot out of them. Remember that people feed chicken food to mealworms so that they can feed the mealworms to the chickens. You have it for free and no effort. Win Win. You can feed it all to your birds, they'll all be either ignoring it or loving it. None will dislike it or have problems with it. Can't happen. " Waiter there's food in my food "



It's all true. They DO eat some single digit percentage of the food, no doubt about it same as if you fed the food to grow crickets, mealworms or other live food for the chooks. Is it worth it ? YES. It provides what all chickens and all people NEED. Variety in their diet. Something other than oatmeal for the 1,000th meal in a row. It only matters for evil people ( rich people ) who keep chickens in dungeons called factory farm cages, do not feed them greens, or anything except ' bread and water ' pellets. They would worry. You should not. Who cares if they ate 5% of the food if the chickens love them ? Do you even know how much food you got exactly to the gram ? see who cares.

People who say it is ruined are missing something. If 5% is eaten, then the food is 95% what it was to the chickens, plus they have weevils to eat.

If the weevils ate 50% of the food and flew away, you'd only have half the food.

As for the wheat grains being incomplete, well that is WHAT YOU WANT when you crush and pulverise grains so that small chickens can eat it. It's still all good.


You'll get covered in it if you do. Or you can choose a remote spot and winnow it all. Been there done that, don't care anymore. The chooks do the work. Just dump it on the ground and the dust becomes life " from dust to dust " back to the soil. It's all good.

You're welcome

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Hi... thanks for the very quick reply... love your thinking too!

I will go ahead and use it.

I only thought I got 'conned' because I got the idea the guy knew that the feed was 'off' and wanted to get rid of it on me, rather than paying money for the birds.. because he knew I lived a long way from him and would be unlikely to return.

You make me feel better now.. as I know the feed is safe... so lugging the heavy bags of it around the city and cycling home with it was not a waste of time.

Thanks again. Looking forward to seeing my chickens reactions to their new living food.

I beg to differ. That feed may be infested with insects which the birds will eat, but a lot of that food is missing, and the feed is infested with frass, or insect feces. Further, that the feed is infested with weevils points to the fact that the feed is old. According to Jeff Mattocks, as quoted by Harvey Ussery on pg 158 of The Small-Scale Poultry Flock: Jeff Mattocks strongly cautions about feeding stale feeds. "Feeds are at the optimum levels for up to 14 days, and are satisfactory up to 45 days after grinding or milling. After 45 days, the feed is generally so stale or oxidized that poultry appetite will be severely depressed. Oxidation starts immediately after the grinding or cracking of grain." If I came home with an infested bag of grain, I'd trot it right back where it came from. Your situation is complicated by the fact that you traded some members of your flock for it. I'd not want to bring any birds back to my property after they've mingled with birds from an other flock.

lazy gardener said:

I beg to differ.  That feed may be infested with insects which the birds will eat, but a lot of that food is missing, and the feed is infested with frass, or insect feces.  Further, that the feed is infested with weevils points to the fact that the feed is old.  According to Jeff Mattocks, as quoted by Harvey Ussery on pg 158 of The Small-Scale Poultry Flock:  Jeff Mattocks strongly cautions about feeding stale feeds.  "Feeds are at the optimum levels for up to 14 days, and are satisfactory up to 45 days after grinding or milling.  After 45 days, the feed is generally so stale or oxidized that poultry appetite will be severely depressed.  Oxidation starts immediately after the grinding or cracking of grain."  If I came home with an infested bag of grain, I'd trot it right back where it came from.  Your situation is complicated by the fact that you traded some members of your flock  for it.  I'd not want to bring any birds back to my property after they've mingled with birds from an other flock.  

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i totally agree with you on this

I threw it away in the end... When I opened a bag to look there were hundreds of weevils in there and huge amounts of their dusty poop all over the seeds... it also smelt kind of musty. I like me birds too much to take a chance fo them getting sick.

jak2002003 said:

I threw it away in the end... When I opened a bag to look there were hundreds of weevils in there and huge amounts of their dusty poop all over the seeds... it also smelt kind of musty.  I like me birds too much to take a chance fo them getting sick.

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good thinking. And shame on them.

silly4buttons said:

good thinking. And shame on them.

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I lost out there as they got some very healthy show quality birds from me..... but they have lost out themselves too... because the guy wanted a lot more off me next week for his shop..... but I will sell them to someone else.

I hope you were sure to tell him why.

You did learn a valuable lesson, though. I will bet the next time you barter something, you will check out what you are getting before the trade is done!

And lazygardner is right, that feed was junk! And I am sure he knew, too!