Bee’s in the chicken feed – should I worry?

[Corona~Barb]

Just spotted this thread and am intrigued. Have never heard of or seen bees in chicken feed. Learned something new today.

 

[chickengeorgeto]

Just spotted this thread and am intrigued. Have never heard of or seen bees in chicken feed. Learned something new today.

Cattle food, horse food, dog food, cat food, swine food, bird food, all that is needed is that it be organic in the original sense, powdered, and dry like pollen is. Of course there also needs to be a pollen dearth in the land.

 

[Nadiab1410]

I have bantam chicken and feed them a mix of crush whole mealies and sunflower seeds and sorgum, clean, fresh, dry and also for this week there have been bees in their food. I have now taken to just throwing on the lawn so the bees are spread out not concentrated in a bowl of feed and that seems to not deter the chickens from the food. I also have bunnies and in their mix is also crushed mielies , sunflower seeds and a variety of other things. Their bowl is also full of bees and none of the food is wet and fermenting. I put out clean food every day. Meilies are corn, I am from South Africa. The bees look like honey bees, but our African type of honey bee. They don't move when I or the animals go to the feed and they not being aggressive. They actually look lethargic and let the chickens and bunnies eat.

 

[APK1]

Glad I found this thread! I was thinking/hoping that it was maybe molasses (used as a binder in the pellets) in there that attracted them. I'll have to look for something soy free next time I shop for feed. It just seems bizarre to me that, at this time of year, there are SO MANY in the feeder in the coop. I haven't been able to determine how close a hive is, but there is a lot of construction going on around where we live, so who knows... At the end of the day I put the feeder in the shed (we have voles that we can't seem to get rid of either) and the poor bees that are still in there behave like they are drunker than a skunk. I feel pretty bad for them.

 

[Egghead_Jr]

Bees wouldn't stay on the feed into the night they'd fly back to the hive. Crawling around and non bee like makes me think they've succumbed to disease. Mite infested hives are prone to disease when weakened. When I see bees crawling on the ground I know mites are getting out of hand and it's time to treat them or a colony collapse is coming.

 

[bkccmurray]

Glad you asked....We've noticed the same thing and were wondering too

 

[chickengeorgeto]

Quote:
Don't over think your bee problem. Honey bees will work or gather sawdust and cow poop in the spring to use for raising young bees at least until a suitable pollen is available.

 

[meetthebubus]

this happened to me too this year, i switched feed brands, and no more bees, i think there was something in it molasses maybe?

so it was natures best that the bees love, now i used dumor...

 

[shawnarcm]

Hi Folks,
For the last week or so theres been bees in the chicken feed (lots!). The chickens dont seem to like it and avoid the feeder. Once the sun starts to go down and the bees leave the chickens rush to the feeder to start eatingpoor things

. We live in southern NM so we have to worry about Africanized bees. They appear to be honey bees, but I have no idea where the hive is. Ive tried to watch where the bees are flying to, but there are too many trees in the area. So far the bees dont appear to be aggressive. This is our first year with chickens and we had no trouble all spring and summer. Should I just let the bees have their fill? Any ideas would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks!
Angie

This is my first winter with chickens. I live in North Texas and have been having the same annoying problem with a ton of honey bees all around and in my chicken feed. The chickens don't seem to mind it as much as I do. I also feed mine the Purina Flockraiser. I am just wondering if you found anything to prevent this?
This is manly happening in the coop with my 4-5 month old 2 white silkies. I haven't been able to integrate our 4 other golden sex linked chickens with them because they are mean to the silkies. So we have to keep those four in the barn where there is another coop. The 4 Goldens love us and come up to the deck every day when and if its not too cold and unfortunately poop all over our deck while waiting g for us to come outside and interact with them. The silkies on the other hand don't seem to be as smart. We have been having to manually remove them from their coop and put them n their run everyday. They are pretty but sure wish they could all get along!!

 

[cmom]

I realize this is an older thread. We have bees but have never had this problem. I'm thinking feed too. I switch my chicks over to All Flock pellets when the are between 8 to12 weeks old. Never had an issue with the pellets and the bees. When the birds are put together they will have issues until they figure out their pecking order. Usually if there are problems, I have noticed there is usually an instigator. I remove the instigator for a few days and then put her back into the flock. It usually works but once in awhile a bully is still a bully. Good luck...