Chickens love STYROFOAM! Eating Again, Polystyrene!

[Boonie Stomper]

DeeDee just laid her first egg!!!

She's the black crested Polish.

 

[HuskerHens18]

DeeDee just laid her first egg!!!

View attachment 2017866
View attachment 2017867
She's the black crested Polish.

Aww what a pretty little egg ❤

 

[Boonie Stomper]

T

Aww what a pretty little egg ❤

Thanks
Effie is scoping out the nests now but no egg from her (the small RR), just squats.
Anyway...
They're all looking and behaving normal, despite the continued cooler nibbling.

 

[BDutch]

Styrofoam is an evil kind of plastic. It can't be digested. Not by chickens and not by mealworms* or any other worm. It just breaks down in tiny (micro) particles. Microplastics are everywhere nowadays. Even in honey. Giving it to you’re chickens is not only bad for their health, its also a way to pollute the environment.

Edited: *Research claims: Mealworms can digest PS foam.

 

[Friendly_Lurker]

That can’t be good for them. Or you, if you eat their eggs. Just try to stop them whenever possible, and try to feed them a different treat.

 

[Chickassan]

They'll eat milk jugs too, found that out the hard way.
I used half milk jugs for water bowls often when I had game birds, they never bothered the jugs at all.
These layers though whole different story, as soon as the sun brittled up the plastic they started eating them like potato chips.
They're just odd, odd creatures.

 

[Boonie Stomper]

There is abundant evidence that polystyrene foam IS digestible.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30145418

Trust me, I'm not advocating it's continued use as a disposable commodity that continues to pollute Earth's waters and harm marine life and the food chains they support.
But if the research is correct (and there is no evidence that it isn't which I have found), then the research should continue in order that better and less harmful ways of dealing with our man-made waste can be realised.
I guess I'm part of that now, aren't I?
For now, this experiment, closely monitored, will continue.
And I will eat the eggs, too, after a bit more research.

 

[BDutch]

There is abundant evidence that polystyrene foam IS digestible.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30145418

Trust me, I'm not advocating it's continued use as a disposable commodity that continues to pollute Earth's waters and harm marine life and the food chains they support.
But if the research is correct (and there is no evidence that it isn't which I have found), then the research should continue in order that better and less harmful ways of dealing with our man-made waste can be realised.
I guess I'm part of that now, aren't I?
For now, this experiment, closely monitored, will continue.
And I will eat the eggs, too, after a bit more research.

You Convinced me to do some research :
There are two types of styrofoam.

The trademarked blue one:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/StyrofoamYou really won’t want you're chickens to eat that one.

And there is a generally used white one: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polystyrene
It seems that you are right about the worms eating polystyrene foam. Still find it hard to believe though. It gives me a feeling that the outcome of the investigation was payed by the plastic industry. Like the one of bee’s not dying of herbicides by Bayer.

I have to admit, its not so poisoness as I thougt but still not innocent when it gets in the environment. In the article on wikipedia they do warn for pollution and animal health issues.

 

[Fluffyflufffluff]

Its amazing what lengths chickens will go to for a crop full of styrofoam cooler or polystyrene packing often used as insulation.

Mine have never shown any illness from having eaten a little of it in the past. But though I've tried to get it away from and keep it from them in the past, I forgot last week when I boxed meat in a foam cooler outside since its freezing out there now and my freezer is too full.

When i turned the flock loose for awhile in the part of the yard where it was, they devastated it in very short order.

I have found some information before that explains gut bacteria in mealworms can digest styrofoam and allow mealworms to be raised on it as their primary food. It stands to reason these same gut organisms can do the same in a bird which has eaten insects which can eat styrofoam.

I found 2 years ago that chestnut weevil larvae can also eat it, and fed those larvae to my flock.

Today, I found this on the web when revisiting the subject, so my chickens can have all they want...
https://challenges.openideo.com/attachments/314423fe-e534-4d0d-a553-fccfb4f7ce7f.pdf?id=7509

Maybe? But we should discuss this!

That sounds very Unusual.. making any animal something that is not edible will have serious implications after. Not unless you can name me another animal that thrives on eating anything inedible?

 

[Kris5902]

Not all my chickens like/try to eat styrofoam... I had some styrofoam insulation board that was blown out of the bed of my truck, no big deal, I did my chores and decided to let my meat birds free range for a bit before I got it picked up. My free range layers hadn’t bothered with it at all, but my Red Ranger and 2 CX thought it was the next best thing to meal worms. And I have even watched my (layer) Rooster try to convince his girls that moldy poop encrusted towels are tasty treats, but they totally ignored both the pink board and several white styrofoam coolers. Go figure? I took the foam away from mine. Interesting concept