Stupid Questions Thread

Thank you @3goodeggs for paling about with Northflchick, now you give me reason to follow her too, lol.
 

My stupid question for the day is this. Are there some things in a compost heap that chickens shouldn't eat? My husband composts the refuse from butchering chickens. He covers it with fresh dirt but the chickens scratch and dig in the compost so it doesn't stay covered long. This summer I noticed maggots infesting the parts and the chickens just gobbled them up. I couldn't eat eggs after that. Is there a health problem associated with eating eggs from chickens that ingest maggots that live on dead meat?
 
Thank you so much @NorthFLChick Your answer was very helpful. You are going to get an Ovation for this, lol.

How nice! Thank you very kindly
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Thank you @3goodeggs for paling about with Northflchick, now you give me reason to follow her too, lol.

Great, now I'm going to have to behave. I hate behaving!


My stupid question for the day is this. Are there some things in a compost heap that chickens shouldn't eat? My husband composts the refuse from butchering chickens. He covers it with fresh dirt but the chickens scratch and dig in the compost so it doesn't stay covered long. This summer I noticed maggots infesting the parts and the chickens just gobbled them up. I couldn't eat eggs after that. Is there a health problem associated with eating eggs from chickens that ingest maggots that live on dead meat?
Chickens eat all kinds of things we wouldn't eat (worms, grasshoppers, crickets, etc.) or at least what most people wouldn't eat. And chickens will eat meat. I don't think the creepy crawlies that live in compost piles will hurt people...other than grossing them out.
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Maybe someone else knows differently?
 
Great, now I'm going to have to behave. I hate behaving!

Chickens eat all kinds of things we wouldn't eat (worms, grasshoppers, crickets, etc.) or at least what most people wouldn't eat. And chickens will eat meat. I don't think the creepy crawlies that live in compost piles will hurt people...other than grossing them out.
sickbyc.gif


Maybe someone else knows differently?
The only thing I believe I know for sure, is that there shouldn't be meat in a compost pile.
Of course I could be wrong.
 
No meat in compost piles.
The bacteria that will digest meat also cause bad infections in us.
You don't want gangrene in a cut.
or have the hens pick up botulism.
it is the anaerobic bacteria that becomes a problem.
If you do not want to give the fresh carcase to the chickens, then bury it under a tree, but do not rework it like in a garden.

edit to add that if the maggots are in it, it is getting oxygen and it nor the maggots are a concern....just food.
maggots have an antibiotic something or other that seems to keep the flesh from being consumed by the bacteria before they get to eat it.
We did a science experiment with my son where we put different things on petri plates and allowed them to grow.
The compost grew fruit fly larva. The eggs that were laid on the compost hatched, but no fungus or bacteria colonies grew.
Had he been in high school ..and also not so creeped out by it....that would have been a great science fair experiment.

http://homeguides.sfgate.com/can-compost-meat-78478.html

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2904663/
 
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<plop> Okay, now that I'm plopped down comfortably in my chair, I can ask my stoopid question - "How come I never saw this great thread until tonight?"

Answers are coming......wait for it....wait for it......
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You are one nifty looking chick, @Blooie . What a smile! Welcome to the thread.
 

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