Ahh! Moldy Feed! Please tell me my chickens will be OK!

[77horses]

Ahh! I just noticed that the chicken feed got wet from the rain we got over the weekend...It has some green on it (but not all of it) and it smells kinda bad. And I've been feeding it to my chickens (my rooster, Ivory, three 3-4 week old chicks, and a mother hen) for the past couple or so days!

Now I'm really worried they will get sick! They haven't been showing any signs of sickness lately...

I hope it doesn't cause any problems! Will it? If so what do I do if they do get sick and how do I prevent it??

Now I need to go get a new bag of feed (and a better storage container

). Fortunately the bag of feed was nearly empty so not much got wasted.


Help! I'm worried that the nasty feed will cause my chickens to get sick!

What should I do besides, obviously, replacing the nasty feed ASAP (by tomorrow I think...I'll empty out all their nasty feed from the food dishes tomorrow morning and give them table scraps for the day to eat.

Thanks!

 

[Tiramisu]

Quote:
Well I guess just watch them since you are getting rid of it now. If you removed all the moldy/wet stuff as much as you could and fed the rest, I think it should be ok, hopefully.
I think it is best you get rid of it and go with the plan of feeding table scraps and just get a new feed bag

Is there anywhere to store the feed so it does not get wet? Maybe from now on keep it in a garage if no closer storage and only take a bit out at a time in a container to feed them?

 

[Jeremy Parker]

Do not feed any wet feed that is moldy, it can make them sick!!

Sounds like they are going to be ok!!

I use a garbage can to keep mine in, inside my coop.

My little darlings are roosting on the top of the can every morning when I go to feed them I have a 12'X12' coop with 60 peepers though.

My friend only has small coop and he just puts his in a garbage can outside the coop, no moister has ever gotten into his can.

Blessings,
Jeremy

 

[Yvonne37894]

how about doing a molasses flush for a couple of days
to clean out their system
think it is 2 or 3 Tps per gallon

 

[A.T. Hagan]

Clean it all up and dispose of it where the birds cannot get into it. Moldy feed is bad news for poultry.

 

[Debob]

Lets see, it's moldy and you aready been feeding it- STOP-dispose of it -DO NOT USE AS FEED. would you even consider eating moldy food. Count your self lucky if they don't get sick.So much is depending upon us to only give the best care to them,we depend upon them to give us the best they can.

 

[Sonoran Silkies]

Quote:
This is an excellent idea! Moldy feed can and does kill birds.

 

[77horses]

OK, I got rid of the moldy feed, cleaned the whole coop out today (just in case any got spilled on the floor) and bought some new feed for them.

They are still showing no signs of sickness, so I think I may be lucky with them!

I don't think they really ate that much anyway, since the moldy feed was mostly around the outside of the bag of feed (where it got wet) and I had been scooping it from the center, where it looked normal.

Thanks everyone and I will keep you posted!


Yvonne37894- Thanks! I think I will try that. Is it safe for younger (3-4 weeks) chicks, too?

 

[spud1035]

I bought some shelled corn from the feed store and it looks like it was moldy at one time. I guess last fall was very wet and the new breeds of corn don't dry out as good as the older varieties.

 

[Yvonne37894]

I had a moldy hay problem and lost a FBCM chick, I save the rest with the molassas flush

found this site for instructions from a BYC member

http://msucares.com/poultry/diseases/solutions.html