Black beans in gamebird feed?

[Sir Sacabambaspis]

I just read that raw black beans are highly toxic for chickens and pheasants, but I've been feeding my chickens and pheasants a home made blend of feed made of 60% gamebird feed and 40% high quality pigeon feed for months. The overall blend has roughly 10% black beans followed by about 10% sunflower seeds, and about 20% whole green peas to name a few throughout the blend. I've watched my birds eat the black beans over all these months and have seen no problems, in fact, I've actually seen an increase in health from my birds ever since I stopped feeding them later pellets and switched to this blend... But like... How have the black beans have zero effect on my birds???? Should I be worried???? I do see a very small amount of black beans at the bottom is the feeder when they're out followed by the occasional extra large sunflower seed or two... So may they're just not eating the majority of the beans? I've still seen them eat the beans with my own eyes though so surely they'd have some sort of illness, right???

 

[debid]

If the bird cannot identify which food caused their digestive distress, they will not know which thing to avoid. It isn't specific to black beans, though. ALL beans should be cooked before feeding both because that deactivates the lectin that causes the problem and it makes the nutrients more bioavailable. If you want to use beans as part of their feed, maybe batch cook and then freeze them in portions so they can eat them safely and get all the nutrients from them without you preparing beans every day? Alternatively, you could cook enough to destroy the toxin and then dry them again...

 

[ABQ chicken keeper]

I just read that raw black beans are highly toxic for chickens and pheasants, but I've been feeding my chickens and pheasants a home made blend of feed made of 60% gamebird feed and 40% high quality pigeon feed for months. The overall blend has roughly 10% black beans followed by about 10% sunflower seeds, and about 20% whole green peas to name a few throughout the blend. I've watched my birds eat the black beans over all these months and have seen no problems, in fact, I've actually seen an increase in health from my birds ever since I stopped feeding them later pellets and switched to this blend... But like... How have the black beans have zero effect on my birds???? Should I be worried???? I do see a very small amount of black beans at the bottom is the feeder when they're out followed by the occasional extra large sunflower seed or two... So may they're just not eating the majority of the beans? I've still seen them eat the beans with my own eyes though so surely they'd have some sort of illness, right???

Post a picture of the black beans. Are sure the beans are not dark pears? I had pigeons years ago and never experienced feed containing beans.

 

[debid]

I read "home made blend" and thought that you had added the black beans yourself. If that is not the case, it's entirely possible that what you are seeing is not raw black beans at all but either cooked and dried or something else entirely that happens to resemble black beans visually.

 

[Sir Sacabambaspis]

I read "home made blend" and thought that you had added the black beans yourself. If that is not the case, it's entirely possible that what you are seeing is not raw black beans at all but either cooked and dried or something else entirely that happens to resemble black beans visually.

I took my gamebird feed and pigeon feed from my local feed store and both bags contain a seed that looks also exactly like a black bean, the ingredients are in Italian so I'd have to do a bit of searching to see if it says beans

 

[Sir Sacabambaspis]

Post a picture of the black beans. Are sure the beans are not dark pears? I had pigeons years ago and never experienced feed containing beans.

I'm out the house rn, but when I get back I'll take a few photos

 

[Sir Sacabambaspis]

They'll sprout since I've seen spilled seed sprouting including the supposed black beans

 

[Sir Sacabambaspis]

I'd assume cooked beans won't sprout but I'm not sure

 

[Sir Sacabambaspis]

I do trust my birds to eat what they need which is why I switched off later pellets. I noticed that on layer pellets my roosters weren't as healthy and my hens didn't have the best poop and even with a fairly perfect environment they just seemed less healthy than they could be. It seemed like no matter what the brand I used they just weren't doing well. However once I changed to gamebird feed I noticed they had one of the best molts I've ever seen over the multiple years of layer feed, my roosters fertility and health are way better! I'm also super impressed at how my hens are doing and how well they're layer throughout winter! However if there are beans in their feed I'm wondering how I'd need to change feed brands... Perhaps fermenting it would remove the toxins?

 

[Sir Sacabambaspis]

If the bird cannot identify which food caused their digestive distress, they will not know which thing to avoid. It isn't specific to black beans, though. ALL beans should be cooked before feeding both because that deactivates the lectin that causes the problem and it makes the nutrients more bioavailable. If you want to use beans as part of their feed, maybe batch cook and then freeze them in portions so they can eat them safely and get all the nutrients from them without you preparing beans every day? Alternatively, you could cook enough to destroy the toxin and then dry them again...

My birds seem to be pretty good at identifying what's not good since they free range and bad plants aren't ever eaten and I see a lot of these black bean looking seeds in their feeder