Can chickens eat wheat flour?

[HickChick Wannabe]

Hi folks! Another newbie, here. I'll be picking up my first 6 chicks on June 16.

I've rescued a 50lb bag of flour that was going to be thrown out at work. Worst case scenario, I have 50lbs of compost material, but could I feed it (in small quantities) to my chickens? It's an unopened bag, so I haven't inspected it yet. (I'll be storing it outside, in case of bugs.) I wouldn't give any of it to the chicks right away; not until they're older. I've read that chickens can be fed "milled wheat", which is flour. But flour is fine; is "milled wheat" the same texture? I know they can eat small quantities of bread, but if I have to bake my chickens little loaves of bread, I'll compost it first! (Hey, I remember a fable from childhood: don't chickens bake their own bread?)

What do you all think?

 

[silkiechicken]

Not sure how well they would "gobble" it up if it's been milled and shifted to the fine baking quality I am imagining in my head. You could try. But if it's or really old, might not add much nutritionally to them and you'll want to compensate with a higher protein feed. Oh, and if it's moldy or contaminated compost is the only place it should go. Small bugs would be fine, since that may off set the protein. Maybe you can use it to raise meal worms for the bids to eat for protein?

However, a dry dish of it might make a great dust bath... till it rains and they turn into walking dough balls!

 

[HickChick Wannabe]

Quote:

Hadn't thought of that!

I had thought of raising meal worms. Not the ideal use from my perspective, but I'm sure they'd be happy!