Chickens are eating Styrofoam!!! HELP!!!

[Theofire88]

I have heard of people throwing chunks of styrofoam in thier pens to prevent boredom picking.

I really would like to know the answer to this as I have a bag of chunks I would feed sparingly, provided there was no effect on the eggs or the chickens themselves, I found this article... Opinions?

 

[3baymares]

Sounds like the makings of a PhD research project. Styrofoam broken down by chickens.... will it biodegrade any faster? Probably not but it would be interesting to study.

 

[gguineasfamily]

I really would like to know the answer to this as I have a bag of chunks I would feed sparingly, provided there was no effect on the eggs or the chickens themselves, I found this article... Opinions?

I don't think it is good for chickens. Too many chemicals, might cause cancer or something. I don't know, I'm not an expert. But if you're worried about boredom picking, you could try many things e.g. Sunflower heads, some sort of treat-feeder thing that has holes in it but you kinda have to roll it around to get the treats out, a mirror, a log with lots of bark that comes off easily, corn cob etc.

 

[sktlmt]

I am so glad to see other people have styrofoam loving chickens. My youngest batch seek it out. I hear strange noises while in the house. It sounds like someone trying to break in. I look out and there is a young roo pecking away. I move the foam out of their reach and they find a way to get to it and have a party. So glad I did not go thru the hassle and expense of lining the coop with rigid foam sheets. My 1, 2 and 3 year olds seem to have mostly outgrown this. My under a year chicks are the biggest offenders.
Crazy birds!

 

[Berkshirechick]

Thank you for sharing all, I always wondered if it would permanently hurt my chickens. They keep driving me crazy going for their winterized coop! I have an Old English Game Hen that is obsessed with styrofoam. I just try to cover it up when they are ranging.

 

[jvls1942]

I would not encourage them to eat styro..
there is nothing in it that is good for them..

I learned my lesson with styro after cleaning a styrofaom incubator..
I washed it out real good and leaned it against the garage to dry..

when I came back the chickens had eaten over half of the base.. that is expensive treats, IMHO ..


...........jiminwisc..........

 

[chrisnjenny]

Thanks for the info guys, I had never heard of this and we bought my kids a styrofoam target and put it in the back yard. Well, once it had big enough tears in the plastic from arrows being repeatedly shot into it my chickens figured out it was filled with a hard styrofoam block and they got busy! Now there is a huge hole in the middle of the target where the bulls eye used to be! We kept moving it and hiding it but they kept finding it, that stuff is like chicken crack! I have no idea why they love it so much. I hope someone is able to find out the effects it has on eggs and meat as I too raise chickens for the purpose of it being healthier with no chemicals etc. Now I'm worried if we should eat the eggs or no...

 

[LitaB]

Mine have been doing the same...literally climbing on objects on the ground to reach the underside of the coop to eat it

 

[swampmama]

To answer the question of whether there is a chemical risk from eating styrofoam ... it has just been shown that shellfish living on styrofoam will absorb the flame retardants into their fat (https://microplastic.wordpress.com/...-of-hazardous-additives-for-marine-organisms/). The shellfish also have micro-sized styrofoam in their bodies. It seems that something similar would happen biologically on eating it, even when talking about a chicken versus the mussels in this study.

I realize this is a really old thread, but this one comes up right away on a google search, and there is a lot of knowledge here (and great stories - thank you for those!) I just read through the whole thing, and found lots of others here with the same questions. So I'm posting here in case others might find this study useful.

And thanks for all the great information on this site!

 

[neilrlw]

So, my chickens ate part of a styrofoam take home container. They seem fine. But, should I discard their eggs for a while now until it clears their system?

Thanks,

Neil