Chickens love STYROFOAM! Eating Again, Polystyrene!

[Boonie Stomper]

Not all my chickens like/try to eat styrofoam... I had some styrofoam insulation board that was blown out of the bed of my truck, no big deal, I did my chores and decided to let my meat birds free range for a bit before I got it picked up. My free range layers hadn’t bothered with it at all, but my Red Ranger and 2 CX thought it was the next best thing to meal worms. And I have even watched my (layer) Rooster try to convince his girls that moldy poop encrusted towels are tasty treats, but they totally ignored both the pink board and several white styrofoam coolers. Go figure? I took the foam away from mine. Interesting concept

That's a good thing they didn't eat the insulation board. That type of styrofoam is different from the kind used to ship frozen food in or hold hot beverages. See @BDutch posts above.

 

[Boonie Stomper]

That sounds very Unusual.. making any animal something that is not edible will have serious implications after. Not unless you can name me another animal that thrives on eating anything inedible?

No one is making any animal eat something regarded as inedible (to humans).
It is merely made available, along with all the same other choices available before.
There has been no observed decrease in consumption of the usual feedstuffs.
There has been no sign of illness or discomfort, nor any apparent failure to thrive resulting from the polystyrene-eating.

 

[Boonie Stomper]

Another chicken laid her first egg yesterday (Feb 6), not sure but probably Effie.

There were two other eggs also, the lighter brown one is a good bit larger than DeeDee's first one. But as it is the same color, and my barred rock isn't squatting yet, I think it was DeeDee's.

Could the cooler lid have spurred on egg laying?

 

[Kris5902]

That's a good thing they didn't eat the insulation board. That type of styrofoam is different from the kind used to ship frozen food in or hold hot beverages. See @BDutch posts above.

It’s the pink colored board used in housing insulation, from Lowe’s or Home Depot... and the meat girls did manage to eat a decent amount before I noticed and took it away... it was not intended as part of their “free range feed” on their restricted feed diet and exercise program, but so far they have shown no ill effects from it. Ten months old and they are laying eggs fairly regularly, not bad for giant white bowling ball “chickens” CX

Another chicken laid her first egg yesterday (Feb 6), not sure but probably Effie.

View attachment 2021004
There were two other eggs also, the lighter brown one is a good bit larger than DeeDee's first one. But as it is the same color, and my barred rock isn't squatting yet, I think it was DeeDee's.

View attachment 2021009
Could the cooler lid have spurred on egg laying?

Going to have to say it’s probably more the increase in light etc with spring, but...

 

[Boonie Stomper]

It’s the pink colored board used in housing insulation, from Lowe’s or Home Depot... and the meat girls did manage to eat a decent amount before I noticed and took it away... it was not intended as part of their “free range feed” on their restricted feed diet and exercise program, but so far they have shown no ill effects from it. Ten months old and they are laying eggs fairly regularly, not bad for giant white bowling ball “chickens” CX



Going to have to say it’s probably more the increase in light etc with spring, but...

Maybe just coincidence... The days are a little longer, but it is the DEAD of winter still here. And 2 first eggs within 2 weeks of allowing the previously "forbidden food"...

 

[BDutch]

Btw. I had a similar thing with chopped corck. I used it on a slippery path. The chickens cannot digest it but started to eat it immediately. Its natural and not poisonous. But I didn't use it anymore. Because I think it cant be healty to eat something that can not be digested.

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

It stands to reason these same gut organisms can do the same in a bird which has eaten insects which can eat styrofoam.

Well, actually, not really. It's well known that gut flora varies from species to species and seems to be connected to phylogeny and diet. Chickens and mealworms differ pretty drastically in those senses, so there isn't any reason we should believe they have the same gut biome, nor any reason we should think they can definitely digest all of the same things.

Also, from the link in your first post:

Even if they would eat it styrofoam is obviously bad for chickens and would merely fill them up with indigestible bulk.

This was not said ironically. They go on to discuss that you can feed mealworms styrofoam, because mealworms can digest it according to studies, and then feed those mealworms to your chickens, in a roundabout way feeding the styrofoam to your chickens. That article isn't about feeding the polystyrene directly to chickens.

There is abundant evidence that polystyrene foam IS digestible.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30145418

Again, no, there is evidence that polystyrene is digestible to insect larvae. I'm not finding any sources that definitely say birds can digest it, though I found a citation from a 1978 article about its digestibility in chickens. Unfortunately, I'm not having any luck pulling up even its abstract to tell you what they found.

I did find another source that said it interrupts iron absorption and transport when ingested by hens, though.

Another that said ingestion of polystyrene by hens can lead to hexabromocyclododecane contamination in their eggs. That's a fire-retardant found in polystyrene used for insulation.

Now, I'd doubt that hexabromocyclododecane is found in cooler lids, but still... Seems to me like it's not a good idea to let the birds eat this stuff directly.

Could the cooler lid have spurred on egg laying?

Going to have to say it’s probably more the increase in light etc with spring, but...

Gotta agree with @Kris5902 on this one; it's the light increase that's spurring on your egg layers. I've gone from maybe one egg a day up to five or six in the past couple weeks and it's definitely still winter here, too. And my birds are not eating polystyrene.

 

[Kiki]

@Boonie Stomper Are you trying to claim that by you feeding your chicken styrofoam (which is just nuts) that it is making them lay eggs?

You can't be serious, are you?

 

[Boonie Stomper]

Ok... You all have finally given good discussion as was the point of this thread from the beginning. Kudos for that!

What we've gleaned so far is some polystyrene products contain obvious ingestion hazards while others do not.

The facts remain that polystyrene food containers present a considerable environmental problem worthy of research into potential solutions besides the simple all out production ban.

While in theory there could be an estrogenic effect on chickens due to eating the safer versions of the stuff, more advanced laboratory and controlled studies would be required to prove a conclusion.

GG (the barred rock) showed some potentially pre-laying behavior today in the coop, after the other hens went out. She was callin out and scoping out the nest site possibilities. She is usually the first hen out.
Got 3 eggs today.
The 5th hen (crippled and not laying since fox bit her last spring) is even enjoying the cooler lid. But she's very atrophied on one side and is not expected to resume laying. She seems stable, however. If anyone would succumb to adverse effects from eating too much polystyrene it would be Hallow.

 

[Boonie Stomper]

Update, all is well, and GG the barred rock laid her 1st egg on 2/19 ( so close in color to another, had to wait for a four egg day with good sunlight to be sure).