Chickens NOT spreading cow manure!

[lms0229]

My cows are organically fed and yet not once have I seen them spread cow manure to look for bugs! I have even thrown scratch grains on top of the manure to “teach” them but nothing! They ignore the scratch grains too! My cows are healthy and got a clean bill of health by the vet.... so what gives?

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

Cow pies tend to be too messy, plus from my experiences keeping cows there isn't much coming out the back end that isn't totally digested. There's really nothing to eat.

Once manure is dry, chickens will scratch through it but wet piles they don't seem interested in them, probably because they are messy.

 

[lms0229]

That is interesting to me because all these permaculture folks keep talking about how their chickens take care of the cow patties and mine don’t go near them. Joel Salatin also has written about his chickens spreading the cow manure and said his chickens won’t touch manure from vaccinated cattle and I know mine are clean so I know it’s not that. Just curious if other people have this problem or if my chickens are just use to me feeding them the good stuff like squash, pumpkins, carrots etc...