Danger in Sunflower seeds!

[BarkerChickens]

Quote:
Thanks Chook! That is very interesting and makes sense! I had heard that about scratch in general and just couldn't figure out why it would produce heat. The energy source explanation makes sense though!

I had heard that sunflower seeds were bad for chickens. Don't remember where or why though. Has anyone else heard of it? Or can explain otherwise? We were given a large bag of bird seed and DH and I hand sifted through it to pick out the sunflower seeds 'cause we were told it was bad for chickens.

It'd sure be funny if we did it for nothing!

 

[CoyoteMagic]

Ya'll may want to read a few earlier threads that include some scientific data.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=164582

https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=122408

https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=124243

 

[rstampa]

I found this article explaining how chickens cope with hot weather. Very educational.
http://www.ces.ncsu.edu/depts/poulsci/tech_manuals/hot_weather_management.html#figure1

 

[Akane]

Like was already said grains that are "good at generating heat" don't actually create heat. They give calories and energy to the animal so the body can make heat. If the body doesn't need heat the calories will go elsewhere. The only risk is in making fat animals by feeding them more calories than they are using during the summer.




What doesn't cause cancer these days...

Personally I think anything in moderation is just fine and healthy. Overdoing anything such as the macrodosing people often do (taking very high levels of a vitamin or mineral to boost energy) is bad. That's generally where you start to see these type of problems.

 

[Wifezilla]

Chookchick is right

No flaming chickens from "hot" food

As for cancer and certain oils, rancid vegetable oils are a health risk. Most plant derived oils go rancid quite easily, but I would not freak out over sunflower seeds. It is the highly processed oils you buy at the store that are more of a problem. A greater cancer risk is a diet high in sugar, starches and other carbohydrates. Cancer cells feed on sugars and insulin growth hormones.

 

[Russo's Roost]

In addidion to loving our chickens we also love our songbirds. We buy and put out black oil sunflower seeds for them all the time, can we feed the same seeds to our chickens? They love to go to my garden and eat the seeds off the ground that have been liberated from the sunflowers. It's not as much fun going to the garden now. I only have carrots and parsnips still in. We lost our entire tomatoe crop to a blight this year, much of Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine did, either form bad plants or mulch hay that was brought in from another region since we had a horrible year for hay in 2008.

 

[rstampa]

I think some of you drifted off my original question. I was talking about feeding sunflower seeds in hot weather and not about cancer in humans. That might be a better posted on a different forum.
I had only asked a simple question.
I do want to thank you all for your response.

 

[Wifezilla]

 

[fatboys farm]

i feed some boss also, mixed with scratch. i was wondering about the sunflower seeds. i usually screw it up 1st then ask questions. PS some say the feathers are half on , some say half off, i say whos plucking my chicken?

 

[gumpsgirl]

**Thread closed by request of the OP.