Feed Smells Awful

[Brahma Chicken5000]

I have been feeding my flock Purina Flock Raiser crumbles for the last year. Recently I when feeding my birds I have found that the feed smells odd. I don’t know exactly what the smell is, but it just doesn’t seem right. I have also noticed that when touching the feed or when my chickens are close to emptying their feeder that there is this sawdust like material. This material smells off as well and this is the first time I’m encountering it. My feed is stored in a large metal garbage can in my garage. I buy the freshest feed I can find at the store, but I must admit that I’m not so great at deciphering the mill dates.
I will be calling Purina mills tomorrow afternoon to tell them about this problem I’ve had with the last 2 bags of feed that I’ve purchased at my TSC. I am considering switching to a different feed all together if this doesn’t get resolved as the smell and the sawdust material is disgusting.
I will try and get some pictures tomorrow.
Cheers
Aryeh

 

[sealer39]

Sounds like your feed has gone bad due to moisture (condensation), bugs or both. Throw it out and wash your cans well. When chicken feed rots, to me, it smells like the worst cat poop ever. Can you keep your feed inside where it is climate controlled?

 

[Brahma Chicken5000]

Sounds like your feed has gone bad due to moisture (condensation), bugs or both. Throw it out and wash your cans well. When chicken feed rots, to me, it smells like the worst cat poop ever. Can you keep your feed inside where it is climate controlled?

Well I keep it in my garage which is detached from the house. I don’t think I’d be able to keep it in the house. I will wash my feed can out tomorrow.

 

[Steven Bussell]

Maybe try a screw on top dog food storage container. I have one that holds 50 pounds of food. I keep it in my outside storage behind my coop. It's bug and moisture proof

 

[blackdog043]

I buy the freshest feed I can find at the store, but I must admit that I’m not so great at deciphering the mill dates.

Purina date codes are Year/month/day/plant/shift.
9AUG5FRF2
2019 August 5th Frankfort, Indiana 2nd shift

Are you dumping the feed out of the bag? I would leave it in the bag, in the can and tape the receipt to it, in case you need to take it back. It might just be bad or outdated feed. I buy my feed from a mill, after having problems with bad feed from TSC. My chickens actually wouldn't even eat it, I took it back, got a different mill date and that's the last time I bought it there.

 

[Brahma Chicken5000]

Purina date codes are Year/month/day/plant/shift.
9AUG5FRF2
2019 August 5th Frankfort, Indiana 2nd shift

Are you dumping the feed out of the bag? I would leave it in the bag, in the can and tape the receipt to it, in case you need to take it back. It might just be bad or outdated feed. I buy my feed from a mill, after having problems with bad feed from TSC. My chickens actually wouldn't even eat it, I took it back, got a different mill date and that's the last time I bought it there.

Thank you so much for the key to the mill dates!
I keep the feed in the feed bag and put the whole thing in the metal feed can.

 

[Brahma Chicken5000]

I opened a new bag of feed and was about to dump the remainder of the feed from the previous bag into the newly opened bag like I usually do when I decided to smell the freshly opened bag. The feed in the new bag smelled of grains while the almost empty opened bag smelled bad. I discarded the already opened bag with the feed left in it. Thank God I caught myself or I would have ruined a perfectly good bag of feed.

 

[GC-Raptor]

The feed in the new bag smelled of grains while the almost empty opened bag smelled bad.

Yeah, I had feed go bad in the spring of last year.
I now smell the feed whenever I open the bag to refill the feeder.
I keep the feed in a spare room near the back door.
I only have 8 chickens so feed lasts over a month this time of year. GC

 

[aart]

there is this sawdust like material.

Wonders if you had grain mites in the feed?
I too feed FR and it's a problem in the summer.

 

[Brahma Chicken5000]

Wonders if you had grain mites in the feed?
I too feed FR and it's a problem in the summer.

It could have been possible. The bag had a rip that I noticed once I got home and I wasn’t about to drive an hour round trip to return it.