help! something wrong with chick!

[hispoptart]

she has plenty of water. the feed is to expensive to buy though we get the feed we have now for free.

If you can't afford the feed then you can't afford to keep chickens.

 

[hysop]

If you got chickens to save on grocery store bought eggs I can tell you that that won’t happen unless many factors play in. I personally would be financially better off buying eggs from the store. But we love having chickens and knowing what they eat to produce those eggs. But feeding them is not cheap. Especially when they molt and produce zero eggs.

 

[slordaz]

Moldy feed alone can cause botulism which can kill quickly. never worth it to feed it if the feed is not good.

 

[hysop]

Yeah I know mold is a big no. But if you were determined to pick out the maggots and feed it to the chickens would that be okay? Or just toss everything? Of course toss the moldy food for sure.

 

[slordaz]

Yeah I know mold is a big no. But if you were determined to pick out the maggots and feed it to the chickens would that be okay? Or just toss everything? Of course toss the moldy food for sure.

you would need to toss it as spores and feces from the maggots will have contaminated it all

 

[hysop]

I meant could you feed those maggots to the chickens since they eat maggots.

The food would have to be tossed 100%. I’m talking more about being determined enough to pick out the maggots and feeding only the maggots to the chickens.

 

[Wyorp Rock]

I'm no bug or feed expert. It would be good for someone like @ChickenCanoe to chime in.
My thoughts are if you find grain mites in feed and should throw it out, why would you not if it has maggots?
http://www.scoopfromthecoop.com/poultry-feed-storage-something-you-mite-watch-out-for/

 

[BigBlueHen53]

Just my 2c, but I would not feed maggots to the chickens when the maggots have been eating moldy food .... and I would not eat the eggs of the chickens that have been eating maggots that have been eating moldy food, either. This is just all too disgusting. Feed the chickens free range a couple hours a day and be sure they have clean, fresh water available always, along with grit, oyster shell and good-quality all-flock crumbles or pellets. As another poster said, If you cannot afford to supply them what they need, then quite honestly you must face the fact that you cannot afford chickens at this time. Chickens are living beings and deserve to be properly cared for.

 

[slordaz]

I meant could you feed those maggots to the chickens since they eat maggots.

The food would have to be tossed 100%. I’m talking more about being determined enough to pick out the maggots and feeding only the maggots to the chickens.

at risk of infecting them I would not, and any eggs making you, your family or others sick if the fly that laid the eggs had come in contact with a dead animal, it would produce botulism. I am sorry but would never endanger my birds like that. If you cannot afford to feed them good clean feed, maybe you need to re-home them. I am not saying that to be mean, but in the best interest of the chickens

 

[hysop]

Oh I’m not the one that is having trouble with the feed. I was just curious about the maggots.

Yeah my birds free range all day every day. And I feed them layer feed on top of that.

I just remember once my bag of bird feed got wet and maggots started forming. Thankfully there was barely any feed in the bag and we have since bought waterproof containers to keep their feed in.

Thanks for the info! Hopefully the OP that started this thread got their answers.