Larvae in Chicken poop

[LDub]

Hello all-

I am a newbie to raising chickens...I purchased my flock right after Easter. I currently have 2 white hens that are already laying and 2 RIR. I have a small basic coop that I purchased at Tractor Supply with a pan that slides out. My girls are only in there at night and roam the yard during the day.

I had a small nesting box in the coop filled with wood shavings in case they laid in the evening. They ended up kicking the shavings everywhere so I moved the box to a secluded spot in the yard and they have been laying pretty regularly now in the new spot.

However, upon cleaning today I noticed a ton of larvae in the pan that had all the old shavings and chicken poop. I immediately dumped it out to the far corner of the yard and my chickens flocked right to it and started eating all the larvae!! Is this normal? Is it ok for them to be eating larvae that was living in their poop?! Will I get sick from eating their eggs?

Many thanks!!

 

[ChickenCanoe]

Settle down.
The larvae are probably fly maggots. They will eat anything that moves and is small enough to swallow.
You don't need to make accommodations for hens to lay at night because they don't move at night to eat, drink or lay.

 

[Mehjr10]

They were probably Black Soldier Fly Larvae, which people raise for feeding the chickens

Did they look similar to the one crawling up the ramp, if they were still young they may have been white colored, they darken as they age.


The bottom picture shows a bunch of young ones.

 

[LDub]

They definitely looked like BSF larvae. I realize they will eat bugs in the yard...just wasn't sure if it was ok for them to eat bugs that were living in their poop...