Little beetles in hen scratch

[Pray4Snow]

Anyone know if these beetles are good or bad or ok for chickens. Found in hen scratch. Any idea what species? Hope the pics are good enough.

 

[AltonaAcres]

Those are weevils. Totally fine for your birds. They'll add a little protein into their diet!!

 

[Pray4Snow]

Ok thank you so much.

 

[Matejka]

Protein

 

[mcdze]

they can be a problem if you try to store feed for extended periods like buying multiple bags at a time .. they can ruin quite a bit of the bag, and once theyre in your garage or wherever you keep the feed they can infest any clean bags you put in there ... so .. theyre mostly a problem in the warmer months .. clean the storage area often and put down some kind of pesticide is my advice to at least control them .. a good strategy if its available to you is to freeze any new bags in a chest freezer if your weevil free so you dont reintroduce them .. they can get in your house to and if you store dry food can ruin that, like pasta, rice etc, and they can get into most bags .. so yeah .. i wouldnt just ignore them in the warmer months anyway ..

 

[Al Gerhart]

Could that be a juvenile darkling beetle, AKA meal worm?

Ditto on freezing the feed, grain, or any grain product like flour if you ar

 

[Al Gerhart]

Are you sure that isn't a juvenile darkling beetle, AKA a meal worm?

Ditto on freezing feed, grain, grain products like flour or gravy mix to kill the insect eggs if you are planning on keeping long term storage.

And I hope all flock owners got a wake up call this spring and have plenty of feed stored.

 

[cmom]

I'm sure the birds will love them. Good luck and have fun...