Maggot attack

[Half a dozen]

So i opened my wheelie bin or trash/garbage can and there was hundreds of maggots in there swarming over the old food that fell out of the bag.

i HATEEEEE those things they make my whole body itch and my skin crawl just looking at them. Anyway my baby chicks saw some fall out and came to look and went NUTS!!!!!!! They were fighting over them chasing each other trying to rip them out of each others beaks! I was freaking out and my daughter was laughing(she's 14 and works on her school farm with pigs, goats, rabbits and a host of different chickens so she knows more about chicken care than me) she said they can eat maggots and it was fine. Thing is I'd bought a rather large amount of live meal worms (i bought to many through the mail by mistake) They loved those until they had maggots and now they only take one or two meal worms unless my daughter scrapes some maggots into the dish and then its a free for all again searching through the worms for them screeching and hustling around the bowl. This is ok to do isn't it? They won't cause them any harm right? I do worry about my girlies.

 

[Cowgirl71]

As long as the food isn't moldy, I think the maggots will be just fine. Lots of protein for them!

We actually get a barrel of scraps each week from the local butcher, to supplement the diet of our four Pyrenees LGDs. At the right temperatures, the remnants of the pile is swarming with thousands of maggots within a few days. The hens often beeline it for that scrap pile when I let them out each morning. Gross, but it's a long ways back to the coop, so I figure their feet are pretty clean by the time they get back. And it's free protein for them. I was concerned that some of them would get sick (that pile does NOT smell good after several days at 90-100F), but they seem to do just fine.

 

[Half a dozen]

No it's probably not mouldy, the bin is emptied every second tuesday so it should be fine and it's only bagged table scraps that go in there. there's probably a broken bag that spilled some contents in there. Just a shame I'm so scared of those things to apprehend any myself for them to eat, they're just to gross and well you know, I'll get my daughter to do it lol