My brothers were emptying two bags of feed (one laying pellet, one scratch) into our chicken feed bin, which we keep in the coop. After they had emptied them, they came inside and told me that there was a "little" mold on the outside of the feed bags. We keep all our chicken feed in our basement, and the spot where the feed stays is kept dry. The feed store is quite awhile away so whenever we go we try to buy as much as we'll need for the whole month. Anyway, about half a week before the adult feed was put in, I was getting some chick feed and noticed that the very bottom of the bag had a lot of blueish-green mold on it. Normally I take the chick feed out of the bags right away and store it in airtight containers, but I hadn't gotten around to storing this bag fully. I had read that mold can kill chickens, so no way was I going to give that moldy feed to my little chicks. Plus, this was only the very bottom of the bag, so there wasn't much moldy feed wasted anyway.
The chick feed is normally kept inside the house, because I often have chicks inside, but this bag was put downstairs in the basement instead. Never has our chick feed molded before, so I thought possibly it was from the store since it was a fairly recent purchase. Well, that was until these other two bags of chicken feed molded (The ones I mentioned above). I went out to the coop to check the feed, scooped up a handful and took it outside so I could look at it in the sunlight. It was pretty moldy. Blueish-green, and it looked like there was some on the scratch too. I guess the air in the basement must have been too damp? Because the feed has never molded before.
I asked my parents what we should do and my mom said that we could probably kill the mold by laying the feed out in the sun. I know the best thing to do is throw the feed away, and get more, but money is tight and we don't really want to throw out two whole bags of feed if we can help it. So we layed the feed out on metal sheets in the sun, for about eight hours.(This was continual sun, no shade at all) Most of the mold was gone when we put it away, but I didn't want to take a chance so I decided to lay it out again for another day. This time there was absolutely no blueish-green mold, but I still worry if it's not safe for them. We've been feeding them some of it for the past couple days, and nobody seems to be acting any different. I tried reading all I could find yesterday about moldy feed on here, and everyone just said to throw it out. Do you think that by putting the feed out in the sun it is killing the mold and making the feed safe for my birds? Oh, I forgot to mention, we also free range most of our birds, and temp's have been in the 90s I think.
We will definitely be checking ALL our bags of feed before putting them into any bins in the future, and possibly buying less at one time. Thanks tons for your help guys
. I really love reading and learning about everything that you guys post.
The chick feed is normally kept inside the house, because I often have chicks inside, but this bag was put downstairs in the basement instead. Never has our chick feed molded before, so I thought possibly it was from the store since it was a fairly recent purchase. Well, that was until these other two bags of chicken feed molded (The ones I mentioned above). I went out to the coop to check the feed, scooped up a handful and took it outside so I could look at it in the sunlight. It was pretty moldy. Blueish-green, and it looked like there was some on the scratch too. I guess the air in the basement must have been too damp? Because the feed has never molded before.
I asked my parents what we should do and my mom said that we could probably kill the mold by laying the feed out in the sun. I know the best thing to do is throw the feed away, and get more, but money is tight and we don't really want to throw out two whole bags of feed if we can help it. So we layed the feed out on metal sheets in the sun, for about eight hours.(This was continual sun, no shade at all) Most of the mold was gone when we put it away, but I didn't want to take a chance so I decided to lay it out again for another day. This time there was absolutely no blueish-green mold, but I still worry if it's not safe for them. We've been feeding them some of it for the past couple days, and nobody seems to be acting any different. I tried reading all I could find yesterday about moldy feed on here, and everyone just said to throw it out. Do you think that by putting the feed out in the sun it is killing the mold and making the feed safe for my birds? Oh, I forgot to mention, we also free range most of our birds, and temp's have been in the 90s I think.
We will definitely be checking ALL our bags of feed before putting them into any bins in the future, and possibly buying less at one time. Thanks tons for your help guys
