OK to drink from muddy puddles?

[ChickenCharmer]

I have a sort of pit where I dump the chickens' veggie scraps, where water collects after a rain. What bothers me is that the chickens like to drink the muddy rotting vegetable water, and I don't think it's healthy for them. They also drink from puddles formed in the manure heap

and in the mud, but they do have a clean source of drinking water. The chickens seem to have no troubles with the gross water, but is it okay for them to drink the stuff?

 

[Emzyyy]

Should be as long as you don't use fertilizer or insectacides.

 

[Tala]

All I can do is PROVIDE fresh water - they can drink out of puddles if they want
All I can do is PROVIDE shelter - they can play in the rain if the want
All I can do is PROVIDE pellets - they can eat bugs if they want


I mean, really, how are you gonna stop them?
I provide you with exibit A: My chickens eating BOSS out of the yard after 8+ inches of rain fell. Try to find somewhere that WASN'T a puddle!!!

 

[PaulaJoAnne]

If its not healthy for a chicken, they will know it.
It is true that on occasion a chicken will inadvertantly consume something that will sicken it, or even kill it, but its rare.
Honestly, the more sterile you keep them, the more prone they are to get ill.
Same is true for humans, hence the reason I purposely consume lots of good bacteria.

 

[RocketDad]

I wouldn't drink from a muddy puddle, but what do I know? I don't have rocks in my belly, either!

 

[cw]

Quote:
i agree 100%
if you dont let them they wont have an immune system

 

[Frenchy chick]

I agree, they would do that in their natural habitat...running wild and free. LOL

 

[gritsar]

Quote:
So true. I let my chickens be chickens.

 

[95yj]

my water bowl over flows into a nice mud/chicken crap pit, rather than drink the clean, fresh, warm water they drink the chicken crap mud slushy. but why not, its their choice, maybe they know something we don't.

 

[dichotomymom]

They may be domesticated but their inner workings are still the same as they would have been pre-domestication, so how they behave and what they consume is what works for them