The Old Folks Home

[Beer can]

Here's the review I posted on their website, also had a pic

They e-mailed me this. Must be they didn't like me saying I was going to buy off their competition across the road :-D
There is a few bad reviews on their feed and mold reviews.
I get layer mash at M&W for $10 a bag.

 

[microchick]

@microchick I got almost halfway through a bag of TSC layer pellets and there was fist size chunks of hard green mold feed. Took it back. Next day sent dw to pick up a bag of starter and she said they had a half bag of layer pellet taped up and half price...

OMG!

I have another TSC horror story. Last year during chick days, DH and I went into the local store and I coudln't resist taking a peek at the peeps. It was a Sunday morning and naturally the sound of peep peep peep draws a chicken lover like a magnet.

What I saw broke my heart. One big stock tank they were using as a brooder had about 25 chicks in it. Pasty Butt abounded but worst of all, there were about 7 dead chicks in the tub and the rest of the little things were cuddling up to the dead chicks for comfort and probably warmth also even though they did have a brooder light on them. I was in a cross between raging mad and breaking into tears and my poor husband followed me up to the check out counter where three older employees were loitering around the check out area talking to the checker. He knew my red head genes were in full play and didn't know what to expect. I hadn't bought anything. Refused to after seeing the chicks and when I mentioned that they had some pretty sad little chicks back there and they needed attention.

The response was "Yeah, we know. I gotta get back and take care of them. I told them I thought that would be a real good idea. I think they could tell I was P***** because nobody would meet my gaze. It was a long time before I went back there. Luckily those employees appear to be long gone.

 

[Peep_Show]

I've found it necessary to read the "Use By" dates on TSC feed. Bought a bag and it was 5 months past date. Smelled awful. They used to get all my biz, but there are others closer and fresher even if a little bit more expensive.

 

[superchemicalgirl]

A couple years ago I bought a bag of Purina high protein feed (turkey maybe) for birds I had gotten at a swap and that had to be quarantined. It wasn't what I usually fed but it was at a store that was local and I was in need.

I got it home and it was supposed to be pellets but it was awful crumbly. Having never used the feed before, I noted it was weird, but went about using it. Around this time I also went out of town and left the quarantined birds in my basement with a ton of feed and water for a few days.

When I got back... the horror.

Oh, the horror.


Apparently the "crumbly" part of the feed should have tipped me off. The feed was infested with grain mites. At the time I wasn't aware of that, obviously, but I came home to the worst mite infestation on the planet. It was horrifying.

Let me see if I can locate pics.



The mites were so thick you could push your finger through it and make mite piles. The brooder (which was about 4 feet by 4 feet) was not only covered in these creepy crawlies but about a 3 inch radius around the bottom of the brooder on the concrete floor, too.

I immediately wanted to just nuke the house and all the contents, but BF was level headed. He started the wood stove and burned the brooder.

At this point we weren't sure if the birds we had were mite infested or what was going on. I treated them and moved them to a new brooder. I mailed samples of the mites to some agency here who informed me (weeks later) that they were grain mites.

It all made sense, then.

 

[microchick]

Superchemicalgirl that has got to be one of the biggest EEEEEWWWWWWWW story that I've heard in a long time. Right up there with the elderly couple admitted where I once worked that were covered with body lice from head to foot. I went home and took two showers and seriously considered burning my scrubs. I instead washed them in hot bleachy water. Didn't care if I faded them.

I did the 'imaginary itch' thing for days afterwards so I can imagine what you went through. Makes my skin crawl!

Beer can I think I would have contacted the company's home office at that point and told them either print your review or you were going to go public...oh wait a minute.....you just did!

Glad to hear that it's mostly harmless....we hope. The corn looks fine. A little dusty but no active mold on the corn so I guess I'll use it and then switch back to scratch. I usually feed cracked corn starting late fall and over winter. The birds love it and I think it helps them keep weight on over the cold months.

 

[WVduckchick]

Oh SCG, I wish I hadn't read that while eating a slice of cheesecake.

But wow, I can't imagine what coming home to that must have been like! Ugh.

I've gotten feed that I can tell is old. Crumbly. Chunky. I'm not buying from that place any more. My TSC seems to rotate their stock better. Always has seemed fresh.

 

[Wickedchicken6]

A couple years ago I bought a bag of Purina high protein feed (turkey maybe) for birds I had gotten at a swap and that had to be quarantined. It wasn't what I usually fed but it was at a store that was local and I was in need.

I got it home and it was supposed to be pellets but it was awful crumbly. Having never used the feed before, I noted it was weird, but went about using it. Around this time I also went out of town and left the quarantined birds in my basement with a ton of feed and water for a few days.

When I got back... the horror.

Oh, the horror.


Apparently the "crumbly" part of the feed should have tipped me off. The feed was infested with grain mites. At the time I wasn't aware of that, obviously, but I came home to the worst mite infestation on the planet. It was horrifying.

Let me see if I can locate pics.



The mites were so thick you could push your finger through it and make mite piles. The brooder (which was about 4 feet by 4 feet) was not only covered in these creepy crawlies but about a 3 inch radius around the bottom of the brooder on the concrete floor, too.

I immediately wanted to just nuke the house and all the contents, but BF was level headed. He started the wood stove and burned the brooder.

At this point we weren't sure if the birds we had were mite infested or what was going on. I treated them and moved them to a new brooder. I mailed samples of the mites to some agency here who informed me (weeks later) that they were grain mites.

It all made sense, then.

Superchemicalgirl that has got to be one of the biggest EEEEEWWWWWWWW story that I've heard in a long time. Right up there with the elderly couple admitted where I once worked that were covered with body lice from head to foot. I went home and took two showers and seriously considered burning my scrubs. I instead washed them in hot bleachy water. Didn't care if I faded them.

I did the 'imaginary itch' thing for days afterwards so I can imagine what you went through. Makes my skin crawl!

Beer can I think I would have contacted the company's home office at that point and told them either print your review or you were going to go public...oh wait a minute.....you just did!

Glad to hear that it's mostly harmless....we hope. The corn looks fine. A little dusty but no active mold on the corn so I guess I'll use it and then switch back to scratch. I usually feed cracked corn starting late fall and over winter. The birds love it and I think it helps them keep weight on over the cold months.

Ya both are just totally grossing me out. Let me sew up a cow...but don't give me bugs.

Ick, Ick, Ick!!!
It's funny the mites got through the whole process because we just can't take infested grain and sell it. They don't want none of that stuff. It's got to be dry, and free of bugs or we pay to get it dried and/or get docked severely because they have to deal with it. I don't even know if they'd take grain like that at all now. Not good.

 

[WVduckchick]

Anyone here ever had pantry moths? I got a case of them a month or so ago. All of a sudden, I'm seeing little tiny moths everywhere. Finally looked them up and found them to be pantry moths. Not the easiest things to get rid of, let me tell ya! Thought I had done a decent job, but I'm still seeing a few here and there. Guess I missed a few larvae. But we think we brought them in in a bag of cracked corn. (for the deer, not the chicks). Bought more than the tub would hold, had about a bucket extra so we brought it inside. Bad move, I believe.

 

[Wickedchicken6]

Fruit flies here. Little buggers!

 

[microchick]

Wickedchicken6, X2 about the grain drying. The area we retired from in IL was highly agricultural as in if the farmers weren't happy nobody was happy sort of area. Farm land around us priced out at 8 to 12000 an acre.This time of the year all heard was the drone of grain driers. I loved that sound!

I had to laugh the other day. The Amish farmer near us that gave me my EOGB eggs also sells some feed on the side and I usually buy my scratch grain from him. I stopped by to pick up 50 pounds and he went to load it in our cargo van and came back with the feed explaining to me that when he got it out in the sun he discovered that it was infested with bugs that he couldn't see unless you were out in the sunlight. Sure enough, he turned the bag over and you could see the grain weevils crawling around inside. We went through every bag he had and every one was infested. He said he hated throwing out all that grain and wondered if chickens would eat the weevils. I ventured eat as in extra protein along with the grain? We had a good laugh but he said he thought he would throw it out to them and watched what happened.

Gawd, I love the Amish. They can be so funny sometimes without meaning to be. I bet a dollar some poor animal on his farm ate that scratch feed complete with weevils as a side.

I got to go over tomorrow and buy sunflower seeds. 50 pounds for 18 dollars. Best price anywhere around. I'll have to ask him how his birds liked the scratch grains.