We have these big barrel thats used for feed. One time I was getting more feed for them and I saw these little blackish bugs strating to come out of the feed when I scooped up some. I was scared because I thought they were ants at first, so I took the scooper and started hitting the feed like crazy. My mom came outside and asked what I was doing (she gave me a weird look) and I showed her the feed. She looked and said just to leave them alone, the chickens will eat them anyways... I wanted a closer look at them though, so I scooped some of the feed into a bowl. I sat there waiting for them to come out. Then I saw a lot coming out and climbing up the bowl! I picked up teh bowl to really look at them, they are a brownish color to a drak brown. there were so many coming out from the bowl! I though "oh no!" and I looked in the feeder. There weren't any there. They look like... Uhm I dont know my insects very good but they kinda look like lice with a longer body and a bit bigger. The chickens payed no attention to them, but one of the hens did look at them. She looked and continued eating out of the bowl. I have seen these little bugs near my dogs water bowl aswell, in water sometimes. I've seen them in bathrooms... What on earth are these things??? Are they dangerous to my chickens? Or me? .... Um I also saw one on my shirt and I flipped out, it was right after I was handling one of the hens...
Probably grain weevils. They decimate the nutrition in the food and grind it to powder. It loses much of it's vitamin content when infested like that. If you have food grade DE (food grade ONLY, not pool filter grade), you can put a cup or so in the feed and it will kill the bugs, but it's best not to feed buggy feed to your birds.
