The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Livestock => Poultry & Waterfowl => Topic started by: katog on June 10, 2012, 12:53:44 pm
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Why oh why would mother hen be teaching the 6 chicks (now 4 wks) to eat polystyrene????
They love it. I have been collecting the tubs from the local restaurant and using them for storage, table bases, worm farms etc - not pretty but useful and free.
But the chicks are eating it and I guess it won't digest and might just sit in the crop forever??? Maybe that's why one is so much smaller than the others maybe it's crop is so full of polystyrene it can't get enough food in.
Aaarrrrgggghhhhh!
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My hens love polystyrene as well. Can't understand it at all. They free range so have access to all sorts of interesting food and grit. The adult hens have managed to eat quite a lot of polystyrene before I took it away from them, and suffered no ill effects. Not quite sure about chicks though. :fc:
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mine did this too!! stoopid articles.
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They are not too bright - nice but dim.
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I put a chunk of polystyrene down the side of our brooder box to stop any chicks going down the gap, changed it pretty quick when I saw them all trying to eat it! That was a couple of weeks ago and they all seem to be fine and growing on well :fc: . I cant imagine it tastes very good :P .
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Hopefully it will not have impacted the crop or fatally the gizzard and they will pass it through as they grow. Our hens ate all the insulating foam off the sections of polytunnel left on the lawn waiting to be erected. I had to spend £10 replacing it all!
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Well beat this..When we had our conservatory built, the hens came up on the decking and ate all the mastic out of the frame. They pulled it out in 6 inch lengths and gobbled it up as if it was a worm. We just couldnt stop them, they loved it!