Did I kill my chicken with old black beans and onions?

[Break an Egg]

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yes, they were spoiled. They smelled.

Then that was it, don't feed spoiled things to animals.

 

[A.T. Hagan]

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yes, they were spoiled. They smelled.

Possibly this could have killed them, but if the others aren't acting sick I'd still suspect something else.

 

[LadyinRed]

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Avacado=BAD!

Avacado is poisonous in most bird species includeing chickens.

At the bottom of the treat chart there is a toxic list.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/web/viewblog.php?id=2593-Treats_Chart

 

[NYREDS]

As a general rule they can eat anything you can eat. That said why would you feed them something that you wouldn't eat like spoiled beans? While your bird may have died from eating the beans it probably was bacteria in the spoiled beans not the beans per se.
Also you said you lost one bird but it sounds like they were fed to more than one bird. If so & the others weren't affected it sort of rules out the beans doesn't it?
Sometimes chickens just die. Actually my assumption, in a case like yours where one bird died without displaying any symptoms, would be that thebird had a heart attack. It's a common cause of those sudden deaths.


BTW: there are several things on that "treat chart" that are listed as sharmful but are actually fine to feed. Just because something's posted on the internet doesn't make it true.

 

[JuicyFatHead]

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yes, they were spoiled. They smelled.

Then that was it, don't feed spoiled things to animals.

Yes, I learned my lesson!

 

[McGoo]

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I have seen people who fed their chickens amazingly disgusting things, and not that I promote that, but they didn't die and in fact they flourished and laid many eggs. Chickens have been around for thousands of years foraging all over the ground... some stuff is bad, but a 2 week old batch of beans and onions does not sound like a 'killer recipe'.... especially since only one bird died. Don't be so hard on yourself.

 

[Ariel301]

My chickens eat semi-spoiled leftovers fairly often and they are fine. They are eating beans, onions, potato peels, and avocado regularly. They're laying, fat and shiny, and I'm winning shows with them. They've even dragged rancid nasty beef fat out of the trash when we butchered our last cow, it had been out in the hot sun for several days and was really gross. The chickens thought it was pretty great though.

I'd be surprised if your chicken died from eating that stuff, unless maybe there was some really bad bacteria in the food in a large quantity, E. coli or botulism maybe--but that would have made all the birds that ate any get sick. A huge amount of onions fed over several days might kill a chicken (onions are "poisonous" because they cause damage to red blood cells--they are fine for animals and people to eat in reasonable quantities, it takes a WHOLE LOT to do any damage. I feed my animals raw onions all the time as part of their commercial food free diet.)

 

[JuicyFatHead]

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In regards to the first question: because I read ONLINE that chickens could eat 'seasoned food' and I read backyard poultry magazine that chickens could eat most spoiled food leftovers, things that you wouldn't eat yourself. I definitely figured it was the bacteria from spoilage and not the beans alone. Definitely learned my lesson reading online. It's nice to get opinions from more experienced owners here on BYC.

The chicken died almost 4 months ago, so my post was primarily out of curiosity. I did consider the fact that no other chickens died. This is why my husband doesn't think it was the compost, rather the -20F weather and or something random (he said heart attack also). We get talking about the bean/onion/avocado things every time we take out the compost it seems!

 

[linben]

I still throw my avocado skins and onion skins in the compost. They don't seem to try to eat them. I don't think it was the beans/onions either.

 

[JuicyFatHead]

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I would LOVE to hear more about your commercial free diet! We live in a bush town and have to have feed flown in.. so the ingredients for homemade feed obv would also... but I'd love any links or info you could give! We pay double in freight what we pay for each bag... I'm starting ducklings too... so homemade would be great in that way too.. I could offer them what they need specifically... thanks for your advice! Crazy about the beef! They sound like very healthy chickens!