Is Nyjer seed okay for chickens to eat regularly?

[jlbkinor]

Our finch feeder is above the chicken's area and the chickens are nearly always underneath it eating the Nyjer seed.. Is this okay for them to eat a lot of?

 

[ChickensAreSweet]

It is heat treated so I would wonder if the oil is rancid in the seed, but I used to feed it to my chickens some. They apparently heat treat it so it won't sprout, I have read.

The only thing you need to worry about is your chickens getting mites/lice from the wild birds (and diseases too, especially if they are drinking from the same waterer), IMO.

I would keep the wild birds as far from your flock as possible. I keep my feeder and birdbath aways away from my coops.

 

[HeritageGoose13]

The heat treatment is also meant to kill bugs in the seed. I second what ChickensAreSweet says, don't encourage wild birds to eat where your chickens do. Put the finch feeder somewhere else or block the area off from your chickens.

 

[jlbkinor]

Thanks for the reminder! We should have learned the mites/lice lesson years ago when an older hen just sat underneath the multiple bird feeder all day and ate the seeds the birds dropped. She was covered in the nasty things. Took a dunking to get them off her. Now we only have a finch feeder but I guess the risk is still there. Guess I'll move the finch feeder farther away too. And check the girls for mites/lice.