<<Some styrofoam is made with a type of corn starch. If you drop these in water they kind of melt and will eventually go away so it makes sense chickens would eat it>>
It's funny, I actually was going to see if I had some of those "decomposing" packing peanuts and see if they liked it better than the regular... But no, what they've been getting into is definitely not the biodegradable ones. They have pulled out foam insulation panels in the barn... Dug up packing peanuts from goodness knows where,,, Foam cups... The aforementioned freezer corner protectors...
I had put up some leftover hard-foam insulation with foil backing over some drafts in the coop, with temporary cardboard stapled over it, back when they were little and we had a cold snap--I think someone had cautioned about how they'd peck at it. They grew--and suddenly one day they could reach over the cardboard. They peeled off the foil, pecked off (and presumably ate) the foam right down to the outer foil. And once they knew it was there, they'd attack the cardboard and peel *that* off to get at the foam. They even learned to reach down behind the cardboard! (I now have some leftover linoleum tacked over the replacement foam.)
Went down to the tractor shed for something yesterday--on a rack over the hay conditioner are a dozen or so more of those foam panels, left over from some construction. The little monsters had managed to jump up onto the conditioner and the baler, and had them been able to jump and peck at the corners of the foam! (Can't fly enough to *really* get at it--yet.)
Rhonda
Sidesaddle Hall of Famer
Five-time US National Sidesaddle Champion
CHICKENS-101@yahoogroups.com
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