Feed the horses, feed the birds!

Believe it or not, they go hand-in-hand.  Or should I say hoof and beak? 

Anyway, I noticed during the hardest part of the winter, when there was snow on the ground, that the mounds of horse poop looked different.  Let me show an example.

This is a fairly good poop.  Also know as road apples.  Of course some of the apples broke up when hitting the ground.  Now remember, this is much more visible in the snow.  But I forgot to take pictures then.  I  saw the "phenomenon" continuing when the weather was bad, and the birds couldn't find food easily.

You probably know that everything you eat does not necessarily get digested.  Some substances go through your system, intact, and then get excreted at a later time.  It's the same with large animals.  Not all the grain that the horses eat gets digested and therefore there is "food" in that there poop!  And the birds make full use of it.  Here is visible proof.

The birds dig through the apples and really almost shred the pile of poop.  This is an ideal situation as it spreads the manure around, and aids in exposing, and hopefully killing any worm eggs that may be lurking.  Of course as summer goes on, and the birds don't need to forage quite so creatively, the poop stays in clumps, or in "apple" form.

I learned in school, that it was common place for some farmers to put their cows in corn fields, after the harvest, to eat the ears of corn that were missed.  They would then put their hogs in the field after the cows, to clean up the corn kernels that passed through the cows, undigested.

Lots of things have changed, but when Mother Nature is left up to her own devices, she's quite a logical thinker!  And we would do well to help her!  So even though I feed the birds year round, if I'm out of food, or they don't like what I'm offering, they have an alternative feast waiting for them!