What are favorite scraps? And what not to feed...

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newchickenista

newchickenista

Songster
8 Years
Jan 25, 2012
101
2
124
Southeastern, Oklahoma
I've never fed my girls much in the way of kitchen scraps, but now that I am looking at feeding 40 full grown hens come spring, I am thinking I'd like to integrate scraps into their daily meals. So comment below and let me know what are your girls favorite "treats", and what are the big time "no no's" that should never be fed to a chicken?
 
Hi,

I can't remember exactly where, but there is a thread here on BYC that is a comprehensive list of what and what not to feed. Try searching for it.

CT
 
Mine absolutely go crazy for diced tomatoes and cucumbers. They cluck louder about those than any other scraps lol.

When we get watermelon we'll cut a few small chunks up to freeze individually as an emergency cool off when it gets crazy hot. Also we don't give them scraps till the afternoon so we know for sure they're eating their flock raiser as their major food source.
 
The "things chickens can't eat" list is luckily pretty short. Avoid those foods and you're good
https://www.backyardchickens.com/a/chicken-treat-chart-the-best-treats-for-backyard-chickens (fixed link)

Mine love bananas, any sort of meat, and stale crackers and cereal. They also love apples, lettuce, corn, peas, squash, and pretty much any other garden scraps!
You could try making non-toxic stinkbug and japanese beetle traps, too. My chickens will go up to our brick wall and pick off the stinkbugs one by one
sickbyc.gif
 
I give my birds all kinds of fruit. I'll cut two apples in half and my flock of 10 will finish them in 15 minutes. They also love my wine grapes. And butternut squash is also another good one. Tomatoes but not to many. Makes them poop a lot. I also hang a pecking ball with oyster shells. Good way to get that calcium for the shells.
 
Last edited:
I used to send all the kitchen scraps to the birds. I figure they're omnivores and can eat pretty much whatever I eat. I have found there are some thing they consistently don't eat, so I compost those in the worm bin usually...

peels. Banana, citrus, potato, onion. They'll decompose in the run eventually, but I'm trying them in the worm bin for now.

That's about all the birds don't get. I give them meat, chicken bones, dairy, egg shells, pretty much everything else we eat. Right now I'm pouring some incorrectly rendered pork fat over scratch grains for my cockerels in the grow-out pen. I figure I'll eat it eventually
wink.png
. We'll see if it helps put weight on those guys.
 

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