Feedback on Learning Center "Treats Chart" - Page 47

Great chart, thanks!

 

My flock loves scrambled eggs.  I'll usually use the yolk or the white leftover from a recipe that calls for one or the other.  They also love yogurt, but I need to be careful just to give them a little at a time or ...cleanup... becomes more difficult!

I may have missed this in earlier posts but how soon can you start giving them treats? Do you need to wait till they are a few months old or could you feed them some when they are like 4 weeks old? I think that this should be included as part of the chart as well because I would rather be safe then sorry. Thank you!

My chickens love Marigold plants! I put their run near a plant and they ate it! The branches are bare... Don't know why, but they go crazy for it!

two things based on academic research I've read (i don't have the citations handy). One is that flax seeds should be toasted or microwaved before feeding, especially to growing chicks, otherwise they have anti-growth properties. Flax seed should form a limited share of chickens diets, but in limited quantities, it increases the Omega 3 oils in eggs. At high levels if can give a fishy taste to eggs. Some feeds contain flax seed meal, so folks may want to check their feed before adding additional flax.

 

Also citrus can be safely feed to poultry in reasonable quantities. When citrus SEED meal reaches 5% of feed it retards growth and increases mortality at 20%. But occasional (i.e. treats) citrus and even citrus seeds are fine. Many people swear by grapefruit seed extract for a number of health benefits, including anti-parasitic properties. So I believe that in small quantities citrus seeds may have health benefits. (http://www.fao.org/docrep/004/X6512E/X6512E08.htm).

Gonna find a large variable in opinions on that; I say soft treats (smashed/grated boiled eggs and so on) can be fed when only days old. I have done it and seen it done many times in both a brooder and hen-raised setting.. Hen raised chicks are capable of eating more due to them commonly living on the ground, they have access to grit and other things chicks in brooders may not have. But I don't feed treats often.

By a couple of weeks/a month they should be able to eat just about any treat especially if supplied with grit whether people disagree with me or not. Raising games we have a lot of birds that raise on the yard with hens that I do not feed anything simply because they were unplanned matings/take very good care of themselves; probably healthier than most peoples brooded chicks.

Common sense dictates that when they're raised by a hen they will eat what the hen eats, whether it be small grain (crack corn, wheat, so on), crickets, grass, berries (which contains seeds), etc. The difference is hen-raised chicks have grit because their mother will teach them how to take care of themselves.. I've got a lot of chicks this year to prove this and have had a lot over the 9+ years I have been breeding fowl myself and about 18 years I've been around chickens not counting foreknowledge of my father/grandfather/great grandfather.

But I wouldn't feed chicks a lot of treats like bread and so on, its not going to kill them and I occasionally do it; but it is nowhere near as good for them as the food you have supplied for them which they need as they grow.

God bless,

Daniel.

One of the pictures you posted in this section is a chicken eating fresh food from a wire food holder? Did you make this or buy it? I would love a couple!!

I'll answer, as I have one of those.  It's a suet cage - normally for putting suet block in for wild birds in winter.  You can usually get them at bird shops or in gardening sections.  Should be very easy to find.

 

And, 

I made my own treat holder from the piece of wire we cut out to fit the pen to the coop door.  Folded about 2/3 of the way and wove sides together with pliers, folded over top pieces and it hangs right on the wire cage.  The chickens love treats in it and I like the treats aren't in the dirt. Now I need to make another one because they like it so much.

Does anyone know if fresh sweetgum leaves are OK for chickens to eat? Mine love them so much they stripped all the leaves off of the low branches in their run, and I started cutting branches and throwing them in the run for them to snack on. It's one of their favorite greens treats and I haven't seen any ill effects yet, but I was wondering if anyone might know more.

I checked multiple online lists of plant species safe or dangerous for pet birds, but I don't find any mention of sweetgum. I've been systematically removing them from our property because I hate the prickly "gum balls"', but if the girls love to eat them they might have some use after all.

I found a site that says it is not toxic to livestock. I couldn't find toxicity to chicken specifically. I used the scientific name for Sweetgum in the search.

 

http://www.crescentbloom.com/plants/specimen/LI/Liquidambar%20styraciflua.htm