Bird Seed as treat for Chickens? - Page 2

Yes, I use a basic parakeet seed blend to which I add shelled sunflower seeds. I have tiny bantams, and the typical chicken scratch would be too large for them to eat.

My own "scratch" blend is slightly higher in protein and fat than typical scratch.

If you want to feed corn may I suggest cracked so as to make digestion easier and nutrients more available. Whole corn can pass right through the digestive tract and will appear as whole kernels in the droppings. Waste of money that way. Cracked grains are the easy answer.

And yes I do feed small grains whole - my market carries a large bag of 'wild bird mix' which I provide. It's mostly millet with some sunflower seeds and milo. They also get a layer mix which is granules - fish based - and the cracked corn.

They free range for about 2 hours a day and I give them lots of greens and other treats - bananas, cottage cheese, oatmeal, etc.

My chickens also hover around the base of the feeder for the falling seeds. I sprinkle a bit of the BOSS their way when I fill the wild bird feeders.

Bird seed is great for chickens, I feed my chickens a cup of sunflower seeds every day, it is great for their nutrition

In my fight to reduce the corn in their feed, I use woodpecker and songbird mix. When I'm wealthy, I add safflower seeds. Yes, they will "RUN YOU DOWN" when they hear the basement door where the "magic" bucket is hidden. They love bird seed! I use it in place of cracked corn. They've never looked better!

Hi, ive been feeding my chickens a handfull of mixed seed but found that once ive moved the run an they have not been on that ground for a month that some cabbagey sort of stuff is growing in between the grass, does any one know what it is and if it will hurt the chickens?


Here is the mixed seed I give them





And here is the stuff that's growing

Hard to say since you were putting mixed bird seed there. It looks similar to my chicken yards. I quit planting grass since they only seem to like the young shoots. I plant a mix depending on season made up of radish, turnip, beet, oats, field peas, alfalfa, buckwheat, etc..

Yours doesn't look like anything that will hurt them.