Feeding food scraps - good or bad?

Loved reading this, thanks!

I do have one question... Newby here :( When can I start feeding scraps to mine? I have 15 broilers that are 3 weeks old, 5 Black Sex lInks, also 3 weeks old and 10 Egg layers that are a mix just over a week old. I know the egg layers are too young, but the Cornish X broilers?

Dianna
 
You can start feeding the three week olds scraps as long as they are cut small and as long as there is grit available...that's the biggest thing. Birds have crop type digestive systems so their food goes into a pouch in the throat called the crop. All birds need to eat small rock and sand bits that go into the crop to aid food grinding. Think of it like the equivalent of our teeth. Otherwise birds can get impacted (stopped up) crop.
 
Apple seeds contain cyanide, but not in quantity to kill. I give mine apple cores all the time. Now if one chicken was to get 15-20 seeds, it might harm them. but a couple won't hurt them. For awhile I would take the seeds out, but I haven't done that in awhile.


I grew up on a fruit farm, where we had about 1100 trees, 950 or so were apple trees. We had 100 + chickens and they ate all the apples that hit the ground, not to mention the pulp and seeds left over from cider making.. So I would not worry about those apple seeds.
 

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