Are apples safe to feed to Chickens?

[jenyoung312]

Mainly my white leghorns are skiddish. The black ones are super friendly, and my brown ones are next in line with friendliness. The black ones have figured out that I feed them, so they come running when they see I'm about to open the coop door.

 

[Teila]

I gave up a long time ago trying to determine if they are going to freak out at something that had changed.

I added a new perch to the run last weekend and thought that they would continue to use the old ones until they realised the new one was not a trap ... nope, 5mins they were using it!

Same with the new nest box .. not a drama.

Put a piece of corn on the cob in the run and you would have thought it was going to eat them, not the other way around!

But, plonk a great big blue adult sized plunge pool in the garden and they act like it has been there forever.

Walk out with a different coloured T-shirt on that they have not seen before .. intruder alert!!!

Fire up the lawnmower and they run for cover .. throw then a handful of grass clippings in between mowing "lawnmower? what lawnmower?!"

 

[jenyoung312]

Chickens are pretty darn entertaining, aren't they?
I can't wait to see how they react when the run is attached to the coop. Right now we have a temporary run and have to put them in and out by hand. Hoping for results this weekend. They sure love their clippings though! One of my favorite treats to give them!

 

[Teila]

Hey jenyoung312

Yep, chicken TV sure beats some of the stuff I see advertised on regular TV. When are we going to have a reality show about chickens?

Just a quick note on the clippings which you may already know but having been down that learning curve myself, sharing just in case. Ensure that any clippings you give them are from a trim of a low lawn and not too long. Long grass clippings can cause sour/impacted crop.

 

[pinkaliboo]

I have an enclosed run for my girls (8' x 14'). I have 2 ropes hanging from the ceiling, with loops tied on the ends of the ropes, in my chicken's run, 1 on each side. I use a stake like thing with a hook on it and I hang cabbage, apples, even corn on the cob from them almost everyday. They go nuts eating the food and it keeps them busy. Hilarious to watch when they get the ropes swinging and they are trying to get the food.

 

[jenyoung312]

Hey jenyoung312

Yep, chicken TV sure beats some of the stuff I see advertised on regular TV.  When are we going to have a reality show about chickens?   

Just a quick note on the clippings which you may already know but having been down that learning curve myself, sharing just in case.  Ensure that any clippings you give them are from a trim of a low lawn and not too long.  Long grass clippings can cause sour/impacted crop.

I heard there is one coming out. Can't think of the name of it.

 

[chickengeorgeto]

Hi! I'm a newbie here. I was eating an apple this evening and thought of chopping up the core and whatever pieces I didn't use to give to my girls. I want to be sure I make the best of any and all scraps we have in our home, to keep the cost of feed down for our chickens. They are 6 weeks old now.Any advice is greatly appreciated!

Warning!!! If you feed any part of an apple to your chickens you better be swift. That is if you don't want your chickens to peck you faster than they bite the apples.

On second though, save the ware and tear on the knife and the added danger of slicing your fingers, just feed whole apples or run of the mill apple scraps.

 

[missy1462]

Teila, truly ours must be kin to each other. After reading a post on here now long after we got our girls several months ago, I (with great enthusiasm) took a head of cabbage, tied a string through it and hung it in the coop. There was snow on the ground and it was brrr cold outside. Whew! Talk about freaking out. I had birds screaming and fighting to get outside. I honestly don't understand why they go crazy and do some of the stuff they do, I'm the only one who feeds their rotten butts, they gather up like they're in a mosh pit (or whatever it's called) anytime they see me outside, and don't dare bend over in their run on you'll have a flock on birds sitting on your back, pecking on your head and ears ... but I walked in yesterday with a little small rake, and they killed themselves to get as far as as they could. I've tried talking to them and explaining things, but apparently they don't speak human.... go figure!
And while we're on the subject of crazy birds ... honestly, the neighbor bought Game chickens several several years ago ( paid a hundred bucks for the Roo), but they didn't like living at his place, so they migrated to ours (aren't we just special). Never touched a single one of em, as they aren't of the friendly persuasion. They roost in the trees beside the dog lot. I feed em, and they poop in my yard. That's the extent of our involvement with them. If they start during the night, we go running with guns to protect them from whatever is after em, but have never once received a thank you from them - miserable lot that they have always been!
Games fight and it isn't pretty. Hen's will fight to the death in the spring if they find a nesting spot and another hen makes the mistake of walking to close by. Roo's are even worse. These birds (now their offspring several years running) have been here for probably a good 12-15 years now. This spring I bet there are 40 or more chicks running around here with their mama's daring each other (or us) to get close to their babies.
We've a new problem, and it's just absolutely freaked me out. One batch of chicks are probably 6 - 7 weeks old (guestimate), and they are already fighting. I don't mean play fighting like the babies usually do, I mean serious fighting. I spent the whole day Monday breaking up serious fights while mama ran back and forth between them (they were all roo's who were doing the fighting). She was so frustrated, she literally walked away from them all and never looked back. Those babies figured out how to put themselves in a tree that night and ever since then. Mama went on a permanent vacation off with the grown roo and the hens who didn't hatch babies. My hubs even ended up having to put two of them down Tuesday. He came home to find them both laying on their sides, barely alive and one was still latched on to the others neck. I have never witnessed Games acting like this in all the years they've been here. It's always been that once they start learning to crow, we have to thin them out or the fighting will get serious and deadly, but not as babies. I'm at a loss to know what to do now, and so thankful my "girls" in the lot are friendly, and not hateful like these Games are...

 

[jenyoung312]

Wow! That's truly scary! So does this mean no more random chickens to care for anymore? Just your own?

 

[GreenLove]

I use a kitchen grater when I feed my chickens an apple (it takes less than a minute) Then, what i can't grate, I throw to the horse. Everyone wins!