Eat with chickens

[Phaedra Geiermann]

I cooked most of the time two to three meals every day, so we always have very sufficient kitchen scraps. I loved to save kitchen scraps for adding into the chicken feed.

Our hens have their commercial feed, and on top of that, I add fermented grains and whatever originally belonged to the compost bins.

Now I am "addicted" to save scraps for them, and it's also a kind of reducing waste. For example, the apples we had this morning - the peels, head and end belong to the chicken; and the cores (apple seeds are slightly toxic) go to the compost.
*However, in this photo, the small bucket in the right side is a temporary residence of black solider fly larvae that just arrived yesterday.

Homegrown flower sprouts - besides the larger leaves, the hens also got some fair share of the sprouts.

I used smaller containers or glass jars to collect and store the ingredients.

So, their breakfasts are always colorful.

They are healthy and laying very well. Besides the kitchen scraps, they also have quite often meat/organs/eggs in their diet in the winter, when the annual molting and the bad weather come together.

Only our compost bins are starving - hens become their strongest competitors in the winter time. However, I love such food preparation process.

**potato peels went to the compost, unless when I have time to fry them for a speical treat.

 

[BlueBaby]

Nice, but I'm not going to show my chicken's those picture's there that you posted above, because I don't want them to want to move to your house.

 

[Red-Stars-in-RI]

Chickens are amazing for reducing food waste in your household. I compost IN my chicken run, so pile and flock don’t compete for organics.

The USDA estimates that each American generates about one pound of food waste per day.

 

[3KillerBs]

Mine love veggie trimmings and garden waste.

 

[Red-Stars-in-RI]

The funny thing is, the healthier you eat, the more food waste you tend to produce. I use the chicken bowl as a litmus test for my own diet.

If the bowl is full of fresh fruit and veggie trimmings, I know the last 24 hours has been pretty good. If it's a pizza crust and a stray takeout french fry, not so much.

 

[Battlepants]

I love giving my hens fruit and veggie scraps. One of my longterm goals here is to have fruit trees among the chickens and preserve loads of fruit every year. And, of course, flock will gladly help with the cleanup of fallen fruit and rejected cores.

Also, as for the apple seeds, my understanding is that they do have cyanide, but that is sealed behind the hull of the seed. Poses a mild risk to humans since we would likely grind them up when chewing (it's that strange bitter taste you get when you eat the core), but the chickens, lacking any teeth, would likely just pass the seed unharmed through their gut and out the other end.

 

[alcarl]

Do you feed the BSFL to your chickens? I used to raise them for the fish in my aquaponics garden but need to do some major work to get the harvester back up and running.

 

[Phaedra Geiermann]

The funny thing is, the healthier you eat, the more food waste you tend to produce. I use the chicken bowl as a litmus test for my own diet.

If the bowl is full of fresh fruit and veggie trimmings, I know the last 24 hours has been pretty good. If it's a pizza crust and a stray takeout french fry, not so much.

That's is absolutely true! Now only citrus and avocado wastes will directly go to the compost, most of the other trimmings will go to the chickens. Much less waste, we are happy, they are happy, win-win-win!

 

[Phaedra Geiermann]

I love giving my hens fruit and veggie scraps. One of my longterm goals here is to have fruit trees among the chickens and preserve loads of fruit every year. And, of course, flock will gladly help with the cleanup of fallen fruit and rejected cores.

Also, as for the apple seeds, my understanding is that they do have cyanide, but that is sealed behind the hull of the seed. Poses a mild risk to humans since we would likely grind them up when chewing (it's that strange bitter taste you get when you eat the core), but the chickens, lacking any teeth, would likely just pass the seed unharmed through their gut and out the other end.

Same here! This year I plan to remove one flock to the orchard area and plant some more fruit trees in the garden, too. We, as individuals, might have limited influences for any region, but for me, it's a pleasure to see a garden has its eco-system. And my next move is to have beehives.

And thanks for sharing about the apple seeds. Because I often put everything in the food processor, there is more or less the risk, so I decided to save that for our poor compost bins.

 

[Red-Stars-in-RI]

That's is absolutely true! Now only citrus and avocado wastes will directly go to the compost, most of the other trimmings will go to the chickens. Much less waste, we are happy, they are happy, win-win-win!

And sounds like you already compost…for those who don’t diverting food waste that otherwise would have ended up in the landfill has other benefits…reduces odor/pests, reduces methane created, and saves landfill space.

Win-win-win-win-win?