Eat with chickens

[Perris]

I add dried peas to my fermented feed (whole grains) so they are not given dry as such, but they are included dried in some commercial feeds here too. They are good sources of protein. Some of the birds are not fans, others pick them out - you can tell which birds really like them because their poo is the same colour!

 

[Perris]

Your gourmet chicken feed reminds me of my sister's. Her husband jokes that their eggs cost about £2 each to produce! You have very lucky chickens
Edited to clarify that it's the eggs not the chickens re: cost there!

 

[RoyalChick]

Thanks @Phaedra Geiermann for another lovely thread. It looks like you chop all the scraps using the food processor. Is that right? Do others do that too? I confess I mainly just toss the scraps out for the chickens as they come - yours certainly look way more attractive!
These days it is only banana peels, orange and avocado that goes on the compost heap along with the pine cat litter. Yes, I know, everyone says not to compost cat litter. I don't use the compost for food and it is usually in the heap for years and years so I am personally not too bothered by it.

 

[Phaedra Geiermann]

Thanks @Phaedra Geiermann for another lovely thread. It looks like you chop all the scraps using the food processor. Is that right? Do others do that too? I confess I mainly just toss the scraps out for the chickens as they come - yours certainly look way more attractive!
These days it is only banana peels, orange and avocado that goes on the compost heap along with the pine cat litter. Yes, I know, everyone says not to compost cat litter. I don't use the compost for food and it is usually in the heap for years and years so I am personally not too bothered by it.

Yes, I use a food processor to crush whatever I had from the previous day and add them into the morning feed. For the garden waste, weeds or grass clipping, I also toss in their run.

I am transplanting some broad beans now, and they enjoy some fresh weeds removed from the raised beds.

 

[Phaedra Geiermann]

Your gourmet chicken feed reminds me of my sister's. Her husband jokes that they cost about £2 each to produce! You have very lucky chickens

Besides the kitchen scraps, I love to buy seasonal and local ingredients which are super cost effective for the entire family, human, dogs, cats, chickens, and now also quails. For example, carrots, cabbages, pumpkins, apples - those are very cost-effective, easy to store, and no problem to share with animal members.

 

[Perris]

Thanks @Phaedra Geiermann for another lovely thread. It looks like you chop all the scraps using the food processor. Is that right? Do others do that too? I confess I mainly just toss the scraps out for the chickens as they come - yours certainly look way more attractive!
These days it is only banana peels, orange and avocado that goes on the compost heap along with the pine cat litter. Yes, I know, everyone says not to compost cat litter. I don't use the compost for food and it is usually in the heap for years and years so I am personally not too bothered by it.

what's the issue with banana peels?

 

[RoyalChick]

what's the issue with banana peels?

Nothing much and if the banana gets past attractive-for people stage I give it to the chickens peel included. But I find that banana skins are only partially eaten by my spoiled Princesses and then either dry to big black strips or are very slow to compost down in the deep litter. They are slow in the compost heap too - but as that sits there for years it doesn't matter so much.
Do your hens eat banana peels?
By the way, this is the same logic as for orange skins - I don't think the hens would eat enough to be harmful but they don't rot down well in the deep litter in the run.

 

[Phaedra Geiermann]

Nothing much and if the banana gets past attractive-for people stage I give it to the chickens peel included. But I find that banana skins are only partially eaten by my spoiled Princesses and then either dry to big black strips or are very slow to compost down in the deep litter. They are slow in the compost heap too - but as that sits there for years it doesn't matter so much.
Do your hens eat banana peels?
By the way, this is the same logic as for orange skins - I don't think the hens would eat enough to be harmful but they don't rot down well in the deep litter in the run.

Yes, my hens eat banana and the peels completely. I don't understand how can they be ALWAYS SO hungry,

From time to time, I got 50% off bananas from the local discounter. It is more difficult to sell bananas that have some spots or damages on the skin; however, they are totally delicious inside. I usually brought all half-priced bananas home - sometimes a few kgs, and the chickens have kind of banana party!

About citrus peels, for me they are quite difficult to decompost, so I didn't send all of them to the compost. Some will directly go to the bio trash, which is collected every two weeks.

 

[RoyalChick]

Yes, my hens eat banana and the peels completely. I don't understand how can they be ALWAYS SO hungry,

From time to time, I got 50% off bananas from the local discounter. It is more difficult to sell bananas that have some spots or damages on the skin; however, they are totally delicious inside. I usually brought all half-priced bananas home - sometimes a few kgs, and the chickens have kind of banana party!

About citrus peels, for me they are quite difficult to decompost, so I didn't send all of them to the compost. Some will directly go to the bio trash, which is collected every two weeks.

I think based on this I will try chopping them and see if the hens like it that way. I tend to use over-ripe bananas for baking or smoothies because they actually taste more like bananas if they are over ripe!
Citrus peel makes very good fire starters - they are also good for reigniting a fire from hot ashes/embers - it is the oil in them. You need to dry them but that isn't much hardship because they smell lovely and tend to deter rodents. I hang them in bags around the kitchen and garage and then use them when we have a bonfire or to light the fireplaces in the house.

 

[629864]

Love it.
Can I come round for supper?
I did much the same but they still rumaged through the compost heap digging bugs out of the sheep and donky shite.

Each morning I use the "poop rake" to remove the big blops from under the roosts and add it to a pile outside the coop in the chicken yard. That pile (actually two of them) has loads of straw that came with the poop removal and the whole things gets turned daily by both me and the chickens. Once it gets to about two wheelbarrows full, I load it up and wheel it out to the main compost heap. The chickens also visit that compost heap on good weather days when they venture further afield. I sometimes add the sheep manure as well. Goat pellets are too small to collect as they fall through the tines of the poop rake.

Orange and lemon peels....these are given to the goats. They love them.

And every day I do literally what the title of this thread says. I cut up an apple and go outside to eat it. Chickens come running and 3/4 of my apple inevitably goes to them. "An apple a day, does NOT keep the chickens away."