Food Scraps?

[xianshouston]

We are going to get chickens for my son's 4-H project. they say not to feed the chicken table scraps but I always thought you could. What do you all do?

 

[ducks4you]

I feed all leftovers from my table--that the dogs don't get--EXCEPT leftover chicken or eggs. There was a recent Mother Earth article that said feeding your chickens sunflower seeds can cause chickens to get cancer, but you have to buy bags of that.
My chickens get bread, lettuce, sweet pepper tops & seeds, lunchmeat, beef or hamburger including t-bones that have meat left on them, pork steak bones with meat, fruit from canning (that has started to go bad), black bananas and other bad fruit or bad parts in fruit, apples, peaches, pears and cherries from my fruit trees during harvest season, AND grass--they eat blades of grass like spaghetti noodles, AND weeds and anything non-toxic that grows on my property from Spring to Fall.
Nobody has died of cancer, yet, BUT many have travelled to "Freezer Camp." =b

 

[niamhblond]

Give them table scraps they love it just no lemons , oranges , chocolate , potato peels or any peels that we don't eat .

 

[Ridgerunner]

Who says not to? Have you asked them why? There can be a lot of misinformation going around or they might have some valid specific reason in mind.

There are a few things mine don't get, citrus peels for example.

Mine do get regular potato peels, which are very safe, but mine don't get green potato peelings, which are not. That's what I mean by misinformation going around. Green potato peels contain a chemical that in certain dosages can cause harm. Regular potato peels don't, yet you see all kinds of warnings against potato peelings in general. Regular potato peels do not contain solanine. Green potato peels do.

 

[donrae]

Keep in mind that most of what you get is opinion not fact.
re: I use horizontal watering nipples. My friend says he will not because they are not natural. True chickens do not have nipples. The fact is they are cleaner and healthier than other type watering systems.

That's funny--does he use a feeder? Talk about un-natural, all their feed elevated in one dish. Natural is totally free range, no coop, no management at all. Water from a puddle/creek etc. Course, natural is also very low on the food chain with a high death rate.

 

[TaraBellaBirds]

My flock is super lucky, I work at a grocery store and they get first pick of any old veggies, fruit, yogurt, bread, cereal and anything else that needs to be written off!!!! You should have seen them with the yogurt.....I thought they would never be clean again!!! It sure cuts down on the feed bill and they get a diverse and balanced diet.

 

[OScarlet]

I feed all leftovers from my table--that the dogs don't get--EXCEPT leftover chicken or eggs. There was a recent Mother Earth article that said feeding your chickens sunflower seeds can cause chickens to get cancer, but you have to buy bags of that.

I'm surprised there hasn't been a delegation of chickens with placards storming the Mother Earth office.

 

[AnnieOK]

Hi and welcome! I've learned a lot from the folks on here.

My chicks have a feeder with 18% protein layer pellets that has some in it all the time. They can eat from it anytime. I give them everything in the way of scraps. I seem to remember that when my grandma had chickens when I was a child they only got scraps. No buying special food for them. I might be wrong, but those were hard times. I remember carrying out the scraps every day. I have learned that it's useless to give them some things, citrus peels like orange, grapefruit peels, banana peels, avocado skins, etc, but I learned that by seeing in the chicken yard what they don't eat. So those things I just trash. But mine get lots of pasta, old bread, oatmeal, all kinds of veggie peelings and scraps, meat scraps, all our egg shells. They seem to be healthy and happy. Good luck and have fun!

 

[PatinOxford]

I inherited five hens from the previous owner when I bought the small farm I live on now. It's only been three months, but I've already learned that chickens will eat almost anything. My horse vet told me she gives hers all sorts of kitchen scraps, so I started trying them out on fruits and vegetables and they are delighted. I don't think they've had anything but commercial feed before, but they seem to enjoy just about anything I give them.

 

[NYREDS]

Hi - Greetings from Scotland.

Well, their staple diet here is HAGGIS - no, seriously I am joking.

We have kept hens for many years and each day they get Layers Pellets, mixed grain (some say this makes them fat - has not done so to our hens). We also give them loads of food scraps,
avoid white bread - no good and a high salt content. Our hens get pretty much everything. They adore blueberries, cheese (only a small amount), they go crazy for spaghetti Bolognese leftovers,
raw minced beef etc. They are not particularly keen on cucumber/tomatoes but love apples and bananas.
No Avocados, no apple seeds.~~No white potatoes - cooked or raw, skins or flesh. These are toxic to hens. And no onions.

Hope this helps a little. Good luck with your new hens.

p.s - what breed of hens are you getting?

Don't waste the Haggis on chickens. Bobby Burns didn't write a poem about laying mash.

Avocados: I've seen several posts here from people reporting that they've heard/read that Avocados are harmful to chickens. I've also seen several posts from people who said they have, often repeatedly, fed Avocado to their chickens with no ill affect. What I have never seen is a post from someone who said the fed Avocado to their chickens resulting in a bad outcome. Make of that what you will but be advised there's a lot of misinformation on this board.

In a recent post in this thread someone said 1-they don't feed their chickens meat, & 2-they try to feed them as naturally as possible. Which is it? Chickens are omnivors. Meat is a natural part of their diet. I've seen mine eat mice, snakes & baby wild birds. Much of the misinformation here comes from "experts" who have 4 chickens in their backyard & they've had them for 6 months total.

Be aware that what's poison for people may not be poison for chickens. Tomato plants & Rhubarb leaves come to mind. Toxic to humans but I;ve seen chickens eat both. Also what's toxic to dogs may not be harmful to chickens. Grapes are an obvious example. Toxic to some dogs but my chichens clear any grapes they can reach off my grape vines.

Basically, they can eat what you can eat. We clean out the fridge once a week &b all the leftovers go to one pen or another. They get very excited when they see the big silver bowl.

People say chipos or crackers are too salty for chickens, For their complete diet they are but who plans to feed their chickens on crackers? If you have a part of a box of crackers that goes stale go ahead & feed them. It won't hurt a thing. Same is true of sweets. Got a couple pieces of left over birthday cake? Trrow it in their. Switch your chickens to an all cake diet? Don't be silly.

Use some common sense-which actually isn't all that common.


ETA_ I love Haggis! I never have any left over.

ETA2-I see references to "fodder" showing up here recently. The associated descriptions seem to indicate the people are talking about sprouted grains. That's not what fodder is. A dictionary is a useful tool.