Food Scraps?

[DuckRaiser]

I like to give my chickens anything, even rotten food and they DEVOUR it!

 

[K9Dave]

Run floor -

wood chips, used pine shavings, dried leaves, yard waste, and basically anything biodegradable - free - 8 - 24 inches deep - composted black gardeners gold gets kicked out of 1/2 hardware fencing and disappears. Level seems to remain constant. Chickens love to dig craters and distribute it for me. I just routinely dump a garbage can full of "browns" into the run. Haven't cleaned it, ever. No mud, bugs, or smell.

As it decomposes the resulting humus / compost gets kicked out of the 1/2 hardware fencing surrounding the lower 2 feet of the run.   I can always collect this black gold surrounding the run... or not. If not, it just washes away with a good rain. It's very light and just floats away...   A gardener's dream, but alas, I have severe deer issues, rendering gardening an exercise in frustration.

As for compost -

Chickens will do all the turning required.
Leaves which would normally take a year and a half to compost without assistance, take less than 3 months with chicken labor.
Use this as a time guide.

Thanks for that.

 

[eckowes]

Is there any rule as to what age they should be before giving them scraps? Mine are still only 5 weeks old and I'm dying to start giving them yummies lol

 

[K9Dave]

Is there any rule as to what age they should be before giving them scraps? Mine are still only 5 weeks old and I'm dying to start giving them yummies lol

Most of our scraps are better than processed chicken food IMO. Go ahead, they'll love it.

 

[eckowes]

Yay! Thanks!

 

[ChickenRisa]

Has anyone had problems with chickens getting sick from rotten or moldy food? That's a lot of what I put in my compost bin right now. I would love to move my bin in the chicken run, but wonder if I should worry about that?

 

[K9Dave]

I ha

Has anyone had problems with chickens getting sick from rotten or moldy food? That's a lot of what I put in my compost bin right now. I would love to move my bin in the chicken run, but wonder if I should worry about that?

My compost is in the run. I haven't had any problems. It seems to me that the chickens just avoid the bad stuff. I put some rotten stuff in there and then a few days later, it's still there. They pick threw what they want. Look up "extremes composting" in the search threads bar.

 

[Kazfam]

eckowes - ours aren't yet 4 weeks old and they are eating food scraps. They figured out how to get into the big run with the full grown chickens and help themselves. They are definitely chips off the old blocks.

They are still getting their daily chick feed of course.

 

[triplepurpose]

I ha
My compost is in the run. I haven't had any problems. It seems to me that the chickens just avoid the bad stuff. I put some rotten stuff in there and then a few days later, it's still there. They pick threw what they want. Look up "extremes composting" in the search threads bar.

x2 basically. You can rake out what they don't eat if you're trying to keep things really clean, but if you have a compost pile in your run, or if your coop is deep litter, you can just let it become incorporated into the mix. I empty out my "compost yard" run twice a year or so and pile up all the materials nearby (the run is full of wood chips from orchard prunings, etc., field wastes, weeds, lots of poop, and whatever kitchen scraps haven't been eaten, like bones, rinds, etc.), along with maybe some straw litter from inside and some homemade microbial innoculant. It gets pretty hot and becomes decent finished compost with minimal labor, as the components are already pretty well shredded and partially broken down.

A lot of people worry about the wrong things. What we SHOULD be worrying about is how we can be more sustainable.

 

[birdlady79]

I understand the concept of containment now!! My chickens destroyed my compost pile... It's no longer a pile, it's spread out everywhere..... I guess I'm going to have to brick it in or something