Chicken Treat Chart: The Best Treats for Backyard Chickens

A very helpful and informative article and a good source of reference.

Misconception that chickens are "garbage cans"... quite the opposite!

They're sensitive to salt, acidic food and too much fat especially. I kind learned the hard way myself and wish I had access to this article at the time!

Our hens get almost everything on the list except meat and cooked eggs. We do mixed baked egg shell however. I love seeing their dirty faces when they've face planted their treat. Seeing a silky with a dirty face is funny, but you have to wash their face clean... Then the yolks on you. (sorry, couldn't resist) We also give plain live maggots(no coloured ones as the coating is bad for the hens). Started doing this once or twice a month since one hen became empacted with grass cuttings. We don't offer grass anymore. They love chasing them. We buy 1/4pint for £1.45p from a fishing tackle shop. There's plenty for 10 hens to have a nibble. Our hens are a lovely healthy weight and look well. Shiny feathers, bright wattles and combs and plenty of lovely egg laying.

As a new chicken owner, I had no idea "scratch" was supposed to be a treat!

Good info and of particular help to new poultry keepers.

Wonderful list! I can tell this will be a frequently visited page for me.

Edit: Now I am printing this out and hanging it on the fridge so everyone in the household knows what is ok to feed the chickens.

Great guide

Thank you so much for this post. Only have to go to one place for all sorts of good foods.

This is the perfect article on what tweets are best for our birds!

This article is EXTREMELY useful. I use it ALL THE TIME.

Please never take this down. Even before I was a member, I had it bookmarked, tacked to the top of my browser so I could get to it in one click. I still refer to it constantly: I just checked it this morning to see if the girls would like a couple mooshy bananas. <3 Loving it! <3

Very informative! I hope my chicks will not get sick, because I fed them a whole bunch of my lentil sprout mix yesterday I am not sure if sprouted raw legumes are toxic to chickens?

Testing the review.