Are Walnuts (chopped, in the bag) OK for chickens??

[Woofless]

I've got a BIG 5 lb restaurant-sized bag of Diamond chopped walnuts and want to know if the chickens can eat it. They're expired, but not rancid or anything....the best-by date is 2006. I'm cleaning my landlord's hunting lodge (has a commercial kitchen) to get it up & running after a 5 year hiatus. I'm currently tackling the kitchen & pantry and everything with an expiration date has to be thrown out or fed to the animals.

I've already found some great goodies for the ducks & chickens & my dogs (frozen veggies for the birds, meat for the dogs)....and I'm hoping these walnuts are OK for the chickens so they don't go to waste. They don't taste bad, they're definitely not rancid, just a little off.....I don't really want to use them for myself LOL.

So can I give them to the chickens and ducks?? There are 25 chickens and 5 ducks, all appx 15-16 weeks old if that makes a difference.

If they're OK to feed, how should I moderate the feeding? I'm assuming I probably shouldn't feed them all at once, so how much/how often should I give them??

Thanks for any advice

 

[gogoalie]

Well, if chickens eat chickens, & carion, I'm pretty sure walnuts should be ok for them...hell, I've seen them eat foam insulation! I swear they're goats with feathers!

 

[justbugged]

I go with the idea that if I can eat it then the girls can eat it.

 

[Woofless]

LOL that's been my thinking too, and so far I haven't been wrong. But I just wanted to make sure.

My birds free range on about 3 acres (currently sharing the pasture with a neighbor's flock of sheep, which is helping them to range further since the sheep are clearing things out and I'm sure are stirring up all sorts of bugs and frogs and such). And I toss them all sorts of leftovers on top of their chicken feed. So far I haven't found ANYTHING they won't eat.

However I'm new to chickens, and want to make sure walnuts aren't one of those oddball exceptions to the rule, one of the few things that'll kill a chicken. Like chocolate for dogs, or something. I didn't find a whole lot of info about walnuts by searching earlier posts- most of the threads that came up were about baking!!! Makes sense, walnuts aren't cheap and I don't imagine there are many chicken people sitting on a 5 lb bag of six-year-old walnuts they got for free

 

[urbanfarmer101]

Quote:
So funny and so true!