California - Northern

[KernH]

"They've learned to wait to hear their name before reaching for their banana piece!"

Sylvester you are quite the animal trainer! Having a chicken wait for a treat, that is amazing! Mine have no training or manners. Kern

 

[caychris]

"They've learned to wait to hear their name before reaching for their banana piece!"

Sylvester you are quite the animal trainer! Having a chicken wait for a treat, that is amazing! Mine have no training or manners. Kern

One of mine jumped in the feed bucket the other day you would think she was starving. Yeah they will rip treats right out of my hands and I dont bring the meal worm bag anywhere near them. Ive had them rip it out of my hands a number of times.

 

[Cluck-a-biddy]

Do you guys feed them live meal worms or dried ones?

 

[KernH]

Do you guys feed them live meal worms or dried ones?

I feed mine live ones that I raise. I have 14 bins in all various stages right now. I bought 500 about 6 months ago and probably have a million right now. Many are very small. I am sure I have a few thousand beetles also now. Kern

 

[Sylvester017]

The toxin is bad when the potato is green. The green color come from the glycoalkaloids. Potato skins are also quite nutritious.
TY!

In a college Psych class I took there was a case study about an experiment where animals were exposed to either a predator or food poisoning to see which was stronger for teaching food avoidance. The food poisoning won out over fear. If that holds true for chickens, then they would not be eating potato peals if they made them sick. Added: The green top of the potato plant is a real no no--that is a type of night shade and is a deadly poison. The same is true for tomatoes--Chickens can (and do!) eat the fruit but the leaves are toxic.
You would think chickens should be smart to avoid nightshade tomato leaves but my tomato bed has to be screened from hens reaching them. I had an Ameraucana that couldn't get enough of the leaves and there were plenty of other good greens in the yard for her to choose from.

The glycoalkaloid is also present in uncooked beans--Kidney beans have the highest amount. Soy beans have it too--Most chicken feed has soy beans and has the same effect as potato peals--too much can give them a tummy ache!
We use an organic non-pressed non-cooked nonGMO no soy/no corn layer feed but we do add some organic layer pellets for one Silkie that seems to love pellets!

I have lots of weeds to feed my girls, but sometimes they get thinned out too much. I've been giving them the mixed salad stuff you buy in the grocery store and they really love the radicchio that comes in some of the mixes. So I buy an extra head of it to add to their greens. The BSLs in particular go nuts when I bring the stuff out for them in the morning. They chase each other around trying to grab the radiccchio from whoever gets the first bites. The whole bowl is emptied within a few minutes. When watermelon season is over (any time now) I'll try some cucumbers. I tried them when the girls were a lot younger and they didn't seem to like them. But maybe now they will. It's fun finding new stuff they like to eat. I swear they eat better than we do!
Many fresh produce foods are an acquired taste. For 5 years my hens wouldn't touch banana until one day I picked a tiny piece for a Silkie to try it and she went nuts for it and all the other hens came crowding for banana just because it was a hand treat from their human! What makes a food suddenly desirable to a chicken just because I offered it by hand?

This is a good time to give them pumpkins! I have offered my girls pumpkin cooked, raw, mashed, cut up, whole and even started a little slit face to give them something to start pecking and they totally ignore it as if it wasn't there -- not fans of the pumpkin seeds either but give them a cantaloupe slice with cantaloupe seed guts and it's gone in 5 minutes!

Really? They like pumpkin? Hmmmm.. hafta try that. No shortage of those all over the place right now! This evening when I got home I went out and grabbed a handful of weed grasses, but everything is so wet from the rain we had yesterday and last night. So I also went ahead and peeled a half a cuke and chopped up the center part in bite sized chunks. The girls went crazy over it! Morticia, one of the BSLs, ran with a chunk of the cuke and four or five of the others chased her all over the place trying to get it from her. They're such goofballs.
TeeHee, I had a Morticia too but we called her "Tish" for short like the Addams Family!

"They've learned to wait to hear their name before reaching for their banana piece!"

Sylvester you are quite the animal trainer! Having a chicken wait for a treat, that is amazing! Mine have no training or manners. Kern
They don't train overnight but if I'm consistent in the training it eventually becomes habit with the chickens. Patience is key -- easy when I only have 4 hens!

One of mine jumped in the feed bucket the other day you would think she was starving. Yeah they will rip treats right out of my hands and I dont bring the meal worm bag anywhere near them. Ive had them rip it out of my hands a number of times.
That reminds of the youtube video "my diablo 3..." about the little boy with a bag of bread being chased by chickens:

 

[Honora]

My chickens love tomato leaves also. Our tomato plants are screened off too but every time a creeper gets through they eat it and get diarrhea. Not too bright, lol.

 

[jenniferlamar70]

Ugh I still can't post in the sell section so for now I'm selling a breeding pair of jubilee orpingtons. I'm going to keep trying to post in the sale section so if this gets deleted check there or message me thanks..

 

[ronott1]

Ugh I still can't post in the sell section so for now I'm selling a breeding pair of jubilee orpingtons. I'm going to keep trying to post in the sale section so if this gets deleted check there or message me thanks..

If you are selling quite a bit, check into getting a golden feather membership.

 

[jenniferlamar70]

If you are selling quite a bit, check into getting a golden feather membership.

What is the golden feathers membership?

 

[ronott1]

What is the golden feathers membership?

It is the first paid level of membership above the free membership you have now. There are a lot of benefits, like turning off ads. One of them is the ability to have 5 things for sale on the BST thread.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/a/byc-memberships-help-support-backyardchickens-gfm-ppm

You buy it from the BYC store. The store link is on the home page.