Can chickens eat apples? Are they okay to feed?

[tarheel4lif3]

Had some apples and wanted to know if chickens would like them?!

 

[hooligan]

Mine like apples

 

[pips&peeps]

Mine cleaned up all the apples that were on the trees in the garden. They also jumped up in the raspberries and ate all of them and got all the pears that fell.

 

[Redfeathers]

It's one of my chickens favorites

 

[Buff Hooligans]

In quantity, apple SEEDS can be toxic over time.

 

[babychickfarmer]

My ladies go CRAZY when I give them apples which is prolly every three days, we own a farm store so they get all the ones that won't sell.

 

[Churkenduse]

Mine love them also, if you want to have some fun hang them from a string and watch the fun.


It's like chicks bobbing for apples.

 

[Lothiriel]

I give mine apples whenever we have some. They love 'em! I also read that you can hang them on a string. I tried it once, but they grabbed at it so much the apple fell off!

It was fun to watch though.

 

[SillyChick]

Yes, apples are safe to feed to your chickens and is somewhat a favorite. But take note of Buff Hooligan's note on toxicity in apple seeds(thanks for the info!).

Happy feeding!

 

[TheMartianChick]

To piggyback on Buff's comment about apple seed toxicity... They contain small quantities of cyanide. It is important for parents to know this. Small children can often become fixated on certain foods (like apples) and want to eat them everyday. The ocassionally apple seed isn't going to hurt anyone, but if someone regularly ingests them, it could cause problems. Since chickens are so much smaller than humans, I would guess that it would take fewer seeds to affect them. If I were feeding alot of apples to chickens, I would probably core them first.