Chicken Treats!

[zekeman615]

I was looking at recipes for chicken treats and decided to make my own, very simple one! There are lots of commercial treats out there but wanted to make sure I was feeding my chickens everything that is good, and nothing that is bad. I have my simple 'recipe' below, but please leave a comment about your favorite treat recipe/brand and if your chickens love them! All the ingredients had an equal measurement!

I started out with wild bird seed, which my bantams love...





And mixed that with old-fashioned oatmeal...



And mixed that with cracked corn!



Altogether, it looked pretty good, even to me!



My chickens loved it, and they keep waiting for me to give them more every night!

Again, please comment your favorite recipe/brand and tell me how much your chicken love it!

 

[mickey328]

LOL, I never even thought of "making" anything for them...dunno why. I like to give them lots of fresh stuff...they love young dandelions, comfrey, grapes, oats, lettuce, tomatoes... I also give them protein rich foods like cottage cheese (any kind of cheese, actually), cooked pinto beans.

For your treat, did you make "cookies" out of it, or just scratch type distribution?

 

[Den in Penn]

I mix my own scratch. Since I grow wheat and rye as a cover crops in the garden in the winter, I use wheat and rye in mine. One part wheat, one part whole oats, one part corn, half part rye. In the winter I used two parts corn. Used cracked corn for a while just didn't like the extra corn dust that was wasted throwing it on the ground. If you have enough chickens think about buying whole oats in 50lbs bags, cheaper.

 

[OnceAroundTheBlock]

I am so sick and tired of having to go back into the run a day or so later to pick up all their previous days treats!

Right now there is half a pan of cornbread w/fresh corn in it from yesterday's treat laying in the run in chunks here and there that I have to pick up.

About the only thing they will clean up to the last morsel is Honey Nut Cheerios, which I am getting tired of paying a premium price for each time I have to buy some.

Some folks here refuse to give them treats and expect them to eat their feed only and be happy. I'm almost ready to start doing that.

 

[zekeman615]

Thanks guys! I am definitely going to experiment with all of these ideas! I think it is a great idea to grow wheat, so I am going to try that!

mickey328, I kept mine as a scratch, but I think cookies would be a great idea, and you could easily turn the scratch into a cookie with, for example, cottage cheese!

Thank you all!

 

[Red Barn Farms]

I'll have to find my recipe for special muffins I made my chickens. I had posted it a long time ago in a thread. What do you use to hold it all together? Honey maybe.

 

[Lolachick07]

That's awesome! I think I might try this whenever I can

Usually our hens have salad scraps, fruits, and the bugs they catch while free ranging in the yard. I've also grown sunflowers and harvested the seeds for people and chickens alike

 

[mickey328]

I've made treats for the dogs where the binder was primarily peanut butter; I would think you could do something like that for the chickens.

Wouldn't you know...we planted sunflowers several years ago and they've volunteered ever since. This year we finally got tired of having them all over and pulled 'em...before we got the chickens of course! LOL

 

[chickencowranch]

I think I'm going to partialty mix my scratch grains as well. I was thinking of using the cattle feed we get from the mill and mixing it with black sunflower seeds and dry catfood to see what happens. As soon as I let the chickens out in the morning they make a mad dash for the cat food dish then they wander up to the barn to help clean up the cattle feed that might have dropped on the ground. The corn and the oats in the cattle feed is crimped so they can break it up easier and there is no dust with the cattle feed.

 

[Gifa]

I just made a small batch of what I am calling "sticky chicky mash"

It's a relatively cool overcast-threatening-to-rain day here, and my 7 girls and 1 boy are going on 14 weeks old now.

Mix up 1/2 cup milk with 1/4 cup rolled oats

Microwave until the oatmeal is soft.

Mix in a tablespoon or two of plain yogurt and a couple tablespoons of Gamebird/Showbird crumble (it's the 24% protein stuff).

Let it stand until cool and sticky (about 20 minutes), should have the consistency of a thick drop cookie dough.

Then, spoon feed this to them... yes... I said spoon feed, at head height of your tallest birds through your fence if you can. In my case, my roo and one of my easter eggers are the tallest. They share the spoon, with my pushy leghorn who jumps up to get herself a faceful of this delectable treat... Yes, they will throw it everywhere, but the smaller, less pushy ones get what hits the ground.


I don't know how good or bad this is for them... so, it's not something I provide regularly... This is literally the second time in the last 7 weeks they've had it...but they do love it, and it's hilarious to see them with this stuff all over their faces.

I've read all over these forums about what and when, to and not to treat... Some say excessive treating before 16 weeks inhibits proper growth, because it messes up the balance of protein, vitamins and nutrients formulated in the grower feed ration and whatnot... But I have read here and there that this really only pertains to greens and other low protein treats... I have also read that the higher protein feed tends to be low in calcium... So, since I have been treating regularly with greens, the goal/ thought behind this treat was for a high protein, high calcium, high probiotic mix, with some vitamins from the commercial feed to help balance the green treats. Also, in Kansas City, my roo becomes an outlaw the day he is 16 weeks old. So my rooster gets the lion's share of this, which is fine because I am intentionally trying to bulk him up some before I have to harvest him.