Chickens - A fisherman's best friend! (Warning! photos of fish carcasses)

[petrel]

My family and I love to fish, but I've always fretted over the waste in fish carcasses. Fortunately, my new feathered friends are taking care of that!


Spadefish


Hickory Shad

They get most fish (fresh or frozen) with the fillet removed. They get the shad whole and frozen with just the roe removed. Marine and anadromous fish they get raw, but I cook freshwater fish before giving it to them. Now I guess I just need to grind the bones and put them on the garden.

I try to limit their fish intake to one carcass or a chunk of frozen trimmings every 2-3 days. I was thinking about grinding some of the carcasses and freezing them in blocks. I believe they would eat them bones and all then, but they seem to get so much entertainment out of picking the carcasses that I'd hate to deprive them of that activity. Apparently, we humans are missing the the boat on enjoying fish. To a chicken the eyeballs and viscera are the most coveted parts, not the meat!

 

[RedNeckRosie]

Kind of new to chickens, kind of not ... but why do you cook the fresh water fish before giving it to them?

 

[petrel]

Concern over parasitic flukes (Trematodes) infecting them.

 

[donrae]

We also feed out carcasses to the birds, here we're mostly trout. Folks will swear eating fish will make the eggs taste fishy, but I've not experienced that at all. And some days my girls have got a LOT of fish

 

[earlyredrooster]

We also feed out carcasses to the birds, here we're mostly trout. Folks will swear eating fish will make the eggs taste fishy, but I've not experienced that at all. And some days my girls have got a LOT of fish 

Mmmmmmm fish flavored eggs my two favorite flavors combined. Mmmmmmmmm

 

[donrae]

Yeah, I keep saying I wish I could feed them salsa trimmings and get salsa-flavored eggs! That would make breakfast just that much faster

 

[petrel]

We've never had a fishy tasting egg. We started feeding them fresh tuna last September, then started them on shad this spring, now they are onto spadefish, sheepshead, and occasional boiled snakehead trimmings. I freeze the carcasses or trimmings and ration them out.

Scrambled, poached, fried, deviled, salad, and custard, never even a whiff of fish. With a family of six (one child being allergic to seafood) I believe someone would detect it if it were present. If my wife and children thought it would work, they would feed our flock enough Jalapenos to get the flavor in the eggs!

 

[RedNeckRosie]

Very neat. Downside is our fish are all freshwater so I'd have to boil it first ... After the crazy laid eggs post (Yes, I went through every page lol) now I want to treat the flock to fishies.

 

[petrel]

Very neat. Downside is our fish are all freshwater so I'd have to boil it first ... After the crazy laid eggs post (Yes, I went through every page lol) now I want to treat the flock to fishies.

They will love you for it. Mine have gotten conditioned to ziplock bags. If I enter the run with one, they will fly up and try to take it away from me before I can put the fish out for them. They took two sandwich bags away from me last week when I was trying to gather a fecal sample for the vet. Doggoned Seagulls!