Chickens treats

[jaseyboy1986]

Hi all,

My chickens love eating dandelion leaves, every time I leave the house and start picking them from parts of the garden my chickens leg it to the edge of their run and eagerly await their tasty treat. I have four chickens; 2 Silkies, 1 Silkie Mix and 1 Cream Legbar and they all love them.

Another favourite is pears followed closely by strawberries. I love to watch them tuck in and get covered in red strawberry juice because it's so funny watching them trying to wipe it off their beaks with the ground, it has me in stitches!

Occasionally I also scoop a handful of mixed wild bird seed off the bird table and scatter that in their run too.

I've only had my flock for about 7 weeks so I welcome any advice people are willing to share on feeding treats. How regular to feed treats, different treats etc.

What do your chickens prefer?

 

[centrarchid]

Mine have strong preferences for whatever is otherwise poorly represented in the diet and that can vary seasonally for free-range birds in particular. Currently when insects and greens are abundant they are partial to starchy grains which includes whole corm. During the winter months they also like high energy foods but seldom pass up greens. In the early spring they are particularly partial to insects. At any time of year and regardless of diet they invest considerably in feeding on fatty insects like mealworms, reproductive ants and termites as can be found now. Interest in mealworms do intense it it my preferred training stimulant.

They tend to prefer coarse particulates over the ground stuff which means they like seeds. There are times they will not pass up the smaller acorns coming of oaks trees.