Chickweed

[brendapa]

I introduced my 3 week olds to chickweed today. They were very wary of it, they've never seen anything green before. After running and playing wih it they did eat a few sprigs.
I chopped it up, fine, like dried parsley but tomorrow i think i'm going to give them some bigger pieces. The lttle pigs gobble bigger pieces of scrambled egg and oatmeal.
When do you start giving green's to your chicks?
Brenda

 

[Olive Hill]

At that age mine, weather permitting, play outside a bit so they pick their own greens.

 

[greenfingers]

My chickens also LOVE chickweed! Remember when you start feeding anything but chick starter, give them some fine grit too!

 

[Menmyrc]

After the first week, I just put a handful of whole greens in with the chicks (swiss chard, mustard, romaine, etc.). The first day they pecked at them quite a bit but had to learn how to get pieces. I figured if they were wild chickens, they'd have to learn by trial and error how to take bites! Every day they got better at it. Now, at 3 weeks old, I will just bring in a pile of fresh greens from the garden and lay them in a pile in the brooder. They all come running. There's always one or two that will bathe in them or try and sleep in them, but none seem to mind the body on top of the greens pile. By the afternoon, they're down to just stems. At first I added grit to their mash for a day before giving the greens. Now I have a flat plastic container with a couple holes cut in the lid to hold the grit and they take it as they want/need.