chocolate cake

[Yay Chicks!]

It seems that there is some controversy about whether it is bad for them or not, but I think most would be hard pressed to say it was GOOD for them. While my birds are good little composters, I wouldn't want to treat them like garbage recepticals. That being said, I should follow that tenant for my own body as well!

 

[curliet]

When I was a kid, and stayed on the farm with Gramma and Pa, we had a weekly ritual. We would drive into town on Saturdays, do the shopping that needed to be done, and then go around to visit the relatives that lived in the city. Those relatives would have been asked to save in a separate bucket, any scraps and leftovers that they had. Pa kept a big washtub in the trunk of the car, and the buckets would be emptied into that. When we got back to the farm, Gramma and I would help Pa lift the tub out of the trunk and it would be put into a cool corner, during the week the stuff would be given to the chickens. Not all at once, but a little every day. I know that there was ALWAYS chocolate in this mess (this being a Dutch family and all) because we would see it, and sometimes even mention what a shame that the good stuff was going to the birds. Pa's chickens were healthy and happy, the eggs were delicious. I do think that the difference is that all the chocolate wasn't fed in one day. By the same token, neither were any of the other goodies in the tub fed in one day. Use common sense with your chooks, and remember that there was a time when not everything was examined as closely as what we are doing here and now, and things were still fine.

 

[DaveBeaty]

Sorry to revive an old thread (not really, HA!) but I just HAD to ferment this controversy experimentally with an expendable rooster.

I let the hens out to free-range and then gave the rooster over 16 ounces of chocolate cake with chocolate frosting with chocolate chips, believing that death by theobromide poisoning would leave an edible chicken carcass.

He ate and/or destroyed about 12 ounces of it over a 4 hour period.

6 weeks later, he is STILL waking us up at 6 in the morning! Unfortunately, I have promised our local Girl Scout district that they can use him for their farm-themed day camp this June. Posole will have to wait until after then.

I don't know what the LD-50 (lethal dose for 50% of the population) is for chocolate for chickens, but 12 ounces of triple-chocolate cake is most likely NOT it. Does anyone else have any food safety tests they would like him to perform?