Compost and table scraps?

[PunkinPeep]

Quote:
I believe it's actually the sometimes green peelings of potatoes that are mildly toxic to both humans and chickens.

It's really a matter of moderation with the salty and sugary foods and chocolate, etc. Just like you don't feed your kids cake for breakfast, you don't feed your chickens cake as their main course. A treat now and then will not have horrifying effects.

 

[journey11]

I keep a huge compost pile behind my chicken barn. I toss EVERYTHING in there. When I butcher, I dig a deep hole, spread a layer of offal, feathers, etc, then more dirt and layer as necessary. It needs at least a foot of dirt/compost over top of it. You can compost everything if your pile is big/deep enough. If you bury it, microrganisms and worms will do the work. You just have to bury meat scraps deep enough so that the chickens don't get to them and that you can't smell it. It will all break down given enough time, even the fats.

The chickens scratching in it helps to turn it (so you don't have to) and it will cook faster. Manure, grass clippings, old hay, all those browns help balance it out and make it cook. You wouldn't want a pile that was only kitchen scraps.

Also, don't give potato peels to your chickens, especially green ones--it has toxic solamine (sp?) in it. Chickens also can't have avacodo pits/peels, chocolate, sugary junk or citrus.

 

[ducks4you]

I think the best way to gauge what to give to your chickens is to check out toxins, and see what is okay to feed that comes from your garden. For instance, MY birds get all "too old to eat":
--corn on the cob
--brown tinged lettuce
--cabbage
--carrot scrapings (ONLY if the horses have their fill)
--carrot tops
--tops of sweet peppers and all of their seeds
--tomatoes--fruit ONLY--the ones with cracks (this morning I fed them one that had been chomped on and gave them the worm, too)
--insects that are eating on your garden or flowers
--non-green potatoes (without any condiments), or non-green peels
--ends of green/wax beans
--ripe grapes
--apple cores (after we've eaten our fill of that apple)
--pear cores
--peaches

In the winter, I feed the same leftover to them AND
they get ALL of our stale bread.

I should add, when the horse water tank starts to freeze, I remove the feeder fish that have been eating mosquito larvae, and feed them to my chickens. It sounds cruel, but it's better than letting them freeze to death, my 10 gallon fish tank isn't big enough for them, and the cats won't touch dead fish.

 

[Organics North]

Quote:
I will agree this is good general advice..

However.. One can hot compost meat. I would not recommend a hot compost pile containing meat be your first compost pile, nor allow chickens to dig through it! One has to be diligent and well read on the subject of hot composting meats. With that said nothing goes to waste at our place. We just culled 8 roosters and every single scrap was used. Feathers and entrails went deep into a big 6 foot high hot compost pile. Carcases made stock then were biocharred and placed in the compost pile... A properly constructed and maintained hot compost pile will have whole fish bones and all disappear in less than two weeks. (Think about it it is like putting them in the oven at 150 F for two weeks straight..)

I like the idea of a chicken compost pile for veggie scraps and such... Remember with compost piles they need air and not to much moisture, they should be turned frequently and not smell bad. Bad smell=pathogens Good smell= beneficial bacteria at work...

ON

 

[nancypo]

I've also done cherries (their FAVE!), plums, apples, eaten corn cobs, ww bread/rolls, watermelon, no fats of any kind, low sugar yogurt, barley.

 

[greenmulberry]

I am a hard core composter. If it rots, I compost it! Any food scraps, leaves, used chicken bedding, used paper towels, plants ripped out of the garden at the end of the season, coffee grounds, paper butter wrappers, toilet paper tubes, ect. My compost is awesome!

The chickens have access to the pile when they free range, but if I have anything in quantity that I know they want, like a bunch of leftover noodles, scraps from canning tomatoes, or anything with meat, I give to them in the run.

I do give my chickens sweets if we happen to have them. I don't think an occasional gross cupcake that someone gave me and I do not want is going to harm them when split across 8 birds.

 

[donrae]

My compost pile is available to my chickens, so i've taken to just putting everything in there, and the chickens (and the dogs) eat out of it what they want. Trouble is, my compost pile doesn't grow much.

That's me! I put "forbidden" foods in my compost, the chickens just don't eat them. The old dog gets first choice, chickens next, then the new pup. Whatever's left gets composted, usually not much!​

 

[crosbygroup]

Quote:

I wanted to say that too! You so beat me to it.

 

[lindseythefork]

Basically, anything except meat/dairy can go in the compost pile. And definitely don't put dog poop in there. I think that's about it, essentially.

I try not to put too much processed food in there (things like cookies, etc) and stuff like avocado seeds take FOREVER to break down so I usually keep those out of there, too. There are tons of composting websites with lists of do's and don'ts, I would google it and check that out.

 

[Sammi<3chickens]

I am glad to see others who put everything in a compost. I have always thought of that, though I havent done it yet, i'm not set up for that (ill explain that in a min). Think about it, a dead animal in the woods will decompose. My cat brought up a squirrel that she killed and left it under my porch. I never picked it up, didnt have time to deal with it. It had a slight dead odor to it for a few days, now its completly gone after 2-3 weeks. Everything that rots will decompose. its natures way. The only reason that I could think of why one would not put meat in compost is because the smell and attraction of wild animals. But if you bury it...It should compost right in.

So heres what I do. I have a garden rotation and chicken system. The garden from the previos year is the chicken pen (now that the meat roos are old enough and driving me nuts running around my yard and beating up on my hens). I lay all my grass clippins, hey, manure, leaves, weads, anything decomposable, as a mulch to cover the soil and decompose. I then put all my table scraps right in that same pen, including our paper towels, anything that will decompose. I also do our junk mail and any paper. Then I add some scratch. Chickens do their work. Next year, I will have a weed free non 'tilled, fertilized and mulched garden. Just add seeds!