Daily salad for my girls, ok or not...???

[av8ersteve]

Hello all. Quick question here. I have been giving my girls a fresh salad once a day (lettuce, carrot, tomato, with a sprinkle of dry oregano, parsley, and basil on a big platter), and was wondering if this was good or bad? I have noticed that they don't eat as much of their store bought food, but they seem so happy and energetic. Will this hurt my egg production when they start laying due to them not eating so much of their laying feed or will they still lay just as much? Is a fresh salad once a day OK? Thanks...

 

[venymae]

as long as it's not more than 10% of their total food intake you should be good.

 

[CannedMonster]

How much salad is it?
In other words, is each bird getting a few lettuce leaves and a few pieces of tomato, carrots etc?
Or are they chowing down on a full on meal for each of them?
Treats should only be 10% of their diet.
10% of a chickens diet isn’t going to be very much.
But my birds eat plenty of dandelion leaves and other greens when foraging so I guess you could go by their energy levels etc.

 

[sylviethecochin]

But my birds eat plenty of dandelion leaves and other greens when foraging so I guess you could go by their energy levels etc.

Dandelions are actually a great source of nutrients. I don't qualify them or spinach as a treat. I think the 10% treat rule mostly applies to scratch grains, which tend to be a great source of fat, starch, and oil (BOSS, corn, flax...)

 

[av8ersteve]

It's just one plate full, say a quarter of a head of lettuce, 1/4 a whole carrot, and 1/4 a tomato, split between 4 girls on 1 plate. I just give it to them on a plate and they demolish it within 15 minutes,... nothing left. They spend the rest of the day eating their feed, and pecking at the ground LOL! I do throw dandelions and clover in their run every now and then, but not to often. They have picked CLEAN their run are.

 

[ChickenCanoe]

IMO that's a lot of salad for 4 chickens.
Chickens are omnivores. Left to their own devices they will eat greens, seeds and all types of animal protein - be that insects, spiders, worms, millipedes and a number of vertebrates like mice, frogs or even larger animals if they can pull off a bite size piece.
When I catch raccoons or other predators, I grill them and feed them back to the chickens.
I do feed all our table scraps to my chickens however I usually have between 50 and 100 chickens. So each chicken is lucky to get a single bite.

You didn't mention how old your chickens are. I remember you saying they were getting layer feed.

What could happen if you are supplanting too much of the chicken feed with vegetation is that you are cutting the essential amino acids to the point that development and immune function may be adversely affected.

 

[GRB73]

I fill a suet feeder with baby greens and hang it in their run. I do this daily since they can't forage during the day when we are at work. Sometimes I throw in a few blueberries or strawberries. I have 3 chickens and they each lay 6 days a week.
I did cut down on the amount of spinach I feed since I read it cuts down on calcium absorption.

 

[chickengeorgeto]

The importance of greens to hen health is vastly overstated. Greens can actually be destructive to a hens' health if she ignores other foods rich in protein for the sake of eating Spinach, Kale, and other vegetable based foods to the point of skimping on protein or niacin.