Dandelions

[Wishing4Wings]

Mine love kale, cabbage, chard, broccoli, grape leaves, grass- pretty much anything leafy green. If I find some dandelions, we'll give it a try!

 

[TREX]

Mine used to love them but now they have moved on to other favorites. Currently they can't seem to get enough of the St augustine grass.

 

[oliviachicken]

i'm not actually sure what my chickens eat!!! they are free range and do not have a run. i dont watch them all day as predators only come out at night. they eat almost anything they come across.

 

[Chickenclucker]

I have weird chickens. Not only will mine not touch a dandylion they also hate mealworms and worms in general :/

Tomatoes and watermelon on the other hand, you better drop those and run otherwise you might lose a finger

A chicken who doesn't like mealworms!!!!! that is unheard of. I guess anything's possible.

 

[lauranickerson]

My chickens are absolutely nuts for dandelions. Each day I go around and pick a bunch to throw in the run, and they devour them ravenously! I have tried feeding them grapes, and they don't even pay any attention to them. However, one dandelion on the ground will get devoured like a cow in a piranha tank. It's amazing.

Does anyone else have chickens with a serious taste for weeds?

Yeah, mine LOVE weeds...especially dandelions and crab grass! The crab grass is going to seed right now so I strip the seeds off and throw them in. They go bananas!

Can't wait until I let them out to free range! We have SOOOOO many mosquitoes here, since we have 3 natural ponds, woods, and a lake behind our house. Unrelated to chickens and weeds, but I just went to the pond that's closest to the coop (about 25 yards) and scooped a bucket of water out that had mosquito larvae, tadpoles, duckweed, etc. and put it in the watering trough. The ducks were in heaven. But the walk there through the thick crab grass was atrocious with the hundreds of mosquitoes that flew up after every step.


Cannot WAIT to let them free to weed and de-bug around the place! (I'm waiting for the pullets to start laying so they know where to lay the eggs before they go lay them in the woods somewhere.)

 

[AxisOfBeagles]

yep. Dandelions and clover are favorites, and most green things that go into the compost bin. But for whatever reason, as someone else mentioned, they ignore grape leaves. But they love the pomace from the grape press.

 

[Mr MKK FARMS]

My chickens like the dandelion leaves but not the part with the pedals.

 

[chiques chicks]

Have a weed here we call mile a minute, my birds love it. Good thing, its invasive, I hate it!

 

[RedneckGurl]

Have a weed here we call mile a minute, my birds love it. Good thing, its invasive, I hate it!

Sounds a bit like our kudzu here in the south. The old saying is not to stand still too long in a patch of kudzu or it will smother you alive. It's not native and it is definitely invasive. It has been spreading at the rate of 150,000 acres per year since it's introduction in the late 1800's. I am pretty sure that chickens don't eat it. A pity.

 

[MuddyHillFarm]

My chickens love dandelion greens and also chicory! We have tons of it in our yard so I don't have to travel far. In April and May, I harvested field mustard along the road and they went berserk for that--they ate the leaves and flowers, too. Sadly, the farmer across the road sprayed the whole field with herbicide in preparation for planting corn.