Dandelions

[wood_sorrel]

mine pick up enough from the soil naturally.

 

[joymac]

My six girls love the "rattlesnake weed" (also known as Florida weed or something) that I pull out of my flower/veggie beds. We read that they would love oregano but they won't touch it.

 

[wood_sorrel]

wood sorrel is my girls' favorite!

 

[Highcotton]

Mine like anything green. I pull purslane and other weeds from the garden and they will drop any thing else and come running. I take a spading fork and lift dandelions from the lawn and the are equally excited by them. When I was growing up we would pull an arm full of weeds from the fields and bring them to the hens.

 

[BCMaraniac]

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

Maybe they have decided to become vegetarians!

 

[BCMaraniac]

When they are young they typically don't need grit if they are being feed chick starter. If you do want to feed them grit you can give them grit from a pet store. They sell it for parrots or another kind of pet bird. If they are kept outside sometimes the can pick up enough from the ground depending on your soil.

Our feed store carries poultry grit, and chick grit....so does Tractor Supply. They are both crushed granite, and the chick grit is very small particles. When I am going to let my chicks out, I sprinkle some chick grit in their starter crumbles so they have it in their gut before they go out....

 

[peartreehens]

mine had trouble with loose greens flipping and flying around. I got a $1.99 suet feeder from a hardware store (near all the hummingbird and outdoor bird feeders). I cram whatever's loose (strawberries, lettuce, dandelions, beet greens, broccoli etc etc) into the suet feeder, close the bottom, and hang it in the run. The girls play tetherball for hours, and love every victorious bite.

Each of my hens has a different favorite, but they never miss a chance to terrorize the lettuce patch of my garden if they can get in there. I noticed they'd rather eat dandelion greens while they're stuck in the ground as they can tear bites off the leaves easier. Once I put a whole pile of dug-up dandelions out for them and they had some trouble with it. They would try to tear off a piece of leaf and the whole plant would fly up in the air.

 

[LarryP2]

my birds go ape sh!t over a plant that looks like dandelions, but is called Prickly Lettuce. My turkeys insist on me hand feeding it to them though. I think it makes it easier for them to tug off a hunk when i am holding it firm.

 

[chickendude9]

Mine love dandelions. I will throw piles of them in their chicken yard, but they all seem to fight over one pile and ignore the others!

Then they will move on to the next one and fight over that one!

My specked sussex is the only one who figures it out and moves on. she is a great forager.

 

[sonjap]

Mine are weird. Last spring they loved dandelions. This spring they wouldn't touch them!