Dried Chick peas and Lentils do I soak or cook?

[Cindy in PA]

Lentils do not need to be cooked for chickens.

 

[maizey]

The treat page on byc lists dried, raw beans as toxic. dont know if that is all legume pods or just "beans". Ive seen lentils in several home made feed recipes though. Im rather confused now

here is the treat chart... toxic stuff is listed at the bottom. Hopefully someone who knows for sure and certain can clarify?
https://www.backyardchickens.com/web/viewblog.php?id=2593-Treats_Chart

 

[Lotsapaints]

lentils do not need to be cooked or soaked and the cheapest place I've found to buy them is WalMart in the Mexican food section in the regular section they cost 20 cents more

 

[fiberart57]

In the winter time, I buy a bale of good quality horse alfalfa hay and throw a flake into the chicken run once a week. One bale lasts my six birds all winter.

They eat the leaves and mash around the stems into compost for the spring. It seems to hold them well for greens.

In addition, I can get lettuce and other greens from the grocery store (sometimes for free) and I feed these to them. Mine like kale, lettuce, chard, spinach and cabbage (shredded please). They get red lentils now and again because of the protein intake, but they get greens from leafy vegetables.

Mary

 

[HeritageHens]

Quote:
This sounds like a great idea but is there any potential for crop impaction with alfalfa? My girls love their greens and I can't let them out of the run during the week as I don't get home from work until well after dark.

 

[chuckzoo]

I soaked chick peas and then put them in my chopper, they only ate the small pieces and didn't seem too excited about them. I am going to do the sprouting thing since they love anything that is green.

I do wish we could have a section added to the treats list that lists all the legumes and how to prepare them. That would be quite valuable.

 

[mrswhiskers]

I am currently soaking some lentals for sprouting on a smaller scale. I am using a bottle with a screen lid so I can rinse them. Do they need a particular amont of light or heat?

 

[domestic girl]

I am working on getting all my ingredients together to make my own chicken feed. I have layers and broilers. They are all between 3 and 5 weeks old. My question is...they are on store bought chick starter, how soon can I start them on my own feed? I

 

[jesmaree]

I would like to add some treats such as chick peas and lentils since I don't have much green stuff to offer now. Do I need to soak or cook them or chop up the chick peas since they are dried and rather big?


What are the protein contents/nutrional value of each?

As we speak. I soak overnight and boil after work. I added a spoon of yellow box honey too just coz.