eating leftovers

[1911 Backyard Homestead]

hey!
i have three hens that free range in the back yard i have a seed and low protein pellet mix that i feed them in the mornings as somewhat of a training tool a well.

i heard that chicken really like your food scraps and such but this morning i tried to feed them some carrot tops and a few pieces of carrot but they werent having it. ive also tried to feed them strawberry tops but they werent into that either.

any suggestion?

samm

 

[1911 Backyard Homestead]

and also they love to eat grass all day! why not yummy carrot tops i see them eyeballing my garden and then i give them something and they dont want it!

why!?!

samm

 

[sonew123]

hard carrots? I was told never to feed them raw carrots /potatoes/ and items like that too hard to digest-The strawberry tops? hmm mine love strawberries-the whole berry though-We have ones that grow all over our property in summer for free -so they love that time of year!

 

[1911 Backyard Homestead]

it was mainly the carrot greens... and the strawberries were from my garden, small whole strawberries and she just pecked at it and then walked away

 

[lavandula girl]

They can be fickle... one day they turn up their beaks at a treat, and the next day they can't get enough. (As to garden veggies vs. veggie scraps, remember that chickens think like toddlers. Cookies snuck when Mom isn't looking taste better than cookies Mom offers.) Tomorrow, you may find they have all found a way into the garden, and have happily taken a bite out of each strawberry.

 

[digitS']

Despite their seeming willingness to eat darn near anything, chickens can't really make a whole lot of use out of very coarse, low-quality food. They don't have the digestive system of, say, a ruminant.

With their potential for rapid growth and high egg production, eating just anything may not get them too far. Joel Salatin, of pastured poultry fame, claimed that they could gain 30% of their requirements from high-quality grass and legume pasture. Many poultry scientists report a lower number than that.

I'm quite willing to nuke vegetable scraps for my hens. They seem to appreciate them that way and usually eat everything I put out for them but I try to keep the over-all percentage low since their commercial feed has balanced protein, among other things, that they just aren't going to get out of a bag of this-and-that out of my kitchen.

Now, if they were getting a well-balanced meal at the dining room table . . . things could be very different

.

Steve