Fantastic Treat And Money Question

[cherrychicken]

Okay, so I came up with a new (for me, at least) treat for the ladies. I take a handful of frozen blueberries outside and set them in the sun for 5 minutes. When I come back, they are still cold, but not too solid. The chickens actually take them from each others' mouths. Try it! BTW, does anyone else have a, shall we say, allowance for their chickens?Like, do you take 20 bucks a month and spend it on a treat for your flock?
Jenny

 

[Chick_a_dee]

We don't really have an allowance..whenever I'm at the grocery store, or farmers market, we'll pick up something small. Yogurt in the summer, vegetables in the winter (We ALWAYS buy at least two or three lettuces from no frills in the winter and hang them from the ceiling of the coop, we start off real high so they have to jump, and gradually get lower. It takes them about a week to finish them off). Otherwise, whatever is left over from dinner, lunch, brekkie.... vegetable leavings, on easter we gave them the lamb leg to finish off (LOL they still play with it in the run for some reason), they get pumpkin year round, fresh around halloween... sweet corn, they LOVE corn on the cob... first we gave them our leftovers, after I started buying it for them...they have such a ball pecking it off the cob, ...then again so does my cat.

We gave the ducks grapes today, for the longest time they couldnt figure out how to break them open to eat them, one of the girls would run around the pen with a grape stuffed in her bill, then the other would chase, and the first would drop it by accident...lol keep in mind these are 4.5 week old ducklings! haha

 

[kezabel]

i'm going to try it, I have some frozen berries in the freezer, so i'm gunna let em defrost and see if my girls will play berry games

My chickens like witchety grubs(australian tree grub) I throw one in at a time and watch the fun they run around chasing the hen that got the grub and won't give up untill its swallowed. Its so funny to watch, my 6 year old son thinks its hilarious

 

[Chick_a_dee]

Quote:
hahaha.. one of our 4 week old EE chicks found a worm the other day and was frantically running around the pen with it in her beak, she couldnt figure out how to eat it, and the others just plain wanted it, it was hilarious.

 

[hen-thusiast]

I'm going to try blueberries - we've got them in the freezer.

 

[cherrychicken]

Cool! Thanks for all the replies. I'll give mine some brocolli!

 

[Slywoody]

I give mine 7 grain bread (3.59 a loaf), dry oatmeal, angle worms, scratch, lettuce, cabbage and celery ( chopped up). They won't eat white bread.

Woody

 

[frogs n chickens]

gave mine some beans and rice with cajun sausage this evening, and they had half an apple at breakfast, and my dw gave them some flour tortillas that were a little stale, they loved it all.

 

[K-Chick]

Do you guys just throw it in on the floor of the run? Or do you put it in a pan or something?

 

[Cindy in PA]

I know my girls love the wine berries that grow wild here and any damaged strawberries from the garden. Blueberries don't last long enough around here to get to the girls! I got them some Purgrain pigeon grain yesterday at the feed store, as I can't find field peas anywhere around here to mix for a whole grain feed. I can get two local brands of pigeon grain around here, both use 3 kinds of field peas. The stuff I got yesterday was only 16 percent and has about 6 or 7 grains in it. Heck I can't even get wheat seed here in farm country except in the fall as untreated seed! I am thinking about asking the store to get me Purgrain's 21.5% grain and mixing oats or corn with it to make a whole grain feed. I still have to get premix & kelp before I do this. I also feed lentils with my sunflower seeds for scratch for the last few months. Right now I plan on feeding grains & the layer pellets, but have to figure what to use for another feeder since they say to offer grain separately & they sure did bill out some pellets yesterday during the frenzy of eating the grain. They were done with it in under 10 minutes. They left the larger canada peas at first, but they were gone when I went back an hour later! Of course if I would feed this mix, it would not be cheaper than regular feed, but it would be in line with the organic I am feeding right now. I really wish I could get something other than soy and corn around here.