feeding chickens animal fat in the winter months??

[thetajmahalcoop]

It's still below freezing at my place with WINDCHILL TO KILL!!! well i sent a text to my awesome neighbors and my mom and my neighbors called me with offers of expired bread and about 20 lbs of pig lard (frozen), so I stopped by after work and picked that up (along with cookies and spaghetti sauce with meatballs...yes I have the BEST neighbors on earth....... pig lard is thawing in my bathtub, will feed to them tomorrow.....I just went out now and took more warm water out, DH already has done this twice today and I made an interesting oatmeal mixture for them. I have a few old tubs of old fashioned oatmeal so I cooked up a pot of that, then mixed in some full fat sour cream I can't eat because it's full fat, leftover pork and then topped it with a big bag of breadcrumbs, took it into the coop and they were having a party before I left so I guess they like it. My poor lone peacock looks GREAT, I lost three last week. Everyone looks snug as a bug with all the heatlamps on and I got 11 eggs today so thats good. I also stopped on the way home and bought a bag of KITTEN food to feed them, has about 3x the fat/protein of cat food so I'll mix that with some more oatmeal tomorrow a.m., someone suggested this on another thread yesterday for cold weather. Hope everyones Dear Chickens are doing well! Stay warm!

 

[ohiofarmgirl]

i just made lard from our home dressed pigs.... i give the hens the cracklins and the LOVE it.. and i agree that with the extra extra cold they need a little extra.

good luck!

 

[CityChook]

My girls love cracklings too

 

[cluckoldhen]

Mine go APE over bacon!!

 

[wildorchid053]

we ground up our pork fat and mixed with bird seed. cornmeal. sunflower seeds, and they love it.. we are like you with the temps and we give them a block of this suet just before bed time..