Feeding chickens fruit

[Tmatthews]

Thanks for the information! The magazine didn't mention any particular fruit that would cause them to stop laying. But I have fed my chickens melons in the past and never saw a slow down. So maybe I'm doing things right!

Thanks!

 

[Fuzzbuttfarm]

My kids get whatever I have in abundance. For instance, my next door neighbor has grapes gone wild that are on my side of the fence now, so I'll pull a bunch off the vine when I get home in the afternoon and that's their afternoon treat.

Last month, they got lots of plums from other neighbors and friends with trees.

They had melon yesterday, and some cornichon cukes that weren't quite good enough for pickling.

The way I look at it, is fruit is also a source of water on hot days, which we've been having lots of. It's another way to get water into their systems and keep them interested and outside if it's hot in the coop and they're being mulish about staying in there because it's dark compared to the run.

They're not laying yet. I think we're just over 16 weeks for a couple, and 14 weeks for the other four.