Feeding Chickens fruit

[SunnyDawn]

Red light is fine for a couple hours of additional light. Fruit is ok too in moderation (they won't eat their feed if they fill up on fruit), no apple seeds though and I had a problem with giving too much citrus once, it seemed to flavor the eggs a little (hubby didn't notice any difference, sure seemed to taste a little different to me...).

 

[Mahonri]

Mine love the occasional grapes, strawberry or raspberry and they tear into over-ripe bananas.

 

[Chickn chick 46]

Ooo, over ripe bananas. They can smell 'em before I get out of the house and literally fall over each other to get the first bite.
Grapes,watermelon, cantelope all are favs also, but not like the bananas

 

[Renee']

I feed mine all types of fruit with no problems, just loose poops for a half of a day or so.

 

[BlackBart]

I feed mine wind fall pears and apples and they got some grapes the other day and they haven't stopped laying.
I always feed them fruit.

 

[LBejaran]

I know there's a big worry about feeding chickens citrus. The truth is, different types of citrus have different amounts of acidity. There are more types of grapefruit now that are sweeter and lower in acidity because there is larger demand for sweeter, less acidic fruit. I swear, whenever I read these warning posts about citrus, I kinda want to just show everyone how happy my chickens are with their occasional grapefruit treat. They pick those rinds clean, haha!

My dad buys a fifty pound bag of grapefruit every couple months. He eats what he can, juices what he wants, and if there are any left over that get just a bit too ripe, they are fed to the chickens. I'm not saying that it's something everyone should do. Some chickens have different reactions to food than others. What I'm saying is that my chickens love them, they are fairly sweet grapefruit that we buy from locals in our area here in South Texas (people are selling them EVERYWHERE), and our chickens aren't negatively affected by them. I do know that it normally reinvigorates them (which is odd because it's just grapefruit). Since they normally don't eat acidic food, I think evening it out with some carbs or something that will lessen acidity in their bodies helps.

It definitely shouldn't be an everyday treat. Just like humans, too much acidity isn't good for them. But I think that most anything in moderation is alright. For citrus, especially if you are apprehensive to feeding it to them, wait until it is too ripe. If it's a very acidic fruit, like very sour grapefruit, mash a single grapefruit with a gallon of water and give them the pulpy stuff and the water as flavorful drink. It won't be too much acidity because it's watered down and you can figure out how the citrus affects your chickens without worrying about giving them too much in the first place.

And if anyone is worried about how I figured this out, the reason I know so much about this in particular is because my Pops used to raise a bunch of chickens when he was a kid. Any time there was extra stuff to feed the chickens, they got it. Old citrus was always available down here, so the chickens got it often enough. For birds that aren't accustomed to it, a very small amount of acidic fruit won't hurt them. Just be aware of how different foods affect them and it'll all be okay. A happy chicken is totally worth the time it takes to test how citrus affects your chicken!

 

[Nuttyfrom6kids]

It is getting in the 80's here so I took some seedless grapes and an apple no seeds cut them up put them in a butter bowl filled it 1/2 way with water and threw it in the refrigerator it will be a nice treat and will keep the girls cool tomorrow. I also did some butter bowls without fruit so I have ice blocks I put in with thier water and they have nice cold water .

 

[wsmith]

Moderation in all things.....

Each fall we have people giving us boxes and bags of apples they pick up off the ground. We dump them in piles in the chicken yard. Melons, and nearly all other fruit. I don't give mine citrus or onions. I don't want the eggs to taste like onions.

Chickens are omnivores; they will eat what is available and what they need. They will eat nearly any vegetable if given the opportunity. Yes, there are some that aren't good for them. They will eat and crave animal protien. We give ours old meat scraps, poultry carcasses, etc. They love it and do great.

I have never seen a drop in egg production that resulted from eating fruit.

 

[Nuttyfrom6kids]

Gave the girls their frozen fruit treats and they didn't touch it just let it melt. Actually we're afraid of it guess will have try again tomorrow

 

[shelby3]

Dates are high in protein. I'm sure that helps egg production.