Feeding fish to chickens...

[GA_Gypsy]

My husband caught some fish off of our dock yesterday and while he was cleaning them, he thought it would be a good idea to feed a few of the leftovers to our hens. No bones and everything was cut up small, including some eggs, but it was not cooked. I looked on the Treats List and noticed it said only cooked fish was ok. Was that really a bad idea? They devoured the fish pieces withing a few minutes, but that doesn't mean that it's healthy for them.

Thanks for any input!

 

[GA_Gypsy]

Sorry, didn't see that someone else beet me to the punch earlier. Just woke up! haha

 

[twentynine]

I feed my hens the roe sacks everytime I catch fish. Usually fresh, within minutes of being taken from the fish. 10 chickens, maybe they get a good handfull of roe. I have fed them rib cages taken from the filets, with bones. Never had a hen choke, never had one get sick, never one iota left over. Don't think I would feed the the entire bucket of guts, hides, and bones, but a handfull of roe doesn't seem to effect them badly. when they were just pullets I supplemented their growing feed with minnows trapped out of a nieghbor's pond.

Wish I had a dock to fish off!

funny, I filet my fish out back near the chicken yard, when the hens hear the electric knife going they know what the deal is they go crazy.

 

[BWKatz]

Not harmful but will make ur eggs taste like fish.

 

[familychickenman]

I have feed fishmeal to my chickens before as well as fresh fish. I have never noticed a fishy taste to the eggs, but I have read that it can give them a fishy taste. Has anyone expereinced that happening?

 

[TeamChaos]

My hens *used* to get all sorts of fish- leftover salmon from dinner, minnows from the pond, scraps from cleaning fish, stolen cat food- you name it. Then my husband got a fishy tasting egg for breakfast and that put an end to that! Yes, you can get fishy tasting eggs from it for real. Now, if the ladies steal cat food I make a point of boiling the next day's eggs and feed them back to the flock.

 

[Donna in Montana]

My DH throws all the fish scraps out where the chickens can have them. We never notice any strange flavor in the eggs. They eat all they can and the ravens or whatever takes the rest. Nothing goes to waste around here.

Fish scraps are incredible to bury in gardens. Our "soil" is rocks held together by clay (it seems) but after one winter of burying fish scraps in the soil I had all kinds of lovely worms. Of course this was before we ever got our guineas or chickens.. Ü The chickens spend a lot of time in our no-longer-used vegetable garden.

 

[RainbowBirds_of_a_Feather]

Aloha,

I have feed fish to my chickens aswell. However, I give them a combination of food to go along with it. That way the fish doesn't make the eggs too "unique" (for the lack of words) when they lay. I guess you can say I give them mixed portions so the fish taste doesn't change the taste of the egg. My chickens eat slop (left overs) and I have not had a problem with their eggs especially when it comes to fish or other things that may cause a compromise in their eggs, in terms of taste. But everyone has their preference when it comes to what they allow their chooks to eat. So when it comes down to it, it is the person's choice what they decide to feed their chickens.

Another example of things not to feed your chooks are onions. I feed them left over sauteed onions from stir-fry and that has not caused a compromise in taste, as long as it is given with other goodies. So I believe it is the quantity and keeping it balanced so they don't just get an over dose of a certain food. Kind of like when we tell our kids if they eat a too much of one thing they can get sick. Same thing with fish and feeding it to chickens. Wee feed them too much their eggs taste fishy.

So again, just keep it balanced and they should be fine.

Deer

 

[HoneyNBenNKids]

Can you give your meaties all they want? ...or would it make the meat fishy? We have access to weekly 55gallon drums of fish from local fishermen. And I'd love to feed them with it along with their feed but I'd LOVE to save on food costs so I'd like to utilize as much healthy free foods as I can. We're ordering organic feed, they've a salad bar growing and they also free range.

I don't want our friends to wonder if we've a GMO fisken!

Honey

 

[kiamori]

The biggest issue is worms, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_spot_disease_(fish) You really don't want your chickens getting these worms if you can help it.