Feeding fish to chickens...

[Stone Hollow VT]

We feed about 4lbs a day of live minnows to our mixed flock (chickens, peacocks, Guinea hens). 40 some odd birds in all, we've never had and issue with the eggs tasting fishy but their diet is 30% food waste, 30% on farm grown grain, 30% fish and 10% whatever they pick up foraging the property.

Never had a worm issue either but we do feed hot peppers every other week so that may be part of it. We did notice that after we started feeding the fish we no longer needed to supplement with oyster shell

hope this helps

 

[Shadrach]

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!

Feeding fish to chickens is fine. They're omnivores.
Not that long ago fish meal products were a component of some commercially produced feeds.
It doesn't matter what it is you feed your chickens unless they are completely isolated from the natural world there is always a chance they will eat something that may make them sick or contract some complaint from ingesting pathogens.
I feed the chickens here tuna from a can. It's not cooked.
I also feed other types of fish which I feed to the chickens and that usually is cooked.