Feeding Grocery Store cast off veg???

[Beamerz]

I asked the produce manager if he had any cast off veg and he directed me to some not so clean bins outside the store where I found and amazing cache of assorted vegitables which I scooped up into a 5 gal bucket and brought home.. I chopped them up and the chickens went crazy.. Now I'm wondering if I really did something stupid.. I had posted about waterbelly and that seems much better for sure after she laid and egg but I noticed ( I'm s newbie at all this) that some of my other hens seemed to have a bit of a somewhat jelly belly as well.. I only checked them when it occured to me that maybe I'd introduced some kind of bacteria.. Can someone with more experience please advise... So appreciated.. I have backed off the raw veg for the moment.. it looks almost good enough for human consumption but there were lots off outside leaves from cabbages etc.. that they trim off but I know that the way they truck cabages unwrapped in tractor trailers is likely not very clean. Also none of my chickens seems to want any of their green layer pellets.. they hardly ever eat them. I have a big feeder in the coop that never seems to go down.

Thanks for input!

 

[azygous]

Getting a store produce manager to agree to give you the veggies normally tossed is a wonderful windfall. But, you're right. Precautions need to be taken.

Having just recently lost half my meal worm colony due to not washing the pesticides off carrots I gave them, I now wash all veggies to rinse off any residual insecticides. It should also help rinse off harmful bacteria. By adding a teaspoon of bleach to a gallon of rinse water, that can help neutralize bacteria.

You don't want to feed all the veggies all at once, though. As you've discovered, it leads to not consuming adequate amounts of feed which is necessary for the minerals and vitamins chickens need to avoid catastrophic health issues, especially laying hens that deplete their stores of nutrients through laying.

Also, spinach has an acid that depletes the calcium in a hen's body, so go real easy on that.

 

[Beamerz]

Thanks for your excellent reply, it is appreciated.!