Feeding scraps to chickens

[DallasLoneStar]

Just chiming in as another owner of choosy chooks. They LOVE melons (watermelon, cantaloupe, and honeydew). Sort of like berries. But honestly they like weeds I pull out of the flower beds more than most other scraps. They like bread but I don't give it to them often. Also, I deliberately don't give them a lot of scraps that I think would be really messy / get stuck in their feathers / hard to get cleaned out of the run like saucy things i.e. pasta with sauce, chicken masala, etc. I don't like having to pick back up things they don't eat (to avoid attracting rats since we live in Dallas, in the city) so I usually don't give them scraps now besides things I know they like such as melons and berries (including strawberry tops).

Finally, another problem I found with scraps is since they are often in small pieces, it seems hard for them to actually get "bites" as opposed to something large they can peck at (melon rinds) and I dont feel like taking them time to mince things for them!

So, mostly the "treats" they get from me are BOSS and scratch, and dried mealworms. They completely lose their s%$& when I toss out mealworms! BOSS are a close second.

 

[Anime2lover]

I feed my chickens there normal feed and then I give them most table scraps as a midday evening treat and it also helps me get them back in there smaller run

We only give ours things that we know are safe for them wich is still most of what we eat each day.

 

[Pekin747]

We only give ours things that we know are safe for them wich is still most of what we eat each day.

Yea same there why the get our dinner scraps which is most likes of potatoes skins etc.
We dont waste a lot of food either

 

[woodmort]

We had ribs for dinner on Sunday, the ribs with what meat was still attached went to the chickens on Monday. If you want to see an oddity, it is a chicken running through the yard, a pork rib in its beak being chased by other chickens. Yes, like cottontail farm above, we feed all meat, egg and fruit scraps to the chickens. When they see me coming with the container they flock around. Watermelon rinds--yum!

One thing I do not do is feed scraps late in the day, The go to the birds when they're first let out. Leaving uneaten stuff like that attracts vermin--rats, mice and coons.

 

[IamRainey]

My girls don't forage so I "forage" for them. That includes weeds from my unsprayed garden and lawn, carrot and other peelings, berries past their best, canned food my cat hasn't finished and, if I don't think there's been enough "green", shredded cabbage as well.

i've been doing that for my flock for 3 years so now that I have 5wo chicks (or are they too big to be called chicks at 5 weeks?) I put some in their kennel inside the run too. It's always gone by the time I go back out there!

 

[Fluffnut]

My chickens like (or at least eat) everything I give them. The only things that they really won't eat are mangoes, rutabaga, and cabbage. Every thing else is dispatched.
I just feed them whatever scraps we have at the beginning/middle of each day. Leftover night, while not every human's favorite, is one of their's; all of the food thats just a bit too old is theirs!
Mine weren't enthusiastic either when I first gave them treats, but I started really young with things like cooked eggs and minced raisins. I don't feed them raw potato peels, but aside from that and the normal prohibited items such as avocados they get everything that we remember to put aside.

 

[killeengreen]

I read somewhere (on this site maybe?) that younger chickens are more fussy and won't necessarily eat the scraps, but as they get older they will eat them. I don't know for sure, though. We have young hens (about 6 months) and so far they only really like watermelon and corn (on the cob and in cornsicles-corn frozen in water). They will occasionally eat some lettuce and cucumber (but not the peel haha).

 

[Biddybot]

I always find it impressive how carnivorous chickens can be, although it shouldn't be surprising given how avidly they hunt insects and other creepy crawlers. When I had dogs, one of their weekly treats was a big raw meaty knucklebone apiece. These were high-value food items which would have caused the dogs to fight had I left them together, so I used to temporarily separate them so they could gnaw their bones in peace...one I put in the front yard, the other was relegated to the back yard, etc... My duck toller (similar to a small golden retriever for those of you unfamiliar with the breed) I usually put in the back yard, and because he was a wuss and the chickens knew it, the poor guy would soon be surrounded by a ring of hopeful hens, just waiting for their chance to dart in and snatch a bite. Before long, it would look exactly like a domestic recreation of a lion on his kill surrounded by a harassing ring of vultures, complete with the dog occasionally charging at and snarling at the birds on one side while the chickens on the other side would dash in and start tugging on his bone. Really funny to watch and eventually I'd feel sorry enough for the toller that I'd move him and his bone into one of the kennel runs where the chickens couldn't bother him. They'd still hang out hopefully outside the run, though...just in case...

Chickens also get very excited whenever I do any home butchering of small stuff like rabbits or even their fellow chickens or other birds. I toss them little bits I don't want, like lumps of fat and connective tissue and the lungs and kidneys, and they just about lose their minds fighting over such scraps and chasing each other around. Total cannibals, too. The cluster of immature egg yolks from inside any hens I cull for stewing meat is always especially prized. But again, not a surprising reaction, really. To them, I'm sure it's no different than snagging an especially big and juicy grasshopper.

Oddly enough, none of my turkeys or guinea fowl ever showed the same sort of enthusiasm when it came to grabbing some extra animal protein, even though both species supposedly have higher protein requirements than do chickens. I still haven't figured that one out.

 

[Fluffnut]

I always find it impressive how carnivorous chickens can be, although it shouldn't be surprising given how avidly they hunt insects and other creepy crawlers. When I had dogs, one of their weekly treats was a big raw meaty knucklebone apiece. These were high-value food items which would have caused the dogs to fight had I left them together, so I used to temporarily separate them so they could gnaw their bones in peace...one I put in the front yard, the other was relegated to the back yard, etc... My duck toller (similar to a small golden retriever for those of you unfamiliar with the breed) I usually put in the back yard, and because he was a wuss and the chickens knew it, the poor guy would soon be surrounded by a ring of hopeful hens, just waiting for their chance to dart in and snatch a bite. Before long, it would look exactly like a domestic recreation of a lion on his kill surrounded by a harassing ring of vultures, complete with the dog occasionally charging at and snarling at the birds on one side while the chickens on the other side would dash in and start tugging on his bone. Really funny to watch and eventually I'd feel sorry enough for the toller that I'd move him and his bone into one of the kennel runs where the chickens couldn't bother him. They'd still hang out hopefully outside the run, though...just in case...

Chickens also get very excited whenever I do any home butchering of small stuff like rabbits or even their fellow chickens or other birds. I toss them little bits I don't want, like lumps of fat and connective tissue and the lungs and kidneys, and they just about lose their minds fighting over such scraps and chasing each other around. Total cannibals, too. The cluster of immature egg yolks from inside any hens I cull for stewing meat is always especially prized. But again, not a surprising reaction, really. To them, I'm sure it's no different than snagging an especially big and juicy grasshopper.

Oddly enough, none of my turkeys or guinea fowl ever showed the same sort of enthusiasm when it came to grabbing some extra animal protein, even though both species supposedly have higher protein requirements than do chickens. I still haven't figured that one out.

One could say ,"what a disgusting idea". Then one watches chickens running around for an hour...

 

[TomZilla43]

I have older hens(who know how to be chickens) and younger ones who are just learning the older ones love a variety of things, bananas, strawberry tops, cleaning off the watermelon rinds etc. The younger ones are reticent to try anything new, but I'm pretty sure with some age and experience they will find that what the other chickens are going nuts over is pretty good stuff. This is my 3rd time of adding younger birds and the last group was pretty much the same(wouldn't try new stuff) but now they enjoy all the treats same as the older ones. I imagine your experience will be similar, as they get a little older they become more "adventurous" eaters.