Feeding scraps to chickens

[gtaus]

I absolutely recommend composting kitchen scraps over feeding them to chickens for the dietary reasons listed above.

I'm just in the other camp and hope to feed as much kitchen scraps to my birds as possible. As long as they are happy and healthy, I'm fine with it. In reality, my young pullets don't eat most of the scraps I offer them, so it gets raked up and thrown into the compost bin anyway. I hope they will eat more variety of scraps as they get older. In any case, I think they would eat what they need, or want, from the scraps and they always have commercial feed available to them in the coop.

 

[summertimeislife]

I am wondering, I’ve been told you can feed chickens most scraps. My chickens won’t eat most scraps. They are 6 months old, will they eventually? Thanks!

what I would suggest and we do at our house, is a compost pile, chickens run out there when we go out there and just nibble what they like and leave what they don't.also, they peck over there for bugs and worms!

 

[Miss Eliza]

Chickens are pretty smart when it comes to knowing what to eat or not as long as they have a choice.

As a new chicken owner, I was hoping this was true. One day when the chicks were pretty young, I threw some weeds into their pen. Then decided I probably should know what they were eating. The first thing they all ran for was the sweet pea. Then I read it was terribly bad and could kill them. Ugh. None got sick. Then about ten days ago, I was in the pen watching them when one jumped up on my back and ran to my left shoulder. As I turned to flick her off of me she plucked my earring right out of my ear! I don’t know where that one went but, she ran to my other ear as I was trying to get her off of me and got my other earring! That one I did see tumbling through the sunlight to be attacked and swallowed up by another chick!! (The back, I happened to catch).
Anyway, I’m hoping they get a little smarter about eating what is good for them! As for me, I am staying out of the pen but still throwing them scraps and weeds!

 

[woodmort]

Just hope you don't fall down

 

[BReeder!]

I'm just in the other camp and hope to feed as much kitchen scraps to my birds as possible. As long as they are happy and healthy, I'm fine with it. In reality, my young pullets don't eat most of the scraps I offer them, so it gets raked up and thrown into the compost bin anyway. I hope they will eat more variety of scraps as they get older. In any case, I think they would eat what they need, or want, from the scraps and they always have commercial feed available to them in the coop.

I guess that it's better than raising them on straight corn, which is what a lot of people used as feed just a few decades ago in or grandparents' time.

 

[gtaus]

I guess that it's better than raising them on straight corn, which is what a lot of people used as feed just a few decades ago in or grandparents' time.

Different people have different goals for their flocks. I talked to the local 4H coordinator last year and told me that some parents were upset that their kid's skinny 8 week old Cornish X birds did not get any ribbons at the county fair. The 4H coordinator showed them the difference between other large, fat, ready for market Cornish X birds raised by other children. Well, the parent said, we let our birds free range and threw them a little scratch every once in awhile, and we saved lots of money. And the chickens were happy running all over the backyard. Maybe so, the coordinator told them, but you were supposed to raise these birds as market ready in 8 weeks and clearly they are not. You can raise your birds anyway you want, but the judges only care if the bird is market ready.

 

[Willowspirit]

I guess that it's better than raising them on straight corn, which is what a lot of people used as feed just a few decades ago in or grandparents' time.

Likely they fed what they had and chickens got corn before even the kids did. Anything fed to the animals came out of the farmer’s mouths in one way or another. Possibly nothing else was left over. Imagine how much better off they would have been with healthier chickens! I’ll bet the dogs made do on cornbread and maybe an odd end of milk. Farming was hard.

 

[Chickengene]

Free ranging has not affected the egg laying as yet, but has cut my feed bill from fifty pounds a month or so to fifty pounds every 100 days or so.
I have also started, just recently, giving them scraps. They usually don't eat it as soon as I put it out for them, but the next day they pretty much clean it all up.
I will refrain from giving them anymore melon, tomatoe, squash etc type scraps, because of how messy it makes their excrement.
But other than that they eat anything and e everything they want.

 

[Willowspirit]

Free ranging has not affected the egg laying as yet, but has cut my feed bill from fifty pounds a month or so to fifty pounds every 100 days or so.
I have also started, just recently, giving them scraps. They usually don't eat it as soon as I put it out for them, but the next day they pretty much clean it all up.
I will refrain from giving them anymore melon, tomatoe, squash etc type scraps, because of how messy it makes their excrement.
But other than that they eat anything and e everything they want.

Just thank goodness you’re not in 4H!

 

[Chickengene]

Apparently they like tomatoes and I created a monster. Wife came home and found four chickens sitting in my container garden helping themselves to my ripening Big Boy tomatoes..