Feeding scraps to chickens

[Leigti]

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!

We give the chickens greens quite often. They are usually in the form of weeds and garden clippings though. As for kitchen waste, most of it goes to our compost bins along with all other plant based waste and the bird poop.
I absolutely recommend composting kitchen scraps over feeding them to chickens for the dietary reasons listed above. Chickens do enjoy scratching through a compost pile and picking desireable bits too; though I would try to only give them access to a pile that has finished cooking. This way they get to eat good quality (dietarily speaking) bugs and microflora that will add to their balanced diet and digestive health rather than likely lead to long term problems like obesity.
So compost is an all around win - the you keep food waste out if landfills, you have a way to process chicken poop, you get a great garden amendment, and the chickens get a beneficial dietary supplement.

The chickens can do most of the composting for you. If you want to you can finish it off in your compost bin or whatever but let the chickens do the work at first. It’s good for them, it’s good for the environment, it’s just good all around. And it’s much faster than you think.

 

[Starwise]

Things like apple peels and seeds can have arsnick in them, wich is poisonous to animals. Potatoe skins, unlessoked correctly should be avoided, along with unions or anything like them. Also, salty things like chips, and cheesy things typically arent the most recommended.

Apple peels are fine, I always chop up all peels we get. Keep the seeds and the center core of the apple away though. The trace amount of arsenic is on the seeds.
Potato skins are perfectly fine as well. If potato has any trace of green on it, cut it out. You shouldn't eat any potato turned green either! It has increased levels of solanine and it will cause digestive issues.
Cheesy things as in processed cheese or powdered cheese imitation crap. That's a solid no! Real cheese grated and mixed into treats, my girls go nuts over it. Put again it is high in fat so moderation is good...

 

[woodmort]

I have a huge apple tree in my chicken yard that always has apples on it, unfortunately they aren't much good for eating but the chickens or the deer--if I leave the gate open for them--will polish them off seeds and all. Not anything to worry about.

 

[Red-Stars-in-RI]

There are any number of YouTube videos of people picking up food scraps from "real" restaurants and feeding them to the chickens quite successfully. But yeah, not "fast food" restaurants with fake food and salty french fries ever mentioned. If you really look at all that fast food, humans should not eat it either. I'm a bit biased as I recently attended an 8 week class on food and nutrition. "Fast food" is neither.

I've talked to my local food waste pickup company offering to let them make a drop if they're "in the neighborhood". So far no luck.

I've thought about reaching out to local restaurants....although it'd be a time commitment to pick up scraps regularly.

 

[gtaus]

I've talked to my local food waste pickup company offering to let them make a drop if they're "in the neighborhood". So far no luck. I've thought about reaching out to local restaurants....although it'd be a time commitment to pick up scraps regularly.

I think the YouTubers that feed restaurant scraps to their birds have a regular commitment to drop off and pick up food buckets everyday. I think if I ran a restaurant I would not want to hold scraps of food for people who may or may not pick up the buckets for their chickens. So you would have be as committed as the restaurant as I'm sure they are not allowed to keep waste around their eating establishment either.

The other thing they talk about is the local school lunch program. But again, you would have to be committed to that process as well. I personally don't have the time for such commitments, but it's an option some people have worked out.

 

[poultry is rad]

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!

me and my family have been giving are chickens scraps for as long as i can remember usually they dont eat them when there young and they have to grow to like them if you keep giving your chickens scraps they should grow to like them