Food Scraps?

[ElisaB]

We feed our chickens food scraps all the time. When I have peeled potatoes, carrots, celery, etc, I keep a bowl by the sink a take them out to feed the chickens. I also include leftover rice, oatmeal, lettuce, kale, swiss chard. Our chickens seem to love the extras. I DO NOT feed them scrabbled eggs, egg shells or leftover chicken dishes.

 

[donnacccslp]

No, only organic feed and some fruit..berries and bananas. If their feed has too much flax seed the yolks taste fishy to me.

 

[Kaylish]

My ladies get any leftover veggies, bread, or noodles from the kitchen. Haven't tried meat yet and feeding them chicken just seems...well, wrong. They love trimmings from the garden and will happily gobble any bugs or lizards they can get ahold of.

 

[armorfirelady]

Mine get all food scraps & leftovers except bread products. It gets dumped in the compost. If they don't eat the scraps its fine as it just breaks down into compost.

Their favorite is chicken or turkey carcasses. The bones left are tossed in the compost.

 

[farmtotable]

Our chickens get every table scrap that isn't toxic to them. Instead of scraping our plates into the trash can, we open the sliding back door, then scrape the plates off the edge of the deck. If we're really lazy, or it's raining, we just throw stuff from just inside the door into the backyard. Our chickens, ducks, and turkeys all free range, and I have to say this system has created some treat monsters. Whenever they hear the door slide open, they come running from all directions. It's quite a sight. If they don't feel like they're getting treats often enough, the turkeys will climb up the deck stairs and knock on the glass door until someone acknowledges them. (And yes, I made the mistake of rewarding that behavior with, you guessed it, a treat. My husband says it's only a matter of time before they break the glass and help themselves to the refrigerator).

 

[NightOwl3]

At what age do you start them on scraps?

 

[HS Pye]

At what age do you start them on scraps?

We do ours at 3-4 months old. They pick it up as they get less independent.

 

[Sweetpea3829]

Why is it that a huge percentage of a certain poster's posts are incredibly condescending and rude? Nobody wants to deal with that kind of arrogance and rudeness. Shame...he could be incredibly helpful, if he curbed his nastiness.

Anyways....I'm by no means a chicken expert. I have five (not four) birds, and I've had them for eight (not six) months. I give my birds quite a bit in the way of scraps. With four kids, well...there's almost always left overs, lol.

My sweetie, however, finds it incredibly disturbing when I feed the flock cooked eggs and/or cooked chicken. He says it just feels "wrong".

I tell him they benefit from the protein....lol.

 

[chiklee]

Yes Feed the chickens every thing you do all but chocolate.
We put meat scraps bones lungs what ever we don't eat from butchering our game food in a pan add out dated canned foods like vegetable soups beans beets cook it a large canning pot with plenty of water add rice spaghetti, noodles stale bread what ever you have to thicken it. Put it in old plastic coffee containers for storage in the fridge and serve them a good helping in the morning in a bowl . Also don't forget there reg feed always have that available for them they will love you forever and give you very nice yellow yoked eggs . Our chickens are spoiled and expect there scrap food every day. At night they come to the door to see if there is any scraps of green veggies left over for them before going to bed . We have happy healthy Sussex's

 

[DuckRaiser]

My chickens are healthier with scraps.