Food Scraps?

[Sonya9]

The chicks have a new favorite! Spinach and Riccotta Tortellini (I discovered Barilla makes a dry tortellini that is absolutely awesome, apparently the chicks agree).

Will have to set a few pieces aside for them every time I make it, they go nuts for that stuff!

 

[D'Angelo N Va.]

I just gave mine 6 egg shells from a quiche i made, a cornmeal muffin, and some grapes and crackers.

 

[The4HGirl]

My chickens always get food scraps. They love corn on the cob, any left over bread and have also gone nuts for any fruit and popcorn (without seasoning--not even salt or butter). They also tend to like sunflower seeds and oats.

I have a question (I'm new to the site, so bear with me). I was eating pizza and ranch and holding one of my chicks (she's about a month, month and a half old). She tried to eat the ranch dressing. I thought that she had been going for a crumb of crust and had accidentally ended up with ranch instead...but then she went back to it and has tried to eat it ever since. Is this okay for her to eat? I haven't let her eat any more of it because I don't want her to be sick if its bad for her. Anyone have any ideas?

 

[D'Angelo N Va.]

I don't see what harm it could do... Is the chicken in your house?

 

[Sonya9]

I haven't let her eat any more of it because I don't want her to be sick if its bad for her. Anyone have any ideas?

I would say play it safe and stick to blander more basic foods. Salad dressing is full of salt, oils, etc... A little may not harm her BUT I would worry slurping up beak fulls could easily cause digestive problems or something if she ate enough of it. She is very tiny so a few beak fulls could be like you drinking a whole bottle and I doubt you would want to do that as it would probably make you sick!

 

[Caitedid]

I went and talked to the poultry feed specialist from Fertrell at a conference last month. I wanted to ask his opinion of the fact that this winter we gave our hens a deer carcass to clean off. He said that it would actually be good to save some extra carcasses so they could have them all winter. In the summer they get plenty of protein catching mice, bugs, and snakes but in the winter there's nothing interesting to eat. He also said that they recommend feeding chicks mashed hard-boiled egg for the first few days to give them a bit of a jump start.

Our hens eat what scraps they want, mostly raiding the compost pile to do so. Anything the hens don't eat the hogs will, so pretty well no food waste around here. I don't feed chicken to poultry or pork to the hogs, much more for my own comfort than theirs I'm sure.

 

[bilsie]

Hayduke27: I just love that poster. Thank you for sharing, maybe some day I will find one.

 

[DuckRaiser]

A chicken will lay dull, bad eggs without scraps but will lay bright, beautiful eggs if they do eat scraps

 

[Beekissed]

 

[FredsDadTiny]

Just discovered that it's actually illegal in the uk to give any kitchen waste to poultry either raw or cooked


Silly government

http://www.defra.gov.uk/ahvla-en/disease-control/abp/collect-feed/ban-kitchen-scraps-pet/