Food Scraps?

[Llama Ma]

We live in Ohio. Our chickens get food scraps everyday....fruits, veggies, meat, cereal, noodles, bread, etc. Our daughters save their leftovers for me too, as I have 100 chickens. This is their treat and they have layer feed 24/7 with oyster shells, and grit free choice. We have a llama & produce farm besides the chickens, and have many visitors to the farm. Folks always comment how healthy our chickens look....well, I know they eat quite well and they free range everyday if the temp is 20 degrees F or above.

 

[DEBUS CHICKS]

I give mine everything but the few things they shouldn't have, like citrus peel, chocolate and a few others. They want it and love it. I just make sure it is all eaten before bedtime so it does not attract predators. They love rotten milk!

 

[jheafey]

I limit the scraps for a few reasons. I just hand a chicken die from renal failure . It was very painful. The avian vet I took her too said it could very well have been from the chickens eating scraps or digging in my compost pile. I stick to chicken feed and some oats occasionally. Every once in a while they get rice or bread but it's a treat. My friend has had 4 chickens die recently and the only thing we do different is scraps. Information on raising chickens is mostly opinions and personal experience.... You will figure out what works for you.

 

[JoieD]

Why no raisins. Mine love them as much as they do grapes. I know dogs shouldn't have either one.

 

[Coreyscoop]

We also crush the egg shells and feed that back to them

 

[Barbill1]

I feed my girls everything! Cannot feed them chicken... That's sooooo yuk to me. But each to their own. They absolutely love pasta! So much fun watching them run with spaghetti. They get meatloaf, steak, veggies, salad, fish... They didn't like edamme.

Sunflower sees. I shake the can and they go inside the coop no matter what time it is. That's how I get them in in my time schedule, not theirs. Good luck

 

[tinydancer87]

You name it, my chickens have eaten it. Between the ducks, geese, goats and chickens, nothing gets left behind. Whole cakes/cupcakes/muffins. Pans of lasagna, casserole, spaghetti. Rice is a favorite.

Chicken fingers, fish sticks, corndogs, the turkey carcass at Thanksgiving, ham bones with meat on it, steak, baked potatoes, French fries, cheeseburgers, any leftovers from eating out a restaurant. I will pack them their own to-go box with scraps/rolls, etc.

Salad with dressing is a favorite. Of course they get tomatoes, cucumber, watermelon, zucchini, corn on the cob too.

This morning they had leftovers from a catered dinner at my husband's work--entire pans of ground beef, fajita steak and chicken, rice, salsa, salad, black beans, and a whole pan of queso cheese.

If they run out of food I will boil a couple dozen eggs, tear them up and feed back to them. They will also drink milk or any other beverages.

 

[sallyintheally]

Mine are the same, they love just about anything.

 

[realsis]

I don't feed scraps from food but I do feed nutritional treats like fruits and vegetables and I buy snacks like buckwheat pumpkin seeds flax seed dried alfalfa kelp marigold petals sunflower seeds meal worms river shrimp fennel seed organic bee pollen cracked corn rolled oats flaked wheat flaked spelt . Most of these ingredients are in bags of what's called "treats for chickens". I buy them various different bags of treats from this company. I grow my own meal worms and give watermelon in the summer months. I just don't give kitchen scraps. They also are fed a all organic chicken feed with things in it like organic field peas and organic corn and organic wheat organic oats and barely and fish meal with alfalfa flaxseed sea kelp rice bran and wheat middlings. I try to make sure they have a good balanced diet. They also forage on a pasture blend of rye grass, buckwheat, flax, strawberry clover, alfalfa, white clover, fall ryegrain, red clover and trefoil. This pasture is high in omega 3 for them. So that's what I give my birds.

 

[karron]

If you eat healthy then chicken are going to benefit from feeding on your scraps. If you don't... well they probably won't die if you are alive. Oh, but there are some things that you shouldn't give to chicken like raw potatoes or avocados.