Food Scraps?

[DuckRaiser]

Give them anything, mint leaves, rotten noodles, and soft apples. ETC

 

[SNJchickens]

When my five hens can't free range on my less-than-quarter-acre lot and they are "stuck" in their (huge 14 x 21 ft) run, I give them a tray of treats. Included from the kitchen are bread ends, cereal, crackers, apples, lettuce and trimmings from vegetables. Especially enjoyed by the hens are the trimmings from cauliflower heads and trimming from turnips (greens) but they enjoy melon rinds/seeds, crushed hardcooked egg with the shell crushed into the mix, and almost any vegetable. Peanut butter mixed with scratch (winter) or oatmeal (summer) is devoured instantly.

I know that the chickens are omnivorous but I tend to shy away from giving them cooked meat, but that's because I can't get my head around it.

The hens' favorite kitchen treat in the summer is an ear of corn suspended from a string. They have worked out a routine where they form a circle around the ear of corn. One pecks at it and gets a kernel. The ear swings toward the hen opposite who takes a peck and thus the ear swings in a new direction. No hen charges in or pecks at another hen. They seem to take turns as the ear swings near. VERY entertaining.

I almost forgot to mention cheese! They love cheese so much that I use it to lure them onto my lap or into the run when they are reluctant to be confined.

 

[karenerwin]

Can i give chicks any "scraps" or "treats" other then the food?

You can give them grass clippings & weeds, just make sure that they have not been treated or sprayed with chemicals ( weed killer, fertilizer...). Also don't give them any weeds on the toxic to chickens list.

 

[nate1the1great1]

Ya my chickens don't eat them but my goats and ducks and geese love them

 

[Sierrab]

Can chickens eat peppermint plant?
I learned planting peppermint will keep mice and small rodents away and was going to plant it near the coop/run but don't know if it's safe for chickens.

 

[Eddie B]

Mine eat what ever I give them but I was told not to give them meat? Onions and green tomatoes

 

[Beekissed]

Mine eat what ever I give them but I was told not to give them meat? Onions and green tomatoes

Meat is one of the natural foods they will scavenge out on forage. They will pick a carcass just like any other scavenger bird. Just want to be careful that they can pick small bites of it instead of swallowing it in large chunks or strings.

Mine wait around the processing table for bits of soft organs like spleen, liver, testicles and chunks of fat. They will also lick the blood from the tree and the ground.

 

[HS Pye]

Can chickens eat peppermint plant?
I learned planting peppermint will keep mice and small rodents away and was going to plant it near the coop/run but don't know if it's safe for chickens.

Chickens know what's poisonous and what's not poisonous. Our chickens ate some mint once, never got hurt. Mint isn't a delicacy for chickens so they don't pay much attention to it.

 

[HS Pye]

Mine eat what ever I give them but I was told not to give them meat? Onions and green tomatoes

Chickens can have meat. Even chicken itself, though I personally don't do that :/. Wild chickens will naturally eat meat. Like BeeKissed said, they are scavengers, not vegetarians. When I want to put weight on my birds I give them beef/pork fat, they love it, never got hurt.

 

[BugGuy]

My flock gets everything we don't eat. I let them figure out what they like and don't like. Most of the time, there is nothing left regardless of what I put out for them. Haven't had a single problem yet.