For the MINIMALISTS - those who think less is more in chicken keeping - Please help

[GetFitWithKrista]

I got mine when they were 6 and 8 wks old. I spent a lot of time with them and they would sit on my lap occasionally. But I would not call them lap chickens. The first group I taught to eat out of my hand nicely but I didn't with group 2 and they will take the skin off your hand.
Feed them from your hand from day 1 and that will help make them friendly.

You did your own little inadvertent experiment. Hand feeding - noted.

 

[AmeliaBedelia]

Yeah so you guys keep talking about snacks and treats. What do you give them?

While I'm thinking of it, how do you get them to turn their bedding?

I just gave mine chicken food or veggies . I also gave their eggshells back to them (crushed) for extra calcium.

Mine tuned their bedding themselves looking for bugs. If they miss a spot, I have heard some people sprinkle a little food over there to encourage them. But I would be careful about that if you have a rodent problem.

 

[Sally PB]

That's a big difference. Do you use less hemp then pine shavings to offset, or is it about the same amount?

No, I'd still be using 2 bales of either.

Yeah so you guys keep talking about snacks and treats. What do you give them?

While I'm thinking of it, how do you get them to turn their bedding?

My chickens favorite snack is their regular feed, wetted into a mash. It's your same food, silly chickens!

I add various greens or weeds, and they love squash and melon guts with the seeds. They like blueberries, strawberry hulls, banana peels, the core of heads of lettuce or cabbage, and the leftover cooked mush when I make bone broth.

BOSS (stand for Black Oil Sunflower Seed) and mealworms are popular snacks too. High protein, but also high fat.

If you want them to turn the bedding, toss a bit of BOSS (or something else dry and tossable) where they need to mix it up. Believe me, they will mix it up!

 

[RoyalChick]

Yeah so you guys keep talking about snacks and treats. What do you give them?

While I'm thinking of it, how do you get them to turn their bedding?

Mine have never needed any encouragement to dig in the bedding. I think 80% of their day is spent digging around in whatever stuff there is.

 

[3KillerBs]

Yeah so you guys keep talking about snacks and treats. What do you give them?

While I'm thinking of it, how do you get them to turn their bedding?

Treat is an extremely flexible word, encompassing anything that the chickens like and eat eagerly -- which can be more or less nutritious depending. Some use "treat" to refer only to the "chicken candy" items like scratch, BOSS, or mealworms (fatty enough to be limited). Others use it to mean anything that isn't their regular feed in the feeder.

*Personally,* I consider the chicken candy stuff to be a treat and things like kitchen scraps or Dubia roaches (much less fat than mealworms), to be food -- though not a complete diet like their regular feed.

When I want them to work on some neglected bedding I will throw some scratch or some BOSS, depending on what I've got.

If you want them to turn the bedding, toss a bit of BOSS (or something else dry and tossable) where they need to mix it up. Believe me, they will mix it up!

I've actually even gotten them to do this by throwing pellets into the bedding.

 

[GetFitWithKrista]

I just gave mine chicken food or veggies . I also gave their eggshells back to them (crushed) for extra calcium.

Mine tuned their bedding themselves looking for bugs. If they miss a spot, I have heard some people sprinkle a little food over there to encourage them. But I would be careful about that if you have a rodent problem.

Do you give them eggshells a lot? This is interesting. How often do you suggest to give them the shells?

No rodents - I'd rather not put food on the ground.

I just watched a video of the hemp bedding and it looks very easy to move around so I'm sure I could do any areas they miss.

 

[GetFitWithKrista]

I add various greens or weeds, and they love squash and melon guts with the seeds. They like blueberries, strawberry hulls, banana peels, the core of heads of lettuce or cabbage, and the leftover cooked mush when I make bone broth.

So when I peel my cucumbers, I can give them the peels? The tops of the strawberries? The leftovers my son won't eat? Little garbage disposals

BOSS (stand for Black Oil Sunflower Seed) and mealworms are popular snacks too. High protein, but also high fat.

If you want them to turn the bedding, toss a bit of BOSS (or something else dry and tossable) where they need to mix it up. Believe me, they will mix it up!

I read somewhere that dried black soldier fly larvae is good, too. Do you think the dried mealworms draw mice?

 

[GetFitWithKrista]

Treat is an extremely flexible word, encompassing anything that the chickens like and eat eagerly -- which can be more or less nutritious depending. Some use "treat" to refer only to the "chicken candy" items like scratch, BOSS, or mealworms (fatty enough to be limited). Others use it to mean anything that isn't their regular feed in the feeder.

*Personally,* I consider the chicken candy stuff to be a treat and things like kitchen scraps or Dubia roaches (much less fat than mealworms), to be food -- though not a complete diet like their regular feed.

I love being able to give them kitchen scraps. No waste.

When I want them to work on some neglected bedding I will throw some scratch or some BOSS, depending on what I've got.

What is "scratch?"

I've actually even gotten them to do this by throwing pellets into the bedding.

You don't get critters from doing this?

 

[GetFitWithKrista]

Does the run have to be 12ish inches of straw like the coop?

 

[RoyalChick]

Do you give them eggshells a lot? This is interesting. How often do you suggest to give them the shells?

I give them all their eggshells crushed up in a bowl for whenever they want them.
I collect them in a metal bucket in the kitchen and whenever I am using the oven after I turn it off I put the bucket in the oven (it is a small bucket!).
Some people do that because of hygiene - I do it because it makes them super easy to crush.
Once they are cool I crush them inside the bucket with a bottle in the kitchen and then pour them into a feeder attached to the coop wall.
They seem to love them much more than the oyster shell that they also have freely available.
When they weren't laying and I had to buy eggs I gave them those shells as well.

So when I peel my cucumbers, I can give them the peels? The tops of the strawberries? The leftovers my son won't eat? Little garbage disposals

Yes. I give them most of my kitchen scraps. I put it in the covered run and what they don't like just rots down in the deep litter.
I do think a bit about pesticides so tend to wash things I give them. So cucumbers is a great example - if I am eating the skins I wash them first. If I am peeling them I might not bother to wash them. But if I am giving the skins to the chickens I will wash them.