fresh veggies???

[sundevil]

Hello,

I am new to raising chickens and I have two Production Red's, one Silkie, and one Barred Rock that are three months old. I put some lettuce in their coop the other day to see what happened and they chowed down! I have a garden next to my coop and plan to feed them the fresh veggies but I am not sure how to feed them?? Do I just throw them on the ground I heard this may cause disease? I have been putting them in a dish and not sure if i should keep doing this or if there is something I can make to put them in....looking for any ideas???

Thanks

 

[jmtcmkb]

welcome to raising chickens! I am also new to raising chickens That being said I dont have too much experience but can tell you this, Ive tried the sanitized version of feeding my chickens......doesnt work they were created to peck and scratch from the ground. So after many attempts at feeding them "treats" from a bowl, I have discovered anything I toss on the ground they eat eagerly, including prefering water mixed with dirt that turns into mud rather than the fresh water 2 inches away in the pristine hanging waterer! If I place a container in the run with a treat they simply flip it over with their scratching, so I have learned to toss on the ground and let them enjoy. I think it's part of the need for sand/grit to digest foods...

I like putting a whole head of cabbage in, takes them a lot of time and they enjoy pecking away at it slowly all day/

 

[lorain's fids]

I like putting a whole head of cabbage in, takes them a lot of time and they enjoy pecking away at it slowly all da

My 5 girls LOVE cabbage. I generally give it to them on a rainy day when they are likely to stay in their run-a cabbage head or whole cauliflower gives them something to do on a rainy day.

 

[RedDrgn]

One way or another, it all ends up on the ground anyway (chickens are slobby eaters like that, lol!). But we've found that decent ways to avoid MOST of it ending up on the ground is to use large suet baskets to stuff scraps into and then hang the baskets on the fence of their run. We also have a shallow bowl that we'll toss large items into like cabbages or squash. But they're still going to throw it all over the place.

As long as the food you're giving them is unspoiled, you don't really have to worry about diseases from contact with the ground. Chickens scratch and peck and eat off of the ground all of the time, after all.

When we mow the yard, we usually collect 3 bags of grass clippings and throw them in the run (in piles). They level them in seconds and them eat the grass and pick through to grab all of the bugs in it, too. Every week, we rake out what's left and add new, and they LOVE it. Any kind of vegetable scrap leftovers we have go to the chickens, excluding potatoes and onions. Cabbage, lettuce, tomatoes, ALL squashes, melons, strawberries, blueberries, you name it, they devour it.