How much fruit and veggie feed should they get?

[thatpotteryguy]

OK, I've got 5 hens, 2 Australorps that are laying (about 1/5 years old) and 3 Easter-Egger pullets that are about 18 weeks at this point. I've been feeding a 16% layer pellet feed, and the older girls are laying consistently 4 eggs every 5 days or so. I expect the younger ones any time now - they've clearly grown quite a bit in the month I've had them, and they look like grown-ups now, not so much pullets.

Anyway, what is an appropriate amount of fruit/veggie treats? Given wastage from the garden (mostly overripe tomatoes and cucumbers, and superannuated Swiss chard) and the kitchen (celery tops, wilted lettuce, melon guts, on and on, you name it), I COULD feed them a couple pounds a day of fresh (or fresh-ish) plant matter. They'd happily eat it up, as I discovered when they got out and murdered a hapless watermelon.

They also get a bit (an ounce or so total) of cheese rind every other day or so, cooked meat scraps (unseasoned, but offcuts from things I'm making for dinner, so fit for human consumption, just a little chewier than we'd like) about as often, again in very small quantities, and a cup of yogurt every few days - the local dairy lets me have stuff that's past the "sell by" date for free.

They don't get sugar (other than occurring in fruit) or salt, chocolate, avocados, citrus, or other things they aren't supposed to have. When the weather was really hot last week, I froze the seeds and pulp from a canteloupe for an hour or so and let them have that for "lunch", which perked everybody up.

Is this a reasonable diet, or should I be trying to get them to focus more on the layer feed and less on the stuff destined for the compost bin? I'm less concerned about maximum egg production than I am about happy, healthy birds. Then still definitly eat the layer feed, and there's no apparent health issues. OTOH, I can see that using them to pre-compost the kitchen scraps can save on the feed bill (already miniscule), and that doesn't suck either.

 

[fldiver97]

I have the same number of chickens and they love berries, watermelon, yogurt and other vegetable/friut scraps they get. I let them have the run of the yard and they stuff themselves on bugs, weeds, grass , seeds and whatever else they find. I always have chicken feed available, if they are not in the run the door is open. They seem to walk away from soem fruits and veggies when they've had their fill and move on to other things. I think they mostly know what they need and given access to a variety of things does not sound like it's going to hurt them. I am not raising my birds for meat and I'm not pushing for maximum egg output. So far the girls look very healthy. They eat less commercial feed than I expected but then they forage a lot. and get seasonal produce. Not sure if that is what others do but so far it s going well here. Come winter they will have to make do with mostly chicken feed

 

[tallieb]

I feed my chickens every morning a nice big bowl of fruits and veggies. They still have access to there laying crumbles. My husband gets jealous that the chickens get breakfast and not him.

 

[Chicks_N_Horses]

Mine get fruit and veggies every day.

 

[thatpotteryguy]

Well, we have a winter garden and cold-frames, so during the winter, they'll probably get a lot more greens and lettuces and a lot less fruit.

I'm a fanatic home cook, and it's relatively easy to get high-quality off-season produce around here (the local Asian grocery is happy to have me cart off the occasional box of damaged veggies, since they have to pay for trash pickup), so it's likely that they will have plenty of fresh food throughout the winter. I also plan on turining them loose in the summer garden at the end of the season and again prior to spring planting, so there should be a fair bit of forage there as well - beats sifting out all the weeds and seeds myself.

So far, they aren't exactly picky eaters - pretty much anything that we eat, they're happy to eat. My four-year-old discovered this afternoon that they ADORE pizza. Now they are following him around the yard hoping for more treats.

Next week, they're moving to the far back yard, to start cleaning up under the apple and pear trees. They seem to like deadfall fruit well enough, and rather than me carry it to them, I figure I'll bring them to it.

 

[homeschoolmama]

Mine get a lot of fruits/veggie scraps too. I've hade them on Flock Raiser because I wanted them off the medicated chick feed. They are now nearly 21 weeks and at least some are laying (I have 6). I'll need to go get another bag of feed soon and I'm debating doing Flock Raiser + oyster shells vs Layena. I was thinking it might be good to have them on the higher protein Flock Raiser when they get so much vegetation. Thoughts on that please.