How much garden stuff can I feed them

[Ole and Lena]

I've got access to a bottomless pile of produce. Peppers, sweet corn, tomatos, cukes, squash, broccoli, green beans, peas, etc. The guy just down the road opened a roadside produce stand this year and will give me, yes GIVE me anything not pretty enough to put up and sell. I've already gotten enough "blemished" sweet corn put up to last the winter.

Question is how much of this free feed can I give to the chickens? Will it be high enough in protein to keep them laying? Is there anything other than raw potatos they can't eat (I dry them out and burn them in the woodstove, great fuel)?

 

[little boy farm]

i give them anything they will eat, better than letting it go to waste

 

[sumi]

Vegetables is great for chickens, but I heard green beans is bad for them, so rather skip that. I'm not sure they;ll eat peppers, but I know they love broccoli, tomatoes, cukes etc. You can cook the potatoes for them, cooked peels is good chicken food. They should get plenty protein from that, but don't just feed them veg. Give some chicken food as well.

 

[Ole and Lena]

Yeah, that's pretty much what I thought. They have free access to layer mash and oyster shell and a bumper crop of grasshoppers.

With feed prices up, looks like I'll be scavenging leftover field corn and whatever else edible I can find. Every penny helps. At least my regular egg customers are OK with a mild price increase. They might not like the January price much though.

BTW, chickens love peppers, even the Habaneros.

 

[mickey328]

I tend to keep the spuds mostly away...lots of more or less empty calories there. I limit corn too...they love it but it has lots of oil and sugar. Beans are great, but they do need to be cooked. I haven't tried green beans (cuz WE like 'em), but I cook dried beans and they love 'em...great for protein! Any greens are awesome, fruit is good too, but not tons of it. Mine won't eat carrots, either cooked or raw, but they're great too. The beta carotaen (sp?) in greens and carrots is what makes their yolks so nice and gold and taste good.

HTH

 

[brewdaddy]

You could save yourself a step and just add what YOU don't want directly to your large compost pile, then just let the chickens have access to the pile. That way you shouldn't have to move all that material around twice...

 

[Ole and Lena]

You could save yourself a step and just add what YOU don't want directly to your large compost pile, then just let the chickens have access to the pile. That way you shouldn't have to move all that material around twice...

Compost pile??!! Who needs that, I have chickens! Only thing I don't feed them are potato peels and eggshells (don't want to chance any bad habits.) Those go directly on the garden or in the woodstove.

 

[donrae]

I'd say let your girls tell you how much they want. When they start leaving things, back down for a day or so on the veggies. I feed all my kitchen scraps to the birds--the run is like my compost area-- and this time of year they get a lot! I was just joking my eggs should taste like zucchini they're eating so much of it. Just watch your girls, they'll tell you what they want and how much. And like you said, anything they don't eat they help break down anyway.