how often to feed fresh greens.

[jfoley]

how much is to much when it comes to fresh greens such as lettus and such.

 

[A.T. Hagan]

Greens such as Iceberg lettuce don't have a whole lot of value to them. Dark green leafies such as kale, collards, mustards, turnips, and that sort of thing are better.

You can feed it every day. Whatever they can clean up in fifteen to twenty minutes or so.

 

[Ridgerunner]

That is a bit of a hard one. The simple answer is that you should only feed them enough treats that they can clean them up in 10 to 20 minutes. That is intended to cover all treats, whether it is scratch, greens, or pumpkins. The idea is that the Layer feeed contains what they need for a balanced diet and if you feed too much of something else, their diet is no longer balanced. I assure you, many of us violate that daily and still get plenty of eggs from healthy chickens. But if you want a safe conservative answer, just feed what they can clean up in 10 to 20 minutes, and you can feed that daily.

One of the risks in feeding them a lot of other stuff is that they may not eat enough Layer get enough calcium for their egg shells. I offer oyster shell on the side. If they need extra calcium, they take a bite. Usually the oyster shell lasts a long time.

The other thing I would suggest is to vary their diet. Don't give then the same treat all the time. Kitchen scraps often work well to give a varied diet. If you have a garden, give them different things from that. Occasionally some scratch is OK. The idea is to try to give them a bit of balance. Too much of a good thing is often not a good thing, especially when it comes to diet and nutrition.

 

[jfoley]

Thanks For Reply.
Jfoley

 

[Oregon Blues]

I feed fruit, veggies, greens to the ducks and geese every day.

If you give more than they can clean up very quickly, they stomp it into the ground and ruin it. So just feed what they will rush to clean up and not leave any lying around.

 

[Illia]

The more the better. Leafy greens are extremely important, as they have a lot of minerals, vitamins, and nutrients in them that most commercial feeds don't have.

 

[Tracydr]

Quote:
I'm with Illia. They also contain antioxidants and enzymes. Leafy greens and orange veggies like pumpkin, plus bright colored fruits like melon. I give mine at least some mustard greens, usually a bunch of other stuff everyday.
Many dark leafy veggies like spinach and kale also have plenty of readily used calcium.

 

[pawsplus]

Yup--I don't think one can feed too many dark leafy greens. Until wintertime, I pick dandelion greens for mine, and supplement those w/ kale, collards, and turnip greens. They love them, and they're so good for them! I look at the layer pellets as vitamin pills and make sure that plenty of "real" food is offered every day.

 

[LisaAnnW]

Sprouts (sunflower, alfalfa, clover, etc.) are great too!

 

[SteveBaz]

It not just what you get at the store in the veggie dept but grass clippings, flowers from the rose beds, leaf from the bushes or trees and all kinds of fruits. Stay away from any citrus. Well mine do not like it at all...