I love not throwing anything away

[JennsPeeps]

Last night I pulled down my little tealight lantern to take outside. Lo & behold there was an ancient dead moth inside. I hadn't touched the lantern since last year, so who knows how long that dessicated bug was in there.

Called the chickens over.

They munched it up.

Wasting nothing with chickens around is good.

 

[Rosebud75]

That's what I keep telling my DH to try to convince him to let me have some. We don't have a garbage disposal under our sink because the space is too small, and DH doesn't like compost piles. SO we end up throwing out all our food waste (which costs us money since we pay by weight for our garbage), and that garbage draws the worst amount of flies!!!

So I tell him - honey, we can give chickens all our food waste, then we won't have all the flies, and even if we get flies, they'll probably just eat them anyway!!!

 

[motorboy]

Just make sure they eat all you give them each day or you'll get mice, rats, etc.

 

[Rosebud75]

I have 3 cats - not too worried about mice! ha ha

 

[Maryallison77]

Neat!

I give mine some of the kitcen scraps that are on the treat list here at barnyard chickens. Plus I have 60 rabbits to eat a few things for me too!

 

[Rosebud75]

I come from frugal New England stock - it goes against all my instincts to throw out food, no matter how bad! I'm looking forward to being able to put the generous amounts of kid-generated waste to some good use!

Now...if I can just convince my hubby that Chickens are a good idea....

 

[punkin]

We don't waste food either. The choicest meat scraps (if any) goes to the dogs, then the chickens get table and kitchen scraps, then the worms get peelings, and the compost pile gets the rest.

 

[ORChick]

Quote:
Doesn't like a compost pile? Get one of the compost containers - check with your local garbage people, they may have some at a discounted price - it doesn't have to be an open pile. I also have three containers on the kitchen counter - one for chickens, what they can't have goes to the worms, and what they can't have goes to the compost. The compost is suffering since I got the chicks and worms

(Work on the cost factor of the garbage bags; a compost bin can't be anywhere near as offensive as paying for the garbage removal)

 

[newchickenfamily]

Rosebud75:

It took me awhile to convince my DH also. He finally caved under pressure. We got a Chick N Barn & Yard for our very suburban yard. Kind of a souped up dog house with an attached run.

We have 3 pullets and are amazed at what they can eat! The only thing that is usually leftover is a shriveled up melon rind or two.

Good luck convincing your DH!!

 

[Rosebud75]

I'm working on it. I finally wrote a 2 page essay detailing the benefits of chickens, and how it's almost rediculous for people not to have a little backyard flock. I told him one reason he can barely stand store bought eggs (they make him kind of queasy) is because they're not fresh. I even told him that it's a modern, post-war idea not to have a backyard flock, since people decided that such things were a sign of poverty, and it was a sign of weath to be able to go to the grocery store and buy everything you need. Before that, it was common, even in urban areas, for a family to have a few hens for eggs - like having a garbage disposal!

At any rate, I asked him to read it out of 'respect for his wife and her ideas' and he did.
He hasn't said anything except maybe "Gee, if you wanted chickens so bad, I thought you'd be kissing up to me more!"
But that's better than the flat-out "NO!" I was getting.

Sloooowly. Very very sloooowly.