Is ginger OK to feed chickens?

[TheRobinsons]

Funny question perhaps but I have a tiny bit of ginger flesh and skin leftover from making my morning smoothie, any reason I can't give it to the girls?

 

[SClaire]

Funny question perhaps but I have a tiny bit of ginger flesh and skin leftover from making my morning smoothie, any reason I can't give it to the girls?

I don't feed it ours but I'm starting to think about it now.

According this this study - Dietary supplementation of ginger powder improved laying performance and serum and egg yolk antioxidant status and enhanced dietary oxidation stability in a dose-dependent manner. The optimum supplementation rate of ginger powder in the diet of laying hens appeared to be between 10 and 15 g/kg of diet.

 

[Sneaky Chicken]

I just read that chickens who's diets are made up of 1% of ginger are at higher risk of death. Apparently it's okay to give to them every now and the, i.e. when they are molting, but it should not be a staple in their diet.

I've also read that things like marigold flowers, cayenne pepper, carrots, and barley can help increase the richness of eggs.

 

[Clark101]

Whilst researching we came across this piece of research study by Dr Zhao. He studied the results that ginger has on hens. More specifically how feeding ginger to chickens impacts their egg laying performance.

In the research study they used 675 Hyline brown hens that were around 27 weeks old. These 675 hens were divided into 5 different control groups. Each control group was provided either with 0, 5, 10, 15, or 20 grams of ginger powder per kg of feed for ten weeks.

The ginger used in the study was offered to the chickens in a variety of types consisting of: ginger powder, ginger root and also mixed in with water.

They discovered that hens supplemented with ginger powder began laying eggs with a greater mass and also found a higher quantity of antioxidant in the egg yolks.

Dr Zhao concludes by declaring that the ‘optimum’ amount of ginger powder for laying hens is in between 10-15 grams per kg of feed.