Kale, the poultry opiate

[HollyKMS]

Offer your chickens kale. They'll go absolutely insane.

It's best if you do it without chopping, make them work for it. They get a piece of leaf between their beaks then thrash their heads side-to-side like a frenzied pit, trying to rip off the leaf. They fight over who gets closest to the stalk. If one gets a big piece, she'll take off running across the yard, wings out, squawking, with the others in hot pursuit, trying to rip it from her beak.

It's HILARIOUS!

I hand-feed mine because I enjoy being close to the leafy massacre, but you can always clip the stalk to the fence if you don't hand-feed, or chop it up.

I'm going to try to make a video of it in the next day or two, if they (and the weather) will cooperate...

OMG I freakin' LOVE chickens.

 

[Mountain Sunshine]

Funny you should post this. I bought a big bag of kale for the flock and your right, they go crazy over it! They love it! They like it more than the spinach.

 

[BeardedLadyFarm]

Kale is a type of brassica, along with cabbage, and broccoli, cauliflower and brussels sprouts. I have watched them demolish all of the above, both on purpose when I give it to them, and on accident when they get over the garden fence.

 

[KandJsmama]

Quote:
Me too! I could watch them all day and sometimes do

 

[jojo54]

Kale? Better than corn or grapes?

 

[HollyKMS]

Philly Phlock- you're an OUTLAW? How so? Too many chickens in the city? Super cool! Sounds like you need a better garden fence tho...

My henhouse limits my flock size. My 7 are almost too many as it is--they fight over roost space--so I can't get more, but when I win the lottery (HA HA!! "When" indeed LOL) I'm buying 10 acres and having as many chickens (& peacocks & goats) as I want!!!

I wonder if I'm the only person that dreams of winning the lottery in order to buy land to house more animals.....

 

[Eboss]

Nope, I do too, my wife and I joke that we are what happens when you don't have parents to say no more pets!

 

[BeardedLadyFarm]

Quote:
All chickens are illegal here. I was aiming for 4, but I figured 11 was just as illegal as 4. I've given away more than I've kept to only have quiet and close to the ground girls.

I do need a better kale fence. My fall crop was almost ready when some of my big girls pushed by without me seeing it.

 

[SilverPhoenix]

Oh man, now I want to get some kale.

Chickens are the funniest! I like to find my chickens potato bugs to devour, and if I throw a potato bug in the coop, they go utterly ballistic! It's one of the funniest sights in the world.

I feel bad for the people of the world who don't have hilarious chickens to watch!

 

[HollyKMS]

OMG SilverPh, you're like NOAH- so many animals! That's GREAT! I wish I was in a position to do that

Philadephia - I had no idea all chickens were illegal there. That's surprising. A lot of urban areas are now allowing up to 3 hens in the city. Good on you for doing it anyway!

Eboss, my folks said "no" to just about every animal I ever begged for, which is why I think I'm the way I am. I think it goes both ways

I suspect deprivation can cause as much of a preoccupation with something as indulgence. All I know is, I never seem to have enough CRITTERS around me.

JoJo, I bet corn & grapes are good too but my birds just seem to go a little nuts over fresh greens