Kitchen scraps for my flock?

[WildCHILD400]

And avoid dry uncooked beans and dry rice.

 

[JeanR]

Hot weather, scrap feeding can attract flies, other pests,. My chickens are not a garbage dump. Chickens enjoy almost anything, but if you want eggs or fryers or pets, they do not need any of your kitchen waste that they will not clean up quickly and not leave bits and pieces to spoil or attract unwanted predators or just look like a garbage dump. Your choice. I eat largely fruit and vegetables, and have little waste, but it goes into a compost bin, for next year's garden enrichment. Main exception is apples that won't keep==they are a welcome treat and require only removal of the skins that they clean out neatly!

 

[lazy gardener]

Very little goes to waste here. If it's "on it's way out" in the "human edible" dept, it goes to the chickens. They get most veggie peels, but not potato peels. If it's moldy, or definitely beyond edible, it goes to compost, or to worm bin. I do DL in coop and run, have a sheet compost area, a compost bin, and have also done a fair amount of trench composting. Egg shells are always saved for the chickens.

I like to give them the water from cooking vegetables. And when I cook squash, I simply cut it up, and cook it with the skins still on. It is then easy to shuck out of the skins, leaving a pot of tender skins, and yummy squash water. The birds love that! Any sour milk goes to them as well.

 

[Wolfgang B.]

Don't give them a ton of bread either, a little bit is okay. Also rinse off pasta because you want your chickens to have as little salt as possible.

 

[theoldchick]

I feed my gang table scraps in moderation. I don't, however, feed them rotten food, candy, raw meat or moldy food. Use common sense and you should be okay. A healthy flock can eat a varied diet with no problems. Having said that I must warn you birds who are harboring a bacterial or viral infection may not tolerate any dietary challenge.

 

[Mr Pink]

I don't feed very much "kitchen " scraps but lots of garden waste ... mostly vegetables with bad spot , extra and whole plants after season. Most of what come back out of the kitchen is leftovers from processing ( IE : seeds and pulp from processing canning tomatoes ) all goes into DL run

 

[Chickassan]

I take it you don't have crows.

Hot weather, scrap feeding can attract flies, other pests,. My chickens are not a garbage dump. Chickens enjoy almost anything, but if you want eggs or fryers or pets, they do not need any of your kitchen waste that they will not clean up quickly and not leave bits and pieces to spoil or attract unwanted predators or just look like a garbage dump. Your choice. I eat largely fruit and vegetables, and have little waste, but it goes into a compost bin, for next year's garden enrichment. Main exception is apples that won't keep==they are a welcome treat and require only removal of the skins that they clean out neatly!

 

[Morrigan]

My chickens get a fair amount of kitchen and garden scraps. Old tomatoes, squash, apples, peppers, etc. Like others, I screen out toxic foods, and moldy foods. I also limit anything oily or fatty. They also get a handful of meal worms and sunflower seeds each day as a treat, plus a small dish of sprouted grains. This is in addition to whatever bugs and weeds they can find in the yard, which depending on the time of year, can be a lot.

I know a lot of people try to make sure 90-95% of the diet is bagged chicken feed, but I've never stressed too much about that. I have a hard time viewing garden veggies, sprouted grains, and insects as treats, as opposed to things chickens have evolved to eat. They do have commercial feed available for them, but if they want to go eat weeds and produce, I'm inclined to let them. As long as I'm happy with the egg production and health of the flock (and I am) I'm satisfied.