Making Feed at Home

[Sally PB]

Good luck with that! Good luck to all of us owning chickens and trying to plant much of anything right now.

I have a big garden. That's part of the reason I don't free range my chickens, even though the garden has a fence around it.

I save all the feed bits and dust that fall to the bottom of the chickens' bowls, and dump it into a bin. I use that to make their afternoon chickie snack, wetting it down to about peanut butter consistency. I add whatever kitchen scraps I have on hand, a few bit of spinach, and there is never any left at the end of the day. They know what it means when I sing the chickie snack song.

 

[Ascholten]

Mine fly into the 5 gallon bucket while I'm carrying it, and dive head first. If I set it down to fill it, some will STILL try to goble it up, the fall of water on their bodies notwithstanding! and once its mash, of course they will try and stand int he bucket, as I am caqrrying it to feed locations, then happily pick mash from between their toes

You know, I read these replies about how our girls act and all I can say is thank GOD that there are not often strangers around when we feed them. With these antics they'd swear these birds are starving and we haven't fed them in a week!

HONEST Officer !! She ALWAYS chews through the barbed wire fence to get breakfast... Ummm Hmmm... step this way please...

Aaron

 

[Lauravonsmurf]

I finally convinced my niece and nephew to use my method of getting chickens to come… treat bribes with a specific call. Within 1 week the flock is racing to come, and go into the coop to get treats when the kids call... … now they can’t go outside without the chickens running to them. The little raptors learn fast.

 

[Ascholten]

Mine have learned what the lid to the food can / snack can sounds like. I don't care how quietly that lid snaps, they come running from everywhere when they hear it.

Aaron

 

[raingarden]

Mine have learned what the lid to the food can / snack can sounds like. I don't care how quietly that lid snaps, they come running from everywhere when they hear it.

Aaron

That's the worst thing about the metal cans. You might as well ring a bell.

 

[Ascholten]

That's the worst thing about the metal cans. You might as well ring a bell.

But it's Plastic !!
So ... YES. that little soft tick !! when the lid unsnaps. They got bionic ears Im tellin ya!

 

[Solanacae]

Mine do that too, Ill be pouring the food into the bowl and they are hopping up, trying to hop up on top of the coop, anything to get at it. Lil pests they are !!

1 of mine is a bit flighty, the other 3, nope you can reach right down and grab them right up. They are not exactly lap chickens who will stay with you for hours but you can hold them fairly still a few minutes if you want.

Aaron

I’ve got two that are very tricky to catch, one is pretty flighty, the other is a big-bodied Wyandotte cross so I can’t exactly describe her as flighty but she sure is good at sneaking/running away from you when you’re looking for her. None of the rest are really in the lap chicken category, but some tolerate being picked up by my kids better than others. I generally don’t pick them up unless I need to check/treat them for something since they make it pretty clear they don’t love being handled that way. They like to come hang out around me and preen, so I feel like we have pretty rapport. Especially since I’m the person who brings the food out.

That's the worst thing about the metal cans. You might as well ring a bell.

Mine know the sound of the sliding door. A lot of times it’s just the kids running out into the backyard but there’s always one that will come over to see who came out. And they know when to expect me and congregate by the gate - in the morning when I bring out the fermented feed and pull the pellet feeder out of the metal garbage can (to keep mice out at night), and in the mid-afternoon when I let them out to forage in the yard until they go to roost.