Pears how many is too many?

[workindog]

So i have 15 hens and a pear tree lmao no im not singing a Christmas Carol hahaha

I know they like pears, ive offered them some from my hands as a special treat. But all the pears we havent eaten and some that have fallen.. how many pears can I offer them daily?

I have lots in my compost but feel bad about throwing the rest out I even posted on FB offering them free. Not one person replied. Its a shame to just throw them away.

The tree was here from the previous owners, we didnt plant it, we dont really like pears.

 

[Red-Stars-in-RI]

It was a cider pressing weekend at my house this weekend.

12 gallons of cider produced, with our 25 hens of assorted ages getting all the scraps.

Here's a picture of remnants of the first pressing. They got about 8 more similar sized batches.

So, put me in the camp of "more than 4 pears is probably OK".

 

[feathermaid]

Hey, I know what it's like to have too many pears! We have a tree in the backyard and don't care for pears much either. This year was an unusual bumper crop and I didn't want to throw them all away, so I climbed a ladder and picked as many as I could, then made a neighborhood fruit stand. I put a small table with a big patio umbrella out near our front sidewalk with several smallish boxes of pears and a big sign that said "FREE ORGANIC PEARS." All pears were gone by the end of the day. I picked a few more batches as they ripened over a couple weeks and got rid of them all. I ran out of boxes for the last small batch and put little sacks out instead.


The ones that actually hit the ground I gathered for the chickens (compost bin in the chicken yard) never counted how many, but they didn't seem to overeat. My birds have free range access to the fallen ones anyway and sometimes don't even touch them.

I've been doing a lot of yardwork out front this week and all my neighbors that passed by stopped and thanked me for the yummy free fruit. So my neighbors were happy and I didn't have pears going to waste... win win! One neighbor even offered to come over next year and help pick.

 

[RoosterML]

Hello fellow CT chicken owner. I’d say 4-5 pears for the 15 every other day would be a nice snack for them. Keeping in mind not to give them other treats.

 

[workindog]

Well hello my neighbor ty for your reply, my chickies LOVE the pears. Even give TINY pieces to my bunnies but they have a hard time digesting sugars so they just get a couple bites at a time. If youd like some free pears for your chickies, send me a message. Tho, you're about 40 minutes away. Im more towards Hartford..

 

[Red-Stars-in-RI]

@feathermaid - That's.....awesome!

Sounds like you've nailed the USDA "food waste pyramid" approach:

Feeding People > Feeding Animals > Compost > Landfill

 

[Ted_Harrell]

Just don't overdo it, the layer food they eat is the main thing they need and everything else subtracts from that as far as how much they can eat.