Pizza feed

[Jenn1399]

A friend has a pizza shop & I am getting the leftover, cooked slices for my girls. It is more of a gourmet pizza shop, so I feel goodabout theveggies & crust on the pizza, but it is really yummy pizza, so I am sure it is loaded with cheese too! Last night they had 1 slice per bird, (7) as well as a head of kale & our normal kitchen scraps of bread crust & whatever the kids drop or don't eat.

I'm sure it is fine in moderation... But I have access to a lot of it & I want to give them as much as they'll eat - to reduce the amount of feed I have to buy.

What do you think? I don't want fat chickens who are too fat to lay me eggs

 

[luvinrunnin]

I'm new to this site, and while I've had chickens in the past, I am certainly not an expert, BUT, I'd think too much would not be good for them. I wouldn't give them a whole lot. JMHO.

 

[howfunkyisurchicken]

I would moderate- my girls love pizza too. Im sure there is probably quite a bit of salt (cheese, pepperoni, sauce), and that's not really good for them. Im sure someone more knowledgeable will chime in

 

[WestKnollAmy]

One slice per bird per day is way too much. If you can feed it every day then it needs to be about a 1/4 of a slice per bird per day because of the contents. Health wise it will lead to problems and you will see it in egg production at some point.

I, too, have access to a lot of bread. I give all my extra eggs to the church food pantry and in return I get all the left over bread. I feed it sparingly and my birds are free ranging or in tractors. The ones that get to free range will avoid it now and the dog eats it but my tractored birds still like it.
I did use it more during the winter for snacks to keep them busy during the day and help put a bit more weight on them since mine do not care to eat corn.

Fill their crops with more nutritional foods and give the pizza as treats.

 

[chicnfarmer]

Others may disagree, but I think that it is great food - you have a lot of protien in the cheese, and anytime you can get free food for your birds is a GREAT day! If it were me, I'd still keep a bag of balanced layer pellets on hand to feed periodically.

This brings up an issue that I have been debating with my father for the past year - I asked him how the "old-timers" were able to keep chickens. Mine go through 40 lbs of pellets in about 2 weeks. I've never done the math, but they seem to be pretty expensive to own. He said that the whole reason that people kept chickens is because they were pretty self-sufficient animals and required little food and care. I thought that I had read that there are vitamins and minerals in the pellets, but the more I think about it, the more illogical it seems. I don't see why they couldn't get everything they need from the environment.

 

[Jenn1399]

Chick farmer, I like your answer best, but I don't really see pizza with processed cheese coming from the environment!

I will ration their slices & try to get more of the day old veggies that don't get used on the pizzas & stuff.

Oh & the girls do have layer feed available at all times & they free range at least 1/2 the day daily. Well, the have a fenced in area of the yard that is 30'x40' - that is still considered free ranging, even though they don't have the run of the yard, right?