Porridge

[chicken mum]

Is it ok to feed porridge to chickens. I give my girls a bowl of porridge every lunchtime or evening and they adore it. I mix corn into it sometimes and they polish every bit of it off. Is it ok to give it every day - they still stuff all their layers pellets throughout the day - the porridge is just a treat. I sometimes substitute layers mash alongside their pellets but should I be doing this ? is it bad for them or does it not really matter ? My girls seem to adore it and are really healthy looking.

 

[Wildsky]

Depends on how many chickens and how big the bowl is - as a treat sure - no problem at all, but if its the bulk of what they're eating in a day, then you'd want to cut down a little.

As a base to understand, I have 18 chickens 6 ducks, and 6 guineas. Most mornings, and every evening they get two cups of scratch mixed with sunflower seeds to share. And that is their treat for the day (now and then they'll get table scraps thrown out as well)

 

[MagsC]

Not sure if this is anything like what you are talking about...but I gave mine some malt-o-meal today as a small treat and they were crazy over it. There was another thread on here that said it was okay for them in smaller amounts...
Porridge. You know, I have always heard about it and just assumed it was like oatmeal, malt-o-meal etc. What exactly does it have IN it???????

 

[Brahmadarma]

Porridge is a British term for oatmeal - exactly the same thing.

 

[Wildsky]

Quote:
Sometimes not so...

Porridge, or porage, is a simple dish made by boiling oats (normally crushed oats, occasionally oatmeal) or another cereal in water, milk, or both. Dishes made from cornmeal to which boiling water is added are a variant of porridge, though these are more often described by regional/national variant names such as polenta and grits and are prepared and served according to special regional traditions. Oat and semolina porridge are the most popular varieties in many countries, other cereals used for porridge include rice, wheat, barley, and cornmeal. Legumes such as peasemeal can also be used to make porridge. Gruel is similar to porridge but is much more like a drink; it has a very thin consistency and is made with water.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Porridge

 

[MagsC]

Great info, thanks!

I sure didnt know it!

 

[cr213636]

How do you make that? I would like to know because I've seen that mentioned before, but whenever my family makes porridge it has LOTS of sugar and cream, and we make it with milk which I'm not sure if chickens can have. It sounds really cool to be able to feed them the type of porridge that we eat, but is their porridge a gruel type thing? Either way, if they like it, then please tell me: How do you make it? Right now I only have chicks, but I would want to give that to them if it's raining or something.