Potato Peels

[picklespickles]

mine love picking out a big hunk of peel out of whatever slop i tossed out there and ruuuuuunnnnnnnnnnnnnnning full speed away with it. like HEY i got the good stuff, suckers.

lol. i don't know if it's the taste, nutrients, the texture or size. but they love them.

if you are worried about the uncooked stuff, maybe you could just stick a pile of stuff in the microwave once a week or something to make you feel better?

 

[GoodEgg]

My chickens LOVE cooked potato skins. It's one of their favorites too.

I just discovered, the ducks have been daily visiting the compost heap and waiting for Baka (means "idiot" in Japanese, guess she's well-named after all!) ... waiting for Baka to eat her fill of raw potatoes each day. It's the only thing besides tea grounds going in the compost any more.

Guess I'm just going to have to cook ALL potato parts and rotten potatoes just so they'll be safe for someone to eat, if they're going to get eaten either way.

trish

 

[picklespickles]

will they eat the tea? i will put anything out for the animals, lol, but i never put tea bags even though i have a ton, figuring the tannin would make it too bitter? i guess the worst that could happen if they would spit it out. tomorrow i will put one out just to see. they'll probably ignore it.

 

[LindaN]

Regarding the potato peels: one of my neighbors stopped me the other morning as I was coming out of the side yard after letting the chickens out for the day. He's an older guy who is originally from Germany.

He said that he recalls many women kept chickens in their backyards when he was a child in Germany. This was just after the war (WWII) and food was scarce, but the women would feed the chickens cooked potato peels.

So I'd say give them the cooked potato peels!

I've only had my 3 hens since August, but I've noticed that they seem to have a pretty good sense of what they can and cannot safely eat. They certainly seem much more sensible than the average labrador retriever!

I HAD few plants in the side yard that are on the "no, no" list for chickens. I noticed that they didn't chow down on them, although they would nibble at them a bit. By now, even those plants are gone, however, but the chickens are still alive and thriving!

 

[speckledhen]

It has always been my understanding that they cannot digest raw potato peels-I've read that in several excellent volumes on raising chickens. I think if they are cooked every well, it probably would be okay, but I dont give mine any at all, just to be safe. There are so many other things to feed them anyway. And I've always known potato sprouts (eyes) to be poisonous.

 

[picklespickles]

i thik its not good once they have started sprouting, or the skin has turned that color that means its fixing to sprout.

good to see, though, that everyone cares so much. your chickens are very lucky.

 

[paganfish]

Oh my head is spinning! To feed or not to feed---cooked potato skins! Though I've read (here) that feeing them the raw does not hurt some...I, too, rather not take the chance. LOL! I would be too hard on myself if something were to happen to them because of that. Ugh! I know, I need a LIFE!

Thanks for all your input...I am SO glad for this forum!

Pedro ~:-V

 

[Scrambled Egg]

Us Southerners like our potato salad!!! I have given mine the boiled peelings several times and they love them, fight over them in fact. I do chop them up but they are soft from being boiled anyway. Haven't seemed to do any harm to mine.

 

[GoodEgg]

Quote:
Well ... we are talking about the ducks and not the chickens. I hope I didn't confuse matters. What I meant is that I put tea grounds and any raw potato material in the compost heap, and that's all from the kitchen that goes there. Everything else is eaten by the chickens/ducks/cats or gets thrown away if those can't eat it (and not much is thrown away!)

I found that the ducks were visiting the heap and Baka was digging in the potatoes. (Especially a place where I had to throw away several pounds of rotten potatoes.) She's been eating them daily (a duck). I didn't think I needed to *protect* the compost from them! I don't know if she eats the tea or not. It is loose and falls down around everything, so if she didn't eat it I wouldn't still see it anyway. I wouldn't really think of feeding them tea leaves, but who knows? We have tons of herbal teas, and some might be good for them, but then again so many herbs have medicinal actions that I would want to be careful with that. (Only the black or green tea normally goes out there.)

Just didn't want to confuse anyone on this.

And I guess I won't be throwing old potatoes out there anymore until I get a little fence or something around it. Stupid Baka, LOL. She is VERY annoying too (quacks loudly and constantly, begging for food) but I don't want her poisoned!

OH, BIG EDIT! I just saw you said tea bags ... my tea bags have little staples in them. If anyone uses ones like that I would NOT put them out! I make my tea in a coffee pot, so when I have to buy it in tea bags, I tear them open and just add the tea itself. I used to throw the bags out there before I had chickens or ducks, but now I throw the bag itself away because of the staple and string.

trish

 

[picklespickles]

trish, don't worry about beign a bad influence on me regarding tea.

i am one of those people who goes hmmmmmm.......i wonder if this'll work...... about everything.