Quinoa Fed To Chickens

[Barnyard Dawg]

My wife brought home some quinoa which we fed to our chickens for the first time. Quinoa is an easy food to prepare, we cooked it in a rice cooker, it has a pleasantly light, fluffy texture when cooked and its mild, slightly nutty flavor makes it an excellent alternative to white rice or couscous. We added quinoa to some rice and crumble the chickens liked it but not as well as the rice which is still their favorite.

 

[DuckLady]

Is it a grain, like rice?

 

[picklespickles]

quinoa is YUMMY. expensive to feed to chickens. feed to me, please.

 

[Barnyard Dawg]

My wife uses it for baking I'am not that familiar with it, it is like millet.

 

[Catalina]

Did you have to rinse your quinoa?
I have 1/2 a bag left over from a recipe I made and I was thinking of feeding it to my chickens, but the bag I have says that you should
"rinse quinoa thoroughly to wash away any naturally occurring bitter tasting saponins. Saponins are soap-like substances that occur on the outside of the quinoa grains. It is believed they are put there by nature to deter insects and birds."
I was afraid the girls either wouldn't eat it or I would poision them!

 

[Barnyard Dawg]

We always wash our rice and quinoa even though some people don't.

 

[Picco]

Its a really great source of protein, one of the only complete vegetable sources.

 

[carugoman]

Amaranth=quinoa=loves-lies-bleeding are all the same plant. Use the leaves when the plant is young,the seed heads,what can I say,pull the roots and roast by the fireside to make prairie coffee. It's a pretty plant and it can grow tall.

 

[Barnyard Dawg]

We grow Amaranth in our garden and feed it to our chickens, you can pick the leaves and they keep coming back.

 

[Missa Chickabee]

Right. It's a seed and not a grain....very nutritious. Solves the gluten and wheat allergy problem for a lot of people. Should be washed...it's the outer part that's bitter. I use in lieu of rice in recipes sometimes and instead of bulgar in tabouleh. I'm sure good for chickens...but not cheap!