Refrigeration

[Right On Reds]

My hubbie is taking great pleasure providing my hens with leftovers. He's actually at the point where he's buying things he knows the hens will like to eat after he's done with his part.

So, for the past 10 days or so, he's consumed melon after melon. Watermelons at first, now cantelopes. He puts the rinds in the frig.

At first I would take the rinds and nuke them in the microwave for a few seconds to get the chill out. I was doing this as I know my parrot shouldn't have cold food going into his crop. In parrots, it can cause a fungus.

Well, I opened up the frig to find a foot high pile of melon rinds..... cantelope and watermelon.

Now my question is: for the hens, do I need to continue to warm them before feeding? Are hen crops susceptible to fungus from cold foods the way parrots are?

Thank you in advance for answering this silly, novice question!!

 

[Hollywood Chickens]

how cold are the rinds?

 

[Right On Reds]

Refrigerator cold from being in the frig overnight.

 

[Hollywood Chickens]

Well I give my chickens cold rinds in the summer because it helps cool them down and in the summer they warm up pretty quick

 

[Dragonfly Ranch]

I have heard of others here that actually feed frozen vegetables and fruit to help cool chickens down when its really hot. So will be interesting to see what others say.

Sandee

 

[JENx]

I had exactly the same thought today as i got a slice of melon out of fridge for my chickens!

 

[SimplyForties]

I take mine straight out of the fridge and put them right in the coop. No problems yet!

 

[fordmommy]

Mine too. Especially on the HOT days. Cold watermelon in their favorite!

 

[kathyinmo]

I give frozen melons in the hot summer, to help them cool off. Honestly, I would never have even thought about warming up a melon rind. Just be sure not to over feed on the treats. Their diet should consist of 90 - 95% appropriate (starter / grower / layer) feed to be nutritionally sound. This feed should be fresh (smell it) not cardboardy odor (as the vitamins break down). Never feed it if there are bugs or mold in it, as well.

 

[red star11]

i love manda. and daniel