Several Questions - (Have patience with me)

[hot-hen]

A few questions about feeding. I’ve looked through the site looking for answers and I am sure they are here somewhere, but I cannot find them.

I am acquiring my birds for laying. If they need to take a break from time to time or don’t lay optimally (4 or 5 instead of 6 eggs a week) I’m okay with that as long as they are healthy and happy. We have a small house on one-third acre. My intentions are to keep them in a run, but let them out as much as possible supervised.

In an effort to reduce feed costs, I want to use vegetable cast offs as much as possible. Is this adequate? Can I get by on this alone along with them foraging? It seems like I saw an article here about this topic and now I cannot find it.

I’ve read something about adding oyster or eggshells back into their diet. How much? Is it necessary?

I will likely be getting black sex-link chicks. How do I encourage them to forage? I’ve read where others have hens that will only eat when they get their feed put out for them.

I would like to use chicken for natural pest control. Does this work in a vegetable garden or will they eat the vegetables?

Can I grind up dried beans as a protein supplement?

What are unsafe scraps to give to chickens? No avocados, right? Meat okay? What if the veggies have a little mold on them? Prepared foods? Dairy? Foods that have been salted?

Thanks, in advance.

 

[KrisH]

A few questions about feeding. I’ve looked through the site looking for answers and I am sure they are here somewhere, but I cannot find them.

I am acquiring my birds for laying. If they need to take a break from time to time or don’t lay optimally (4 or 5 instead of 6 eggs a week) I’m okay with that as long as they are healthy and happy. We have a small house on one-third acre. My intentions are to keep them in a run, but let them out as much as possible supervised.

In an effort to reduce feed costs, I want to use vegetable cast offs as much as possible. Is this adequate? Can I get by on this alone along with them foraging? It seems like I saw an article here about this topic and now I cannot find it.

I’ve read something about adding oyster or eggshells back into their diet. How much? Is it necessary?

I will likely be getting black sex-link chicks. How do I encourage them to forage? I’ve read where others have hens that will only eat when they get their feed put out for them.

I would like to use chicken for natural pest control. Does this work in a vegetable garden or will they eat the vegetables?

Can I grind up dried beans as a protein supplement?

What are unsafe scraps to give to chickens? No avocados, right? Meat okay? What if the veggies have a little mold on them? Prepared foods? Dairy? Foods that have been salted?

Thanks, in advance.

We offer ours layer pellets inside the coup as a way of keeping them coming inside and helping balance their diet. after all they do work for "chicken feed".

We also have a container of oyster shell offered free choice as well as poultry grit. they sure are going through the oyster shell this time of year. you can also use dried crushed egg shells. the shells are mostly calcium, so to make an egg their body will steal it from the bones if it is not available in their diet.

Vegetable "cast offs" good too, just watch out for green potato peels. probably best to cook those well, or just throw them out or compost them.

As for the garden, don't feed them things you don't want them to eat, but they will probably learn on their own and you will have to fence the garden and only allow supervised gardening sessions.

NO MOLDS, BAD BAD BAD! limited salt should be fine.


RobertH

 

[chickengirl280]

If you want them to forage a moveable coop would be optimal, so they have new land to forage on every once and a while. Be careful about free-ranging you dont want an animal getting them. To encorage them just throw food on the ground. Stay away from salt, fatty foods, mold, and avacados and make sure to have feed stored in case something happens where they can't forage and you dont have the veggies to give them.

 

[hot-hen]

As for the garden, don't feed them things you don't want them to eat, but they will probably learn on their own and you will have to fence the garden and only allow supervised gardening sessions.




RobertH

So, if I don't want them to eat the kale in the garden, I should not give them kale cast offs? We juice a lot. I have tons of vegetable cast offs from that. I was hoping that I could set them in the bet and let them do their thing with the bugs. But, no?

 

[chfite]

I feed mine whatever vegetable cast-offs there are. They generally eat everything but the stems.

It seems to me that simply having the chickens around the area reduces pests in the garden. The first year that I had chickens and started my garden, I had so few bugs in the garden that it was almost not worth the time to look for them. This first year the chickens stayed in the run all the time.

Later on, I started to let them forage during the day. The garden is fenced to keep them out, but I have no pests to speak of. I think that the bugs are in more places at some time in the cycle of things so that the chickens eat them before they get to the garden.

I generally let the chickens into the garden at the end of the season. They dig up everything and eat as they please.

Some folks report letting the chickens into the garden while it is growing. I suppose that if the plants were up in size that might work. They don't eat the cucumbers and beans growing on the fence around the garden. I would be unhappy if they dug up plants.

When there is waste meat available, they get it. Not often around here.

Chickens are natural foragers. Turn them loose and watch.

Chris

 

[JNB]

Hi and Welcome to the chicken world Theres a lot of ideas and opinions to be found here at BYC and other places There is a lot of information to sort . In a nut shell :

1. Veggie, fruit, grain, and scraps from your kitchen and garden are awesome. I have a neighbor that saves hers for me in trade for a dozen eggs here and there
For healthy eggs and production I try to use the basic rule "IF I WOULDNT EAT IT I DONT FEED IT"

2. Oyster Shell... I free feed mine in a small feeder. I also scatter a few handfuls mixed with BOSS into the run area once a week . I usually feed Eggshells (crushed) as a boost only if the shell quality is poor. Thats just my preferance because usually the Oyster shell keeps their calcium up and we have good eggs.

3. I dont keep my chickens in my garden area when Im growing.... so May thru harvest. The rest of the year they have full access to it scratching, tilling, eating bugs Again thats just my preferance.

My girls free range but at times when they have to stay in the run I add grass clippings, leaves, and even chopped leafy parts of hay to the run. Mine get BOSS several times a week. All the scraps they can eat esp spinach and Meal Worms.

Here a couple links to some threads here on BYC I found helpful .

https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/67727/mold


https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/307716/should-chickens-be-kept-out-of-vegatable-gardens


https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/...lly-had-chickens-without-feeding-chicken-food


https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/615228/home-feeding-ideas-and-solutions-discussion-thread


https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/123988/crushed-oyster-shells-how-to-feed