sunflower seeds: with or without shell?

[phishinchicken]

 

[speckledhen]

Either, but I feed scratch that contains them with the shell on and they eat them just fine.

 

[trilyn]

Yeah, I found a wildbird mix that contains only: shelled and unshelled sunflower seeds (black and striped), and peanuts. At first they were hesitant-they only picked at the unshelled. The next day however, watch out!! I throw them a few handfuls a day and they love it.

 

[Superior Chicks]

Feed with shell on.

The shell contains an oil (thus the Black "Oil" Sunflower name) that is beneficial to the birds feathers. The seed contains the protein.

They have no problem eating the whole seeds!

Ma

 

[chickenannie]

The Black Oil sunflower -- you can leave the shell on. I think the other kinds are way to big for chickens to eat. But they would eat the big ones, shelled.

By the way, I planted some of my Black Oil seeds and now I have sunflowers! The chickens wait until the seeds are ready, then they just walk up to the flower and peck the seeds out (the flowers are no more than 2-2.5 feet high). Amazing!