Supplementing with vegetable scraps

[DMichaelW]

I get all of the blemished produce from a local supermarket. I’m curious if I can feed this to my Cornish cross, and if so will this alter the flavor of the meat?

Thanks!

 

[Ridgerunner]

You can feed blemished produce to chickens, some they might eat and some they might not. Don't be surprised if they ignore certain things. With a lot of it they should have grit. Use some discretion. Don't feed rotten produce, avoid green potato skins and avocado skins. But in general you have a great source for extras. The drawback is that you want a fairly high protein content (total grams of protein they eat in a day, not what is in one bite) for Cornish X and a lot of produce is fairly low in actual protein. So I'd limit the actual amount so your regular feed is mainly what they eat.

Will it alter the flavor of the meat? Probably not so you would notice if at all. If you feed them something strong flavored like certain herbs and they actually eat it, like parsley, sage, basil, oregano, or cilantro you might get a real faint taste.

Some of that could depend on how you cook it too. You'd have to cook it in some really bland way for those really subtle flavors to come through.

 

[Mosey2003]

If it's safe for chickens you can feed it, certainly. Will they eat it well? Hard telling. It will bring down your daily protein in the ration, too. If they ate it well, and you were wanting to slow their growth on purpose, might not be a bad idea at all. I agree, make sure you offer grit before giving them anything that's not chicken feed.

 

[Bryant Redhawk]

I have our chickens free range with our hogs, the hogs get grocery store vegetables and fruits that are being tossed. The chooks will peck at some things but they love any raspberries, blackberries, blueberries that come along. They will also eat the squash, melons but since they have to compete with the hogs for these items, they don't get so much as to be a problem. We feed the chooks meal worms, grasshoppers, crickets, and what bugs they catch as they free range. They love most greens and figs that are over ripe are one of their favorites. I also toss them any tomato horn worms I find on our vines, they fight over those. They also love to steal the golden hog feed that we put out once a day. I calculated the protein per day for both the hogs and the chooks came out at 20% protein per day. the hogs were at 18% protein per day. They both have free choice minerals and the chooks have lots of grit and calcium available too.