The girls hated the oatmeal so what other foods for cold days?

[Marie50106]

I mix the warm oatmeal with grated carrots and all kinds of other vegetables that I have left over and they just love it and if you have left over spagetti without the sauce cut it up in 2 inches long and they will go crazy over it, they must think that the spagetti are worms.

 

[canesisters]

I've never had our eggs taste like garlic from giving the girls garlic in their oatmeal. For my whole batch, enough for our 24 chickens, I only put 1 to 2 cloves of garlic. No garlic tasting eggs yet!

Chicken Mama - this just keeps coming up (all over BYC) and it always makes me giggle. Why would anything they ate flavor (or season) their eggs???? It seems the people who are most vocal about not feeding onions, garlic, citrus, etc are the same ones who insist that chickens must be allowed to free range... SO.... do those people's chickens' eggs taste like bugs, manure and grass?

Wouldn't it be GREAT if it really worked though??? Can you imagine?? Plain eggs already 'salted & peppered'! Or maybe sausage & cheese flavored, that would be really good.

 

[Egghead_Jr]

We feed the black oil sunflower seed in winter months as a daily treat. In the seriously cold months I throw a few handfuls as I open the coop and a few more before they go to roost. The benefit besides 14% protein is the high fat content in the black sunflower seeds, 30-40%. Fat is readily used for energy to keep them warm. Corn, oats and other grains simply to not even come close to the fat content in sunflower. We run 6-8 birds through winter in our northern climate and that only uses a 50lbs bag from Nov. to March. I save out 1-2 lbs to grow a 3x20 ft patch along garden edge. The type of plant from typical commercial bags is (I forget the name) 5-6ft tall with multiple medium size heads. Actually a nice looking plant with obviously high yield. This summer an illusive ground hog was decimating our garden so we'll have to buy an extra bag for the wild bird feeder.

Sprouting raises the protein, vitamin and dietary fiber at the cost of fat content. If your looking for a supplement to keep chickens warm at -10F and below I'd not sprout the seed.

 

[BigRooNTN]

I am in awe at all the ideas given freely on here. Although I am not new with chickens ( Our family had them as I was growing up) it is egg-citing to get on here and read all the new ideas. As a kid we simply threw out leftovers after each meal and Dad would throw a few handful of scratch or cracked corn to them. Now its oatmeal, BOSS, rice, all kinds of nutritional foods for them and they think it is a treat when in fact it is very healthy for them. I will certainly be using a lot of the suggestions. Mixing warm water with my crumbles..... Hmmm; what a concept

Keep up the great ideas on here.

 

[Flowerchik]

I guess I am lucky my hens will eat just about anything anything. One was running around with a frog in her beak the other day. Warm sweet potatoes, pasta, rice, grits and scrambled eggs are warm foods that are pretty regular for my girls. My ducks on the other hand won't touch any extras except for fresh greens thrown in their pool and meal worms.

 

[Grateful Dad]

we eat alot of white rice, so I always have extra I feed to the hes, its their favorite, that and spaghetti . they dont like cooked oatmeal, but raw oats they do like, and bulgar wheat.

 

[clucky3255]

i dont have any ideas

 

[Going Quackers]

I take the seeds out first (core the fruit), put it on an oven-safe plate - then pour juice (usually apple juice or orange juice) into the area where the core was. I wrap aluminum foil around it and bake it at 350 for an hour. It's easy and a great 'human treat' too.

Thank that sounds good, may have to fight the birds for them

 

[Going Quackers]

When I make my girls the bread pudding I also add some scratch and other things like sunflower seeds before I bake it.I also substitute Blackberries for the blueberries because that's what I have,the recipe is really versatile.
My girls and boy

enjoying their bread pudding.

Nice pic! they all seemed to have enjoyed it.

Yeah, and then I'd find out that they only like them warm from the oven

but of coarse! lol

I add grapes to the water befor I put the oatmeal in. It flavors the water a bit grapey.

I then add honey to the grape oatmeal. They gobble it up. Lets face it ..most humans dont like "plain" oatmeal either ;p

I plop down extra pancakes and french toast is a hit.

I'll have to try the cream of wheat ..been years since I had any myself

You could try corn meal mush (super easy to make)

Pancakes and french toast? my gosh, they'll be eating better than I do!

1-2 cups of Cooked Oatmeal
1/4 cup Layer Crumble
1/4 cup Scratch
a handful of dried cranberries
a big ol dollop of plain Yogurt

Should have a kind of sticky crumbly granola texture
Served at 90-105 degrees.

Treats up to 10 hens



Some mornings I feel like I just might lose an eye for not putting the pan down fast enough for them.

Thank you for the recipe.

Our chickens get all kinds of healthy food scraps, from dried out bread to old cooked pasta to vegetable scraps. We've also given them plain old wheat, and they love it. When I first gave my birds cooked oatmeal, they latched right onto it in a feeding frenzy. I would encourage you to try again with the cooked oatmeal. My flock sometimes needs a couple of chances to learn what new treats are, such as yogurt or worms.

This is true, i may try it again, did a whole uncooked carrot today at first they went

but they picked it down pretty clean by days end.

 

[earlybird10842]

Heat up rice or any other grain, and they will LOVE it.