Too many greens for the chickens?

[kristenm1975]

I have started taking along a gallon ziplock bag with me on my walks during the day, filling it up with small dandelion leaves, and other wild greens that I can positively identify, as well as a few ripe blackberries etc, then giving it to the chickens each night.

I'm beginning to wonder if I might be overdoing it a bit on the fresh stuff. I noticed on of my girls making a dark green runny poop. I know cecal poop can look like that, but I just wanted to check to see if there is any rule of thumb about how much greens to supplement diet with.

Their regular food is organic grower mash, and constant access to fresh water.

Thanks for any advice!

 

[earlybird10842]

Most runny chicken poop is normal. If you look up "chicken diarhea" on BYC , you will find threads with links to webpages showing what's normal and not normal. (sorry, I don't know how to attach links.) also, our free range chickens eat all sorts of weeds and stuff, have been for a long time. I saw them eating rhubarb leaves, which I worried might poison them, but they were fine. The rhubarb's not.

 

[terryg]

As long as your hens are eating their regular food first, you can't overdo greens. Greens are essential for their health. The manure is fine. Just wait until you feed purple cabbage or blueberries to see funny poop! You do want to avoid feeding long, tough grasses, which can become impacted in the crop. You can chop them to feed safely. Also, grass clippings can also become impacted. In the fall you can feed leftover halloween pumpkins. Right now, watermelon rind is good. I have more sensible guidelines for feeding backyard hens here:
http://hencam.com/faq/what-to-feed-your-chickens/

 

[7L Farm]

Nope no problem. I feed mine veggies everyday. They love it & it saves money on feed.I recommend planting a garden if you have chickens.

 

[kristenm1975]

Thanks so much, all! I'm delighted to hear I can continue feeding them good leafy greens. It makes me happy to pick them all that yummy stuff and I love watching them peck at all the new treats, making that little "crick crick" sound when they're uncertain about something. Cute!

 

[Clay Mudd]

Nope no problem. I feed mine veggies everyday. They love it & it saves money on feed.I recommend planting a garden if you have chickens.

I recommend planting a garden even if you don't have chickens!

Then, I recommend getting chickens if you have a garden.

 

[triplepurpose]

As long as they are getting other feed, you can't overdo greens. When they've eating enough they'll just stop pecking at the stuff. Despite the poultry feed bag's counter-intuitive and impractical advice to feed the layer pellets as the "sole ration" I think fresh green matter is a key part of the diet.

 

[donrae]

As long as they are getting other feed, you can't overdo greens. When they've eating enough they'll just stop pecking at the stuff. Despite the poultry feed bag's counter-intuitive and impractical advice to feed the layer pellets as the "sole ration" I think fresh green matter is a key part of the diet.

Yep. If they were free ranging in a nice green area, that's what they'd eat the most of. And be just fine.

 

[kristenm1975]

Thanks for all the replies. That's what my intuition was saying, but I tend to be a bit of a worry wort over my girls. So glad to know we are on the right path!

 

[Organics North]

Catch them some grass hoppers and what not too!

My birds free range all day... They eat their dry feed when they want/need it... IMO, greens are not like "junk food", chickens will eat what they need.. I keep a bale of top quality alfalfa hay in the run during winter, so they can get greens.

Greens are what give you that dark orange egg yolk loaded with stuff good for you!! So by picking those greens you are improving your families diet.. Bad cholesterol comes from animals fed grains, good cholesterol comes from grass fed animals...