Too much veggies and fruits?

[saysfaa]

So besides layer feed what should I feed them ? What should I feed them ? They don’t free range at this point

What NatJ said. Maybe excepting the part about oyster shell and grit being optional

And the importance of enough fresh, clean water is sometimes overlooked.

I haven't done enough research, yet, to know how to balance much beyond the commercial feeds. I haven't decided how far I want to go from the commercial fed dry.

 

[NatJ]

Just a question...in the wild...par say....what would a chickens main diet contain?

They are omnivores, so some combination of grass and other greens, bugs and worms, grains and seeds, fruits and berries, any small animal they catch (like a mouse or frog) or meat they can forage (maybe picking over a carcass that something else killed), and so forth.

I think greens are the biggest part by volume, but the other things might well provide more of the calories. Green plants are mostly water and fiber, so not many calories per cup (which is why actual grazing animals eat such large amounts.)

And of course it changes a bit from one season to another, and the wild jungle fowl do NOT lay eggs all year long. The egg-laying and chick-raising happen at the time of the year with the most food, just like with most other wild birds.

 

[Sierra G]

I've had chickens with free-choice access to a compost pile with fruit/veggie/bugs/etc, and they did fine. Or free range on a grass lawn with some mulched ares to dig through. And plenty of table scraps, too. They all lived until they were butchered after a year or more of egg laying, except the few that were taken by predators. Many chickens are less stupid than we think, so they do manage to balance their diet pretty well, if given a chance. (Yes, my chickens always had free-choice access to an appropriate chicken food.)

It is certainly easiest to give them a balanced diet by just serving the correct purchased food, but it's not the only way to have healthy chickens.

The thread started as a discussion of treats as a dietary staple. I let mine free range and while they get treats occasionally it tends to be something like watermelon that I didn't like or a head of cabbage. I'm not opposed to treats, but they aren't essential and they should be something that's actually good for the chickens too. If I lost track of the thread and responded to the wrong post I apologize. My point was that chickens are a lot like people. If you feed them food they like that isn't good for them they'll eat it just because it tastes good. Most animals are like that. Evolution may take advantage of taste, but it certainly doesn't seem try to do anything about nutrition in most cases.

 

[NatJ]

The thread started as a discussion of treats as a dietary staple. I let mine free range....My point was that chickens are a lot like people. If you feed them food they like that isn't good for them they'll eat it just because it tastes good.

But THIS thread was talking about large amounts of fruits & veggies. Those are nutritionally much different than many of the other treats that people give chickens. Some people consider them "treats" and limit the amount, others don't.

Personally, I see no harm in giving unlimited amounts of many things-- like what yours have access to when free ranging, or the OP's fruits and veggies-- but I also think that the SIMPLEST way to ensure good nutrition is to provide a complete chicken food, water, and nothing else. The fruits, veggies, free range, and so forth are not essential, but are often not harmful either.

 

[MommaHen1996]

They are omnivores, so some combination of grass and other greens, bugs and worms, grains and seeds, fruits and berries, any small animal they catch (like a mouse or frog) or meat they can forage (maybe picking over a carcass that something else killed), and so forth.

I think greens are the biggest part by volume, but the other things might well provide more of the calories. Green plants are mostly water and fiber, so not many calories per cup (which is why actual grazing animals eat such large amounts.)

And of course it changes a bit from one season to another, and the wild jungle fowl do NOT lay eggs all year long. The egg-laying and chick-raising happen at the time of the year with the most food, just like with most other wild birds.

Well put, I was just asking to prove a point

 

[Sierra G]

But THIS thread was talking about large amounts of fruits & veggies. Those are nutritionally much different than many of the other treats that people give chickens. Some people consider them "treats" and limit the amount, others don't.

Personally, I see no harm in giving unlimited amounts of many things-- like what yours have access to when free ranging, or the OP's fruits and veggies-- but I also think that the SIMPLEST way to ensure good nutrition is to provide a complete chicken food, water, and nothing else. The fruits, veggies, free range, and so forth are not essential, but are often not harmful either.

Complete chicken food, complete dog food or any other complete food may, if you can trust the manufacturer, actually have everything an animal needs. But if it were the best solution we probably wouldn't need to raise chickens for meat or eggs. We'd all just eat complete human food, water, and nothing else.

 

[xoxodanamarie]

It never occurred to me but now, reading this, I'm concerned. I have 7 hens and although they have access to their layer crumbles at all times, every morning I give them a banana and a slice of watermelon to enjoy and lately, an apple as well. I also have a cabbage hanging in the coop and let them free range whenever I have a chance. Is this too much fruit?

 

[NatJ]

It never occurred to me but now, reading this, I'm concerned. I have 7 hens and although they have access to their layer crumbles at all times, every morning I give them a banana and a slice of watermelon to enjoy and lately, an apple as well. I also have a cabbage hanging in the coop and let them free range whenever I have a chance. Is this too much fruit?

Different people will have different opinions about that.

If the hens have constant access to their layer crumbles, I personally feel that it is safe to also allow constant access or unlimited amounts of fruits & vegetables (including grass) as well.

Chickens in general are good at regulating their own feed intake, if they have access to reasonable choices.

But some people would recommend the layer feed be 90% or more of the chickens' food, and those people would recommend limiting ALL other edible things (except water, oyster shell, and grit.) I'm not quite sure how those people handle free ranging, because you can't really measure how much of what they eat then