Topic of the Week - Feeding table scraps to your flock

[PaulaMc]

Mine love the day I clean out the leftovers in the refrigerator. For a special treat to give them a little more protein, once a week I usually cook roast beef and roast chicken in my crock pot and make sure to put extra water in it so I have a lot of broth left over. I then throw their regular game bird food into it along with any veggies and meat scraps left over and add enough water to make it soupy/firm for them. They scarf it up like all you can eat wing night at the local restaurant.

Today with the high temp set to be a balmy 13F I will probably make them a big bowl of oat meal this afternoon and add left over waffles to it. I have some olive oil that is starting to get old so I will add a good half cup to it. They love it and it helps them clean out their crops.

Like posted earlier, they will eat about anything that doesn't crawl away from them and I've seen them chase down mice and gobble them down so let's just say they will eat anything that isn't faster than they are.

OMG! -10 celsius! I am learning so much about chickens and how hardy they are from you all.

I panic if it's minus 2 celsius overnight ha ha. I make them a warm breakfast of layers and porridge tee hee.

I agrree Microchick-olive oil is wonderful. I add it to their scrambled eggs.

 

[microchick]

Yeah, he's a great dog. Don't tell him I said that tho, I don't want him to get a big head.

It's pretty much a typical winter for us here,PaulaMc. Our low for tonight is going to be -1F. I have a flock of Buff Orpingtons, Welsummers and 4 Old English Game Bantams. My extra cockerels go into their own pen except when we have cold weather like we are having now and then I put them all together in the main coop. When the feathers settle and the rooster's battle wounds have scabbed over it's so cute to go out at night and find the little Bantams snuggled into the fluffy Buff O's. Everyone is so far handling the cold ok. They just don't want to go outside in the snow and I can't fault them there as I don't want to either.

I have one Speckled Sussex hen that has had crop problems in the past. I find that if I give her a big dose of olive oil once a week as a preventative she has fewer problems.

 

[PaulaMc]

Yeah, he's a great dog. Don't tell him I said that tho, I don't want him to get a big head.

It's pretty much a typical winter for us here,PaulaMc. Our low for tonight is going to be -1F. I have a flock of Buff Orpingtons, Welsummers and 4 Old English Game Bantams. My extra cockerels go into their own pen except when we have cold weather like we are having now and then I put them all together in the main coop. When the feathers settle and the rooster's battle wounds have scabbed over it's so cute to go out at night and find the little Bantams snuggled into the fluffy Buff O's. Everyone is so far handling the cold ok. They just don't want to go outside in the snow and I can't fault them there as I don't want to either.

I have one Speckled Sussex hen that has had crop problems in the past. I find that if I give her a big dose of olive oil once a week as a preventative she has fewer problems.

I won't tell your dog ha ha.

Mine too cuddle up it's so cute isn't it? Am glad your hen is getting better. They are a worry aren't they?

 

[jennyf]

One of the things I love about keeping chickens is that it has so reduced our kitchen food waste! With two small kids, there's more than I'd like. This is a sampling of what mine have gotten the last few days (I mix together and keep in fridge in a Tupperware container to feed from). They do get probably 1/4 cup per day on average, but they don't often get what I'd think of as "junk" for them like breads and pasta. Our dogs get a lot of meat scraps too--there are a lot of lower quality ingredients in extruded dog food IMO. Oyster shell always always in separate container and sprinkled around run periodically for them to pick at. This is what's in the current designated chicken scrap container:

Two deer sausages I'm using up (got thawed and cooked and refrozen for chicken use when our freezer pooped out).
Leftover rice
Leftover cooked sweet potatoes and zucchini
Leftover turkey sausage patty
Apple peel and core
A cracked frozen egg that I hard boiled and fed back (didn't get to it in time)
Banana someone peeled and then decided they didn't want after two bites

 

[PaulaMc]

One of the things I love about keeping chickens is that it has so reduced our kitchen food waste! With two small kids, there's more than I'd like. This is a sampling of what mine have gotten the last few days (I mix together and keep in fridge in a Tupperware container to feed from). They do get probably 1/4 cup per day on average, but they don't often get what I'd think of as "junk" for them like breads and pasta. Our dogs get a lot of meat scraps too--there are a lot of lower quality ingredients in extruded dog food IMO. Oyster shell always always in separate container and sprinkled around run periodically for them to pick at. This is what's in the current designated chicken scrap container:

Two deer sausages I'm using up (got thawed and cooked and refrozen for chicken use when our freezer pooped out).
Leftover rice
Leftover cooked sweet potatoes and zucchini
Leftover turkey sausage patty
Apple peel and core
A cracked frozen egg that I hard boiled and fed back (didn't get to it in time)
Banana someone peeled and then decided they didn't want after two bites

Sounds yummy ha ha.

 

[JDelage]

All - do you in any way prepare the scraps? Do you cut it in tiny pieces for example? I often have tough scraps from kale or broccoli. Should I just let them go at those or should I dice it?

 

[DonHess]

I just gave my 15 a big lunch of carrots, green tomatoes, cherry tomatoes, yams, romaine lettuce, cabbage and cous-cous. They are goats with wings.

Don

 

[Egghead_Jr]

Leftover chicken thighs were found in back of fridge today so my birds got a plate full of green beans and cut up chicken. Mmm.

 

[Bobby Basham]

Thank God for kitchen gadgets. With these two (of many) accessories for my KitchenAid stand mixer, I can dice, slice, chop, core, peel and shred to my heart's content. I'll let them do the work for me. --BB

Bobby Basham
Tucson, Arizona

 

[BillyRoper]

Don said "They are goats with wings."

Exactly right, from what I've seen.