Treats and leftovers

[roosterlou]

My chickens also love pasta of any kind (just like my kids). They go wild over leftover pizza crust, too. Their favorite of all seems to be cherry tomatoes, though. It is always interesting to see what tickles their fancy. They greet me anxiously when I pay them a visit because they know a treat is coming!

I gave to give them grit as well as the oyster shells? I thought that would function like the grit....I don't put them outside since we have all sorts of nasty critters here (including a neighborhood fisher cat). They have a two room suite in my barn and they seem to enjoy it well enough in there.

 

[Wooden_Pony]

Mine are in heaven right now since our pomegranates are ripening!

Nothing like juicy little red seeds to drive my girls nuts!!! Of course my fingers are stain a pretty pink color from picking out the seeds for them!!

PS. Anyone want some fresh organic pomegranates? I just spent all morning picking them and I filled three field boxes and still have a TON left on my tree!!

 

[Redfeathers]

Well I went and purchased my very first batch of chickens today. I was only going to get four. One polish and three RIR..but I actually bought three Polish and three Buff Orpington babies that are four weeks old. They are currently in my garage under a heat lamp and are as happy as can be. The Polish are a month older and seem to be ok in the coop locked up for now with food and water. It's night time now, we only had one hour of daylight when we got home with them and I didn't have nearly enough time to admire them before it was too dark. My Irish Setters are beyond intrigued and would love to get a good look too.

Can't wait to start giving the ladies leftovers. I'm hoping they are old enough for some of the great ideas you have all been giving me. I'm just too excited, I can't wait until tomorrow morning.

 

[CoyoteMagic]

Mine went nuts today for butternut squash. It was just the peelings and the seeds. They were chasing each other around the yard. "Tessy the Headless Chicken" grabbed a peice and headed to the neighbors yard so she could eat it in peace!

 

[BJ]

My girls LOVE cottage cheese!

 

[roosterlou]

Wooden pony, I wish I lived on the west coast to take you up on the offer for the pomegranites. I love them myself! My mother always called them Indian apples (not politically correct, but this was 40 years ago....) and what a treat it was to have one of those. Here in New England, I have a couple of apple trees, a pear tree and a peach tree. Not quite as exotic.

Does the red/purple color in itself attract the chickens? Cherries, cherry tomatoes, grapes, pieces of apple, anything with tomato sauce all seem to be big favorites.

 

[earthnut]

Quote:
Apples from the store will not have any worms in them. If they did no-one would buy them... As far as apples with worms, I don't see that it would make any difference if your chickens scratch around in the dirt anyway, because they will already be getting parasites from the ground. Some wormy apples will probably not make much difference, and I know mine love apples!

As far as eating eggs from medicated chickens, the company says not to eat them for 2 or 4 weeks or whatever, not because of any known problem, but because they don't want to get sued if something does happen! There has never been any testing of the safety of eggs from medicated hens. Personally I wouldn't eat them because it's better to be safe than sorry.

 

[earthnut]

My hens love fruit, except they wouldn't touch a grapefruit I gave them. I've given them apples, pears, bananas and banana skins, grapes, apricots. They also eat grass, dock leaves, kale, bread (fresh or stale). I've read that onions and garlic will give the eggs an off flavor.

 

[TundraChick]

this is squash time, any kind..I got spaghetti squash and the come runnin after me

 

[roosterlou]

As far as the worms in the apples go.....the chickens like to eat worms anyway as well as any sort of bug. I would think they would like them even better with the worms!

I think I prefer to take my chances with the worms on my pesticide free apples than with the chemicals sprayed on the usual apples....