I am wondering if anyone knows what favs there are for chickens to munch on...I give ours dandylions, grass, the normal stuff, but I am wondering if anyone knows what else they might like..There are several things that grow in my yard that they dont like, that our previous chickens loved..So, seems they have delicate palates...Ideas???
Also, they hate lettuce...Store bought or from my garden..wont eat it...we have different types, and they turn their beaks up at it...snobs!
Mine have unfortunately discovered my tomatoes and love them. I've also given them melon rinds and they liked those.
Chickweed is very popular w/ mine: http://www.wildmanstevebrill.com/Plants.Folder/Chickweed.html Also bedstraw, dandelions, plantains (both broadleaf and narrow), wild violets (flowers and leaves), and wild strawberries (fruit and leaves). I have a hard time getting my yard guy to leave a patch of weeds for me every time!
Your chickens don't eat lettuce. Mine tear up lettuce. Literally "tear it up". Mustard greens, kale, cilantro, some specific short little yellow flowering weed that grows. I also have a bug trap under a huge flowering bush where grass does not grow. Lay out some bricks or stepping stones and bugs collect under those, they follow me to the stones and wait for me to lift them up. Cutie pies. My one buff orpington spotted some bright orange wasp like bug in the grass went after it till it fluttered its bright warning sign orange wings at her and she bolted with a yelp.
That's funny because I have an old piece of carpet on the dirt that I keep moist, and lift it up, dig a bit and they go nuts!
Right now we have a lot of wild mustard in our area and my chickens go crazy for it. When we were transferring the to the daytime pen and fussing about being moved they spotted the mustard and froze and stared at it until we put them down. Boy, did they practically inhale it! We have also noticed that they like the big leaves of the plantain weed.
We have two oak trees near the coop, so when the girls are allowed in the backyard (under supervision of Mommy), they are tearing up the leaves to get to the bugs hiding there. Today I went out to check on them & found a lizard had gotten caught in the netting I have at the bottom of the fence. My hubby asked what the girls thought of the lizard, I said, I know they see it, but they are keeping their distance. I cut the lizard lose, and it took off into the oak tree, but the girls just did not seen interested. Now if it were a wasp or fly, they would be chasing it all over the yard.
