Veggie scraps and guts.........okay?

[tenderkat]

I'm guessing this is alright, but I just want to make sure. My girls get plenty of treats along with their feed, but over the summer I have generally been composting all my kitchen scraps. Well, now my compost bin is full and frozen solid, and I hate to just toss away the scraps. Yesterday, I made a big batch of chili, and of course I have the leftover 'guts' of the peppers. Would it be okay to chop all the seeds and white stuff up, and feed to my chickens? Also, I have some celery and radishes that have lost their crunch, so I'm thinking of giving some of those as well.

 

[redhen]

yup..thats all good stuff to feed them..

 

[tenderkat]

Thankyou Redhen!!

Oops, I just thought of another something, I'll post it here, see if anyone knows!! We have some leftover turkey that had gotten kind of dry in the refrigerator. I'm planning on giving it to the dogs, but do some people feed turkey to their chickens? It seems kind of strange, feeding poultry to, well.....poultry. Just curious....

 

[redhen]

yup! they will LOVE the turkey! they'll pick your turkey carcass sooo clean..lol
I'm bringing mine out some steamer clam bellies this morning (cause i dont eat the yucky clam bellies..)..they'll scarf them right up too...
any kind of protein like that is good for them.

 

[HEChicken]

Absolutely - they'll love it. They'll even eat chicken leftovers!

 

[thechickenchick]

That is all great for your chickens, and they will love you for it! There is very little I don't give the girls. I keep what we call a chicken bucket on the counter. All of our leftovers go in there. Plus when I am cooking I have it next to where I am working for the "guts" as you say. Then every morning it all goes out to the chickens. I dump it in the run, then open their pop door. They run out all excited to see whats for breakfast!

 

[felidaet]

Mine get most of our kitchen scraps. You mentioned Celery. It is not a favorite for my flock. They slowly pick at it when there are no other treats available.

A couple of days ago we had a ham bone with lots of fat and a little meat left on it. We did not have time to use it for making soup and so I gave to the chickens. They loved it and picked the bone absolutely clean in a very short time.

 

[Overeasyplz]

I had leftover cranberry sauce and olives, tomato slices...they ate everything but separated the olives from the other stuff. Did not like them. I thought they'd be a hit! They love the turkey carcass too!

 

[swimchick]

I am always surprised as to what they love and don't love. I bought alfalfa sprouts all excited thinking they would love it and they hated it!
I toss everything except meat into the compost heap and they eat what they want from the heap.

I gave them turkey - they loved it too!

Marissa

 

[gsim]

They love all meats. A man posted in predator section of shooting a coyote or coon, and gutting it in the run. He said his chooks ate one side of it and he was going to flip it over the next morning so they could finish the thing off. They eat raw meat big-time. That is what bugs are.

Regarding pepper guts, mine have been eating those, carrot tops, beet tops, lettuce, cabbage, tomato scraps, grass, radish tops, cucumber peels, from when they were 3 days old, but finely chopped. (coffee grinder works for that real good)

They are laying like gangbusters and I only use dumor 16% feed and no artificial light. I even found out a month ago that they like banana peels as well as bananas , cut up real small tho. I have seen them take off with a peel and have 4 or 5 chasing the one with it trying to get a piece of it! I swear, some of mine look like meaties and run like sumo wrestlers!