Veggies

[Debbie292d]

Hi everyone! I was just curious does anyone give their chickens veggies everyday? Or just a couple times per week ?

Ours free range, so in the spring, summer, and fall months, they eat a lot of grass, weeds, and Kale from the garden.

In the winter, we'll buy a bunch of Kale about once a month, as they love that and it's extremely healthy. We tried freezing ours, and they didn't like that as well, so we'll buy it for them, rinse it, then hang it in the coops so they can reach up and snag pieces off of it.

 

[Mother of Chaos]

Ours free range, so in the spring, summer, and fall months, they eat a lot of grass, weeds, and Kale from the garden.

In the winter, we'll buy a bunch of Kale about once a month, as they love that and it's extremely healthy. We tried freezing ours, and they didn't like that as well, so we'll buy it for them, rinse it, then hang it in the coops so they can reach up and snag pieces off of it.

Mine generally ignore veggies in favor of fruit, but one thing I read that I have found is true, at least with mine:

Chickens often don’t quite know what to do with loose green veggies, like bundles of kale lying on the ground. It needs to be anchored in some manner for them to tug on in order to tear off pieces of leaves.

This can happen two ways: they eat living plants rooted in the ground, or you pin down the long stalks and leaves with a brick of cinder block weighting down the root end.

Before I started doing this, mine would grab a leaf, run around the yard pursued by the others, and then drop it because she couldn’t get any purchase on it.

 

[EmmaDonovan]

Hi everyone! I was just curious does anyone give their chickens veggies everyday? Or just a couple times per week ?

We are in the desert and the ground is just empty dirt so there's nothing for them to forage. In addition to their feed pellets we give them fresh or frozen fruits and vegetables nearly every day: spinach, kale, broccoli, wheat grass, corn, peas, blueberries, cantaloupe, etc. Keeping chickens in the desert is expensive!