Want to ditch the pellets...

[AlohaChickens80]

I have a couple of two week old chicks and I would like to change up the feeding situation.

We are in Hawaii and we are lucky enough to have beautiful weather year round. For the past week I have been letting them out to free range in our yard for 6-8 hours a day. They ignore their feed when it's outside but will still eat it in the brooder. While they do eat organic, ideally I would like to not have to rely on processed food at all (or at least minimally supplement with it)

What can I offer to them in addition to free ranging?i would love to sprout some grains, as of right now they aren't interested in any produce scraps I have offered ( they run away cheeping!)

TIA!

~Rebecca

 

[Ridgerunner]

A few years ago I gathered a small cup of corn ear worms while harvesting the corn in my garden to can. I had a bunch of 10 week old chicks free ranging so I dumped that can of corn ear worms in their vicinity. The chicks were curious. They started very cautiously moving toward those worms. A worm wriggled! Run away! Run away!

They didn’t run far. Slowly and cautiously some of the braver ones started carefully moving in again. They got closer and closer. A worm wriggled! Run away! Run away!

This went on a few times. Eventually one got close enough to grab a worm. That’s all it took. Within just a few seconds that entire pile of worms was eaten.

This kind of stuff happens with kitchen scraps and stuff from the garden, even with adults. Sometimes they jump on it right away. Sometimes they ignore it, but eventually one tries it and all of a sudden it’s good to eat. Sometimes it never gets eaten but just dries up. That’s likely to happen with cabbage or another great treat, not something at all questionable.

There is a saying, “You can lead a horse to water but you can’t make him drink.” Same thing applies. Keep offering the stuff and leave it with them. They will decide what they eat and what they won’t, but sometimes it takes a while for them to decide. Patience can be your friend.