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Okay, I have a chicken eating question: I have a GIANT willow tree in my backyard that the girls get to go and play under on a regular basis. The leaves are turning yellow and are falling onto the lawn below.....my chickens love eating them. I watch them out in the yard just "hoovering" (sucking) those leaves down every day when I let them out. How does a chicken digest an entire leaf? Is there any food value? funny stuff they eat.....oh....and I found them eating a piece of styrofoam that blew out of the shed the other day....Now I know that has no food value.
lol yeah i have seen mine eat styrofoam and plastic trash too. the leaves still contain some nutrients. and there are possibly insects on the leaves. i know in some oak trees get galls in the branches and sometimes in the leaves (galls are parasitic insects that the tree isolates, creating the lumpyness on trees. the insect can't travel, but it is still fed)
my chickens would eat the shrivled apple and pears that fall on the ground after fruit set (the trees naturally abort the majority of fruit so a handful remain, sometimes we help with some varities that dont do it well by hand thinning bartletts, or applying chemical thinners to apples). i know there isnt much nutrient value in the little 'mummie' fruit. but i think sometimes its a case of "if it moves, its eaten"
Never thought of bugs on the leaves, and was unsure of the food value or if they could even process it correctly. It is just so funny because the leaves are long and narrow so they just go along like little hoover vacuumes and suck those puppies (leaves) down. Slurp, slurp, slurp. It is amazing how many of them they will eat. I also have handed over my veggie garden remains to them. The chickens have done such a good job of rototiling up late start weeds and the paper I had used to keep weeds down. I am not sure how well my earthworm population is faring....but I know there are lots there so I am not worried. We don't have any fruit trees or I am sure they would be after all those too.
I agree, if it is not nailed down...a chicken will try and eat it. And if it is nailed down....they will tast-test it to see if it is worth the effort.
I am such a puss these days. I am always cold. I want a wood burning fireplace so that I can heat the place to at least 85 degrees. It might just be cheaper to move to a warmer climate though. 
