Well meaning mum keeps feeding the chickens tons of rice and bread!

[Birdigo]

Lately my mum has been over eager to feed my pullets and hens left over cooked rice and bread, she's been dumping large amounts of it into the run and my flock is only a handful of bantams. They haven't touched their feed much at all these past couple days, and I've been removing the extra rice and bread so that their diet isn't 100% rice and bread.

I'm going to give her a talk and possibly get a lock and key for the run, so that access is restricted. My mum is a bit older these days and forgets important things very easily.

What would be the consequences of feeding a majority rice/bread diet to hens that are intended to lay? I'd like to explain to her why I need to keep extra treats/scraps to a certain % of their overall diet.

 

[nuthatched]

Well, I'm sorry you're going through this it's hard watching a lived one struggle with memory issues.

Rice and Bread aren't very nutritious so while it might not kill your chickens, it's not going to keep them healthy. try getting her into habit of feeding them veggie and fruits or protein like Scrambled Eggs, she can feed them treats just not those treats.

 

[Ruby Rogue]

Bake less bread and make less rice. Hate to see it wasted, that's probably your mother's POV as well.

 

[cluckcluckhens]

Every once in a while we give ours the same thing. Left overs is not much here. Ours is eating greens, scrambled eggs. They are eating their feed. Make less rice so there is not allot left over. Spread it out over days is what I do. Sure you want it gone from fridge to make more room for other things.

Give the Hens as little as possible. Or, give it to them in small amounts. Just depends how many Hens you have. We have 8 plus a Rooster and Roo Jr. Jr is looking beautiful.