What do you feed your chickens?

[Frazzemrat1]

Daily feed, my chickens get All Flock pellets and one coffee mug (for 14 chickens) of scratch. Aside from that, most kitchen scraps (excepting onions, potatoes, avocado, chocolate...) I toss out the back door. They love bell peppers and their seeds, along with strawberry tops, and dang near anything I cut off a veggie I'm not gonna eat. The list linked below lists carrots as good for them, but my chickens don't do carrots. LOL. Sometimes meat scraps, but never processed (i.e. sausage, hot dogs, etc.) My chickens love... chicken. I also give them any eggs that come in cracked... I usually crack it, whip it and throw it in the microwave for a few min, shell and all. I make sure that when I scramble the egg, I crush up the shell pretty good.
Here's a list of what they really love, and I believe a few things that are huge no nos.
https://www.backyardchickens.com/ar...—the-best-treats-for-backyard-chickens.47738/

 

[Stockpilejoy]

My girls now get Eggland's Best poultry feed mini pellets. Daily treats to get them in the coop/run after free ranging consist of some dried meal worms, or frozen blueberries to cool them down. Now and then I give a few cold grapes, romaine lettuce, cabbage, zucchini or turnip . If they seem under the weather I give them canned tuna or scrambled eggs. It seems to really perk them up. If I need to pick them up for some reason such as cleaning them off or checking them over I reward them with a few sun flower seeds.

 

[Norma_Lorp]

I feed mine Flock Party layer crumbles, it’s soy free. And I give them veggie and some fruit scraps. So far they’ve had lettuce, tomato, blueberries, strawberries, cucumber, watermelon, broccoli, cauliflower, corn, mealworms, scratch seeds and some herbs. I don’t mind these ‘treats’ as they are in a confined run and can’t forage in the grass, wish they could but too many predators and Neighbors lol I think giving them treats once or twice a day keeps them happy and occupied

 

[Cingratz]

Mine love their watermelon, corn on the cob and I freeze frozen corn in water in muffin tins and give it to them on hot days frozen and they peck at it. I have given them beans, strawberries, peas. corn and watermelon is their favourite.

 

[PirateGirl]

Spent grains/mash from the local distillery is the main thing my flock gets other than their regular feed.

They also get any weeds I pull from the garden.

The heel of the loaf of sliced bread.

 

[PirateGirl]

The cob from my corn on the cob (but I don't give them their own ear), the rind from my watermelon (again, they don't get their own melon).

 

[Critternc]

I feed them pellets. For treats they get scratch, grapes, tomatoes,watermelon, cantaloupe, cucumber, strawberries, mealworms, crickets, about anything. They love it!

 

[want2know]

I live in the desert and right now the prickly pear fruit are ripening all over. The chickens love them. I pick the really red ripe ones, shake them in a pan with some sand to knock the main prickles off and they go crazy

Good to know, I live in TX and we have them too.

 

[EdenHallow]

Besides their later pellets (we actually just switched from crumbles to pellets), mine get pretty much everything. We have a bucket and all our edible scraps go in there.
Our chickens have their coop inside a huge fenced in yard. In the corner of their yard we have a compost pile. I dump everything on that pile. The chicken bucket goes on the pike, I clean out the coop it goes on the pile. Grass clippings go on the pile. Fall leaves go on the pile. Everything compostable goes on the pile and the chickens eat what they want if it and what they find eat becomes fertilizer

 

[Norma_Lorp]

Besides their later pellets (we actually just switched from crumbles to pellets), mine get pretty much everything. We have a bucket and all our edible scraps go in there.
Our chickens have their coop inside a huge fenced in yard. In the corner of their yard we have a compost pile. I dump everything on that pile. The chicken bucket goes on the pike, I clean out the coop it goes on the pile. Grass clippings go on the pile. Fall leaves go on the pile. Everything compostable goes on the pile and the chickens eat what they want if it and what they find eat becomes fertilizer

I’m thinking about getting pellets instead of crumbles. The crumble bag I last got had so much fine ground food in it seems like a waste. Do you think pellets are better? I’ve been buying crumbles bc in my mind I think that they can digest it better. Not sure if size matters here.