What Greens do chickens like?

[Shadrach]

My lot have better diet instincts than I do.
Because they range on what is easiest described as allotments they've got a wide choice if they can get to the plants. What they ate last month they wont touch the next month. I grow courgettes. Last year they didn't touch them this year they ate a few.
I was picking some wild rocket when Henry, the tribe rooster comes over and says "I wouldn't touch that, it's close to bolting and way past it's best."
Same with chard; if it's young and tendet the whole tribe will demolish a plant in a few hours. A few weeks later they've moved on to something else.
Vitamin C is always a favourite, from blueberries to home grown grapes. Turn up with some shop bought grapes and they push a few around for a bit then go and look for something else.
The rule seems to be that if it's young and on the plant they eat most greens. It's the same with grass. Cut the grass and offer them the cuttings and they kick it around and then go and crop the youngest shoots of the very same grass I just offered them.
Ease of eating seems to play a role. It's a lot easier for a chicken to rip chunks off a plant while its in the ground growing then it is say for a whole leaf thrown on the ground. The plant stays still but trying to shred a loose leaf is quite diffcult if it's not attatched to the plant, unless they manage to stand on the leaf to keep it still.
I'm tempted to think that it isn't the taste of the plant that's important, it's the nutrients in it at particular growth stages.

 

[Perris]

it's the nutrients in it at particular growth stages

yes, both in the plant and needed at that moment by the chicken eating it (and which may be different for the chicken choosing not to eat it, here, now).

 

[My Very First 6 Chickens]

Hi again, I’m just wondering what fruit and veggies chickens like to eat. Mine are being a bit picky. We’ve given them lettuce, silver beet, spinach, carrots, cucumber, apple, broccolini and sweet corn and they don’t seem to want any of it. They are sometimes interested in the cucumber and occasionally peck at the spinach, but apart from that they don’t seem interested. We have, or had, a lot of greenery in the garden, but they’ve eaten most of it so we’re trying to supply them with extra. What other greens can we try?

offer it anyway. the chickens will eat what they need. this changes with the season. Remember too, that chickens need protein. i find i supplement protein more than fruits and veggies. my thinking is they have access to plenty of garden goodies, foraging, eating grass and such. They go absolutely nuts for any protein source. Everyone gets a salad once a day tho. A bag of cold slaw gets thrown in the food processor and will last the week. Good Luck! Also, the chickens love variety. sometimes I’ll add something else to the salad and they know it! They say, oh goodie! something new in here everyone!!! Come come! lol oh, and a tip: dont ever tell them their protein is boiled chicken

 

[TOMTE]

My girls love tomatos... Leaves and green tomatos included

I've heard that green tomatos and the plants themselves can be toxic to chickens if they ingest enough, but so far they haven't had any issues. I think they're instinctually good at cutting themselves off before they get sick

I gave them a head of broccoli and they didn't care about it unless I pulled off bits and hand fed them. They left it alone otherwise. I wonder if they would've been more interested if it was cooked, I'll have to try that next time

Frozen strawberries and blueberries over the summer were a favorite

They loved picking at the cucumbers we had growing this summer, too. Even the prickly leaves! And green bean leaves too (same with tomatos, read they can be toxic, but again no issues there). They didn't care for the green beans themselves though

Banana is a big hit but we don't have them very often. And apples, I chopped one up real fine for them once and it was gone within a couple minutes

I think that's all, other than the grass and other stuff growing in the yard. I haven't tried offering carrots, sweet potato, corn, kale, cabbage, etc yet

ETA watermelon! I forgot about the watermelon!

 

[WaterfowlsPoultry]

My rooster goes crazy for a few blueberries, But I feed them tomatoes and cabbage as a treat!

 

[My Very First 6 Chickens]

I free range the hens a lot. If i cant, i have ways to hang the veggies. a broccoli is much more yummy when swinging from the run! Be careful with what you use to hang things tho!

 

[Chicken Heel]

The only thing that my chickens and turkeys don't care for are onions and to a lesser degree cucumbers. Everything else is welcomed.

 

[talkinboutchickens]

Mine are really picky too! They won't eat carrots and healthy greens like other chickens will. Mine used to like lettuce but they do not at all now...I agree with @WingItRanch, my chicken's favorite greens are weeds More specifically dandelion leaves and clovers.

 

[Perris]

Recent research in ecology, biology, and associated subjects has shown that the sense of taste has a large role to play in animals' selection of what to eat and how much of it to eat. Broadly speaking, the sweet taste detects carbs, and the umami (savoury) taste detects proteins. Calcium, phosphorus and sodium are detectable by many animals, and since they are nutrients that are essential in small quantities but are toxic in large quantities, the tastes for these are either consumptive and aversive, depending on circumstances; the taste is appealing if that nutrient is needed at that time and is in an appropriate concentration, and aversive if that nutrient is not needed or is in a too-concentrated form for that animal's metabolism to process. That is why, for example, we and our chickens may eat something with gusto one day and be sick of it the next.

If you want to read more on this, the key terms to research are 'nutritional geometry' and 'ecological stoichiometry'.

 

[Chicken_tiger_catt]

Hi again, I’m just wondering what fruit and veggies chickens like to eat. Mine are being a bit picky. We’ve given them lettuce, silver beet, spinach, carrots, cucumber, apple, broccolini and sweet corn and they don’t seem to want any of it. They are sometimes interested in the cucumber and occasionally peck at the spinach, but apart from that they don’t seem interested. We have, or had, a lot of greenery in the garden, but they’ve eaten most of it so we’re trying to supply them with extra. What other greens can we try?

they might enjoy cabbage or kale.

not a vegetable, but my chickens like watermelon.