What is your chickens’ favorite scrap treat?

[topochico225]

Has anyone tried cutting the top off a sunflower at the end of the season and throwing the whole thing in? I always save one flower head for seeds the next year, but I usually have a whole row of them that I’ll snag before the squirrels get to them if you think it would be ok!

I do that! Works great and the girls love it.

 

[topochico225]

Mine love love love meat, lettuce, and steel cut oats.

 

[Iluveggers]

I do that! Works great and the girls love it.

Great! Looks like I’ll be saving them all!

 

[SunnyFeathers]

My chickens love milk and almost any kind of dairy product, like unflavored or vanilla yogurt, cottage cheese, sour cream, or regular shredded cheese.

My husband and I do not drink an entire gallon of milk before it starts to go bad, but that is no problem because the chickens will drink any cow’s milk that is too old for us to drink.

I learned alot from a professional farmer who produced excellent organic raw milk, organic eggs,organic butter and cheese made from raw milk, and kefir. At one time, she was the only USDA certified producer of such foodstuffs anywhere in west Tennessee.

From her, I found out that milk is safe to drink by humans and chickens long after the milk sours. I used to throw old milk away when it got old and began to sour, but she pointed out to me that our great great grandparents - who lacked refrigeration - used to drink sour milk and even developed lots of time treasured recipes to use sour milk. It was only in the last century - with the advent of electric refrigerators - that most of us began to limit ourselves to fresh, still sweet milk.

I guess I am spoiled, because I still don’t want to drink the older milk.

But that is OK by my hens - they love that older milk.

 

[SunnyFeathers]

Other treats my girls will eat include:

Watermelon (their favorite)

Left over Halloween pumpkins

The large, extra leaves that my cabbage, broccoli, and cauliflower garden plants produce

Fresh raspberries, blueberries, and grapes

Tomatoes - either cherry tomatoes, or cut up slicer type tomatoes

Black oil sunflower seeds

Poorly pollinated corn ears from my garden



They will eat torn bits of bread, cooked pasta, or cooked rice if you feed it to them, but that is empty calories that offer little or no nutritional value to the birds. So, personally, I choose not to offer my birds any of these.

Also, I do not offer my birds cake, bits of candy or cookie crumbles. Birds don’t need all that sugar.

Come to think of it, we humans don’t need all that sugar, either.

 

[Marie2020]

Raw oats are ok right?

I'm concerned that would cause a blockage. I don't know

I like to make sure a lot of fluid is their oats.

 

[Marie2020]

My chickens love milk and almost any kind of dairy product, like unflavored or vanilla yogurt, cottage cheese, sour cream, or regular shredded cheese.

My husband and I do not drink an entire gallon of milk before it starts to go bad, but that is no problem because the chickens will drink any cow’s milk that is too old for us to drink.

I learned alot from a professional farmer who produced excellent organic raw milk, organic eggs,organic butter and cheese made from raw milk, and kefir. At one time, she was the only USDA certified producer of such foodstuffs anywhere in west Tennessee.

From her, I found out that milk is safe to drink by humans and chickens long after the milk sours. I used to throw old milk away when it got old and began to sour, but she pointed out to me that our great great grandparents - who lacked refrigeration - used to drink sour milk and even developed lots of time treasured recipes to use sour milk. It was only in the last century - with the advent of electric refrigerators - that most of us began to limit ourselves to fresh, still sweet milk.

I guess I am spoiled, because I still don’t want to drink the older milk.

But that is OK by my hens - they love that older milk.

Would you know if a yogurt that is well out of date is okay? Like months but had been sealed.

 

[topochico225]

Would you know if a yogurt that is well out of date is okay? Like months but had been sealed.

I’d think it’d be pretty acidic, but if there’s no visible mold it’d be fine. I’m not an expert though!

 

[Laura Anne]

I know many of us give our chickens food scraps as a treat or part of their regular feed. (Not meal worms or scratch, actual scraps from the human kitchen!) It’s been interesting to me to see what my girls go right for as soon as they see it, and what gets left til later!

My girls LOVE:
Grapes
Winter Squash
Watermelon
Cucumber
Bell pepper cores
Cooked rice
Yogurt

They pick at all greens and cherry tomatoes next. There hasn’t been any produce they haven’t eaten but they all go for the “good stuff” first! They do not love raw turnips. I will try cooking them next time lol.

Mine went nuts over an old hamburger patty the other day -- I've never seen them quite so savage! I said to my husband, "Good thing we're bigger than they are!"

 

[Laura Anne]

Also for a little comic relief, give them a pan of whipped cream!