What is your Chicken's Favourite Food? (List 3 only)

[Gold Coaster]

By the way, just wanted to share with you all an amazing photo. This is what happens when you feed your chickens too much of their favourite foods!

This egg was laid by my ISA Brown (Red Star) chook called Rosie just this morning. The egg on the right is 65g and was laid by my Black Star called Dawn.

We dub this egg, the Extra Jumbo which 'Alchemist' Rosie concocted from a diet of Mealworms, Corn and Grated Cheese.

Cheers,
Gold Coaster

 

[raymondjames]

no particular order: Cracked corn, Cottage Cheese, little ants and other bugs

 

[Gold Coaster]

I will be watching this thread! Ours are still on starter gro, looking forward to giving them treats! Where do you get the meal worms?

Hello TheLoveShack,

Stormy Autumn is right - pet stores are your first point of call. But if you want to save dollars in the long run, you can either farm your own or buy directly from the distributor. I'm not familiar with farming meal worms, but I've seen other threads on this forum with clear instructions.

Here in Queensland - Australia they have a distributor of meal worms who sells them in different tub sizes and they are packed in oatbran. They start at 10g tubs and go all the way up to 1kg boxes. However, 1kg is not easy to fit in your fridge! You need to store them in the fridge so that they essentially go into hibernation and can last longer. We usually buy the 100g tubs because we get a good deal if we buy two tubs at a time. 100g is made short work of by a flock of four chooks for lunch, but they will be so bloated and lazy afterwards that they'll just nap the rest of the afternoon away!

Keep in mind that you can also find meal worms in two sizes. They have regular meal worms which are like fat caterpillars, or giant meal worms which look like large centipedes/millipedes. My chickens tend to shy away from the giant meal worms but they gobble up the regular size in no time.

Your pet store might also sell other bugs like crickets, grasshoppers, woodies (cockroaches) and earthworms. However, meal worms is the best source of protein while crickets, grasshoppers and woodies are better balanced and have both calcium and protein. The only catch is, woodies and crickets move/jump fast and your chooks will go wild chasing them. Try to put the container on a flat surface such as concrete or tile so that they don't escape before your chooks can eat them.

Cheers,
Gold Coaster

 

[Gold Coaster]

That reminds me. Mine also like to eat toes.

 

[PoultryGirly]

stinkbugs, eggs, grass/greens

No particular order.

 

[ChickenRadio]

Cockroachs popcorn and other bugs.

 

[goldeneggtees]

this topic is def a repeat but who cares? My hens love any treats I give them, they would rather eat out of my hand than off the ground! Silly birds!

 

[MonsterMom]

Mine are just chicks still, but they really like hard boiled egg yolk.

 

[Gold Coaster]

this topic is def a repeat but who cares? My hens love any treats I give them, they would rather eat out of my hand than off the ground! Silly birds!

Hello Howlinggood,

My gosh, I identify with you completely! For some reason the food is always 'sweeter' out of Mummy's hands then the ground. It's like having four little babies that never grow up and need to be spoon fed.

That reminds me, my chook Dusk, will only eat yoghurt if I spoon feed it to her. No matter what bowl or plate I use she won't have any of it, unless I feed it to her in a tablespoon.

Cheers,
Gold Coaster

 

[Gold Coaster]

Everyone, don't forget to add your chook's (or any other fowl you own) least favourite foods. Thanks!

Cheers,
Gold Coaster