What snacks DON'T or chickens like???

[uphilljill]

Quote:
Good to know. Thanks!

 

[mrsc1951]

Six of my seven girls will not touch carrots, but that seventh one loves her carrots, grated of course. None of them seem to care for cabbage and I don't feed them iceberg lettuce but any other kind of greens they go crazy for. I left the gate open one day and they even ate all of my mustard greens. I thought they would be a bit spicy for them but I guess not. I do give mine the occasional orange - I have a neighbor with a naval orange tree and we can eat only so many. Oh, mine don't seem to care for eggs? Even scrambled with cheese and they love cheese otherwise. Cucumbers, squash, broccoli, tomatoes - anything that they would naturally be able to get to.

 

[ChickenCrazy8]

Carrots and watermelon.

 

[Conchis]

I'm glad you guys told me that chickens liked oatmeal. I would have never thought of that, but made them some this morning and it was a huge hit!!!

 

[tweetb]

I thought my chickens would go nuts if I bought some nightcrawlers and fed them to them; but believe it or not they just looked at them and walked away and within a few seconds they disappeared underground. Lost money on that one! They do love popped popcorn though!

 

[Chicks Galore3]

Oh yes, the popcorn! Mine love love love it!

 

[del gallinero]

Mine love mealworms at any time. In the summer mine LOVED watermelon and grated cucumber. There are many raspberries in my garden, but none of the girls would eat them. That's okay so there is one crop I don't have to compete with the critters for. I'm hanging a cabbage this winter and they love it. They love it if I chop it and put it in their bowl too, so I guess it's not just that they like to play with their cabbage, but they actually like it. They will not eat broccoli or lettuce, but they love kale. I have tried a cooked mixed grain cereal on cold winter days kind of like having cooked oatmeal, but they will not eat it. They will eat the same mix dry though. They liked plain yogurt until the really cold weather hit, then they would pass it by. Just too cold I guess. For some protein they really like meat. I've given them little pieces of roast pork, which they love. It seems that they crave protein since they go nuts for any meat or worms I bring. I wonder if we are just not giving chickens enough protein with the grain diets. In the wild they would probably eat bug protein all day if they had it available to them. So why do we restrict protein -- feeding only certain percentages for layers and chicks etc. etc.? Finally, now that I am offering them a container of mixed organic grains and seeds, they don't want to eat their layer pellets. In fact, they have never liked any size bigger than crumbles, so I have to regrind it smaller for them and they still pass it by in favor of the mixed grains. Oh well..

 

[erinchicknlover]

My hens have a taste for everything but raw potatoe pealings but they do like the bugs that go after the potatoe peelings

 

[erinchicknlover]

We call those chcikens with the stripes jail birds

 

[Green Lantern]

~ANY UNCOOKED BEAN~
As a homesteader trying to get away from GMO bag feed and the high feed store bill I tried to supplement my birds with the highest protein plant I could find - beans - Unfortunately there isn't a lot of information on the toxic level of uncooked beans and the affects on birds. But I will tell you from experience - you need to cook beans for at least ten minutes before providing them to your poultry.
My first year I fed tiny cut up raw pieces of beans to chicks to teach them foraging at an early age. I lost a few not knowing the cause.
Later that year I was dumping over 10 pounds of raw beans a day in the coop and occasionally I would lose a bird at up to 6 weeks.
Uncooked beans won't always kill your bird but the enzyme in the beans inhibits it to utilize protein. Eventually, causing harm or death.
Studying feed supplements, I came across this information about needing to cook them beans and I haven't lost any birds this year.
This year I used a giant turkey fryer to steam beans for my poultry. When that wasn't enough I moved to huge pots on the stove.

(wow this woman has a lot of time on her hands or is nuts… maybe both.)
My birds get a portion of our organic garden foods daily to cut feed costs and to provide nutrition. The development of the inside of our birds is just as important as the weight they gain.


Here are some excerpts from web pages about bean toxins.

Cooked beans are a favorite treat of many birds, but raw, dry bean mixes can be extremely harmful to your pet. Uncooked dried beans contain a poison called hemaglutin which is very toxic to birds. To avoid exposure, make sure to thoroughly cook any beans that you choose to share with your bird.


Beans. Raw and dried beans contain the toxin phasin. This warning applies to all beans including thestring or green bean (Phaseolus vulgaris), red runner bean (P. coccineus), kidney bean(Phaseolus vulgaris), lima bean (P. lunatus), and jack bean (Canavalia ensiformis). Canned beans and beans cooked for ten minutes are fine since this denatures the toxin. Ologhobo (2003) showed that feeding raw lima and jack beans to chickens was toxic and presumably they are for parrots also. Yet, Mendez et al. (71) noted in their study that only diets containing greater than 10% raw jack beans inhibited weight gain. Most bean sprouts appear to be safe to feed and aviculturalist highly tout them (105) , an exception are the sprouts of the red kidney bean.

HOPE THIS HELPS SOMEONE!!
Green potatoes are also poisonous to birds (and humans). I have also read that potato eyes can kill turkeys but I plant those instead of giving those to the birds.

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Beans that humans eat should be cooked for the same reasons listed above. Red kidney beans are supposedly the worst offenders....