What treats do you give your chickens?

[Baluner]

Hello! I'm starting this thread to see what treats everyone gives their chickens (as stated in the title). As of now, I don't have a proper calcium container for my girls, so I make it up to them by giving them a daily bowl with baked & crushed egg shells and whatever table scraps/treats I have on hand. If I don't have table scraps, I'll make them something. #spoiled chickens. Today they got: half a mashed banana, some oatmeal, raisins, cranberries, cabbage, scratch, a couple chunks of stale bread, and a tiny bit of cinnamon for respiratory health (this isn't a regular thing). Sometimes I'll even scramble an egg for them and add that too. Aside from this, I'll occasionally give them some mealworms and wilting lettuce/kale. What does everyone else give their chickens?

We usually give our girls some meal worms with some cracked wheat as a treat in the morning along with their regular layer feed. In the afternoon, we give them spent grain with vegetable scraps...carrot peels, chopped celery, apple peel, etc. or whatever we have from the day before. We have a friend up the road from our place that brews his own high end craft beer and after the hot water has passed through the grain (spent) for flavouring (often a barley or barley mix grain), he dumps it into a couple of our buckets and gives it to us. We split it into small bags and freeze it for later use and then thaw it and keep it in the refrigerator as we need it. If there is a lot of it from the brew, then we pass the rest onto another neighbour for her chickens. My wife also makes bread with it and a number of other bakery products. We give our brewing neighbour eggs for the trade and quite often we receive some of his award winning craft beer...love the barter system and it's great for the chickens too!!

 

[DrTheMomm]

Nice! Mine also enjoy yogurt.

How do you give them the yogurt? Just in a bowl in their run?

 

[David61]

I have been pleased with my ten way scratch feed as a treat.
10-WAY SHOW STOPPER SCRATCH 50#BG (jandjbagging.com)
other than that a handful of raisins.

 

[EverV]

How do you give them the yogurt? Just in a bowl in their run?

Yup . I'll sit there with them while they eat it and it's so funny to watch them get yogurt all over their beaks and heads.

 

[Secondof9]

Treats are meal worms, black oil sunflower seeds, small amounts of corn in the winter and limited table scraps of mostly vegetables. Sometimes I get them a can of sardines and they're crazy for that. They love raspberries and will all gather at my feet when I'm picking, just hoping to snag a dropped one, so I always accidentally/on purpose drop a few (well, OK more than a few).

 

[casportpony]

Today I gave mine leftover rice and refried beans!

 

[JustAChickenLoverOverHere]

Hello! I'm starting this thread to see what treats everyone gives their chickens (as stated in the title). As of now, I don't have a proper calcium container for my girls, so I make it up to them by giving them a daily bowl with baked & crushed egg shells and whatever table scraps/treats I have on hand. If I don't have table scraps, I'll make them something. #spoiled chickens. Today they got: half a mashed banana, some oatmeal, raisins, cranberries, cabbage, scratch, a couple chunks of stale bread, and a tiny bit of cinnamon for respiratory health (this isn't a regular thing). Sometimes I'll even scramble an egg for them and add that too. Aside from this, I'll occasionally give them some mealworms and wilting lettuce/kale. What does everyone else give their chickens?

I give my flock mealworms I buy at the store and rice. Not raw though! Just white cooked rice. Not sure if you can feed them orange rice, but I feed mine white rice.

 

[Jessevp14]

Hello! I'm starting this thread to see what treats everyone gives their chickens (as stated in the title). As of now, I don't have a proper calcium container for my girls, so I make it up to them by giving them a daily bowl with baked & crushed egg shells and whatever table scraps/treats I have on hand. If I don't have table scraps, I'll make them something. #spoiled chickens. Today they got: half a mashed banana, some oatmeal, raisins, cranberries, cabbage, scratch, a couple chunks of stale bread, and a tiny bit of cinnamon for respiratory health (this isn't a regular thing). Sometimes I'll even scramble an egg for them and add that too. Aside from this, I'll occasionally give them some mealworms and wilting lettuce/kale. What does everyone else give their chickens?

I give my chickens a handful of mealworms and some fruits and cheerios almost every day. I also let them out of their dirt pen that was grass into my yard for 45 minutes two to three times a week. They produce a good amount of eggs considering that I only have 9 of them, and seem to very healthy.

 

[Artichoke Lover]

Catawba worms
Any and all safe veggie scraps
Frozen sweet potatoes when it’s hot
Weeds
Pasta
Popcorn
Fruit
Stale bread(not moldy)
Scratch feed
Meal worms during molt
Fruit
Basically whatever is in season or leftover from dinner.

 

[Floof]

I just gave mine leftover greek yogurt and oatmeal (thanks to the newly picky toddler!) The birds seemed to love it.