Whats your chickens menue like?

[Rogue-Feathers]

What do you feed your girls besides their generic poultry feed? And why? How often do you give treats and scraps? What do you consider none safe/poisoness food items for chickens??

 

[chfite]

Mine get layer crumbles all the time in a feeder. For 2 to 3 hours a day, they forage around the yard. This augments their diet by allowing them to eat anything they happen on. Weeds, weed seeds, crawling things they excavate, tomato plants, comfrey, and many other things they find.

Evidently, they get a lot of bugs. We have never had so few in the vegetable garden until we got chickens.

In winter, there are still many weeds that grow for them to eat. Always something to find.

Chris

 

[JeffOeuf]

Layer crumble feeder is always full. They free range from 8am until 8pm 4 days a week. On the three days a week when no one is home, they're in the run until 12:00 noon, and then free range until 8. Between weeds, bugs and stuff I wish they wouldn't eat (like my tomatoes and carrot tops) they're not eating a lot of crumble right now.

 

[EricaD]

Mine (18 hens and a roo, approx 17 weeks old) get constant access to a feeder filled with organic grower crumbles, which I've now mixed 50/50 with organic layer pellets (ever the optimist, lol, can't wait for that first egg!) to get them used to it (they seem to really love the pellets and my cross beak has put on weight since I added pellets - I think they're easier for her to manipulate and swallow).

They have a huge 2500 sq ft run filled with plants and grass and bugs where they forage from sun up to sun down (the run is made of electric poultry netting with fishing line criss crossed over the top to keep out the hawks). We also give them treats every day. Usually clovers, lawn clippings, spent veggie plants, kitchen scraps and sometimes we'll buy a box of blueberries or a big watermelon as an extra special treat Our compost bin is also within their run, so they spend lots of time in there, helping themselves to all sorts of stuff.

When we don't have any fresh treats for them, they get scratch and black oil sunflower seeds. We even keep several logs and flat rounds (sliced tree trunks that we saved when our lot was cleared) out in the run so that every couple of days we can roll/flip them and let them get all the worms and bugs that have gathered underneath!

On weekends, when we're around to sit outside with them, we let them have full free range all over the property (5 acres of woods, but they stay in the yard, within 200' of the house) for a few hours at a time. They typically head back to their run with crops bulging, lol.

Happy, spoiled chickens

 

[Jakoda]

I can't free range, to many critters, my run is 12 x 20 maybe a little bigger..I have 9 standard sized 12 week old chickies,,they get full time access to their crumbles..Daily, I usually give them a small amount of their crumble mixed with water to make a mash, they love it,,watermelon, cukes, rice, mealworms, grass/seed clippings, melon, about once a week I'll give them a treat ball (seeds), and they love corn on the cob.

Whatever I have around I'll tempt them with, sometimes they go for it, other times they won't..mine don't seem to like live worms, but they love chasing the bugs flying thru their run.

Frozen watermelon is a big hit

 

[bluegiantsc]

My chickens don't like feeders or dishes, so they don't get that. I have to go out about 5 times a day and throw crumbles out on the ground for them. (yes they have me trained well) They free range almost every day in the acre of cleared out yard, and in the 4 acres of woods around the house. They get cat food sometimes if they beat the cats to it.
They also get treats, old homemade bread, left over eggs from my sons breakfast. Fresh fruits and veggies, lawn clippings. I also make homemade flock blocks for them. If they don't get a flock block, they get wild/song bird seed as a treat and lots of cheerios. Our lawn compost pile is in a large fenced in area that they have access to, so they spend a lot of time in there during the day.
They also scratch up the mulch in my flower beds to get the stuff underneath. Other than being really irritating, they've saved my flowers from bugs this year. Especially the roses.

Oh and figs, they LOVE figs.

 

[tuesdaylove]

I'm still experimenting with giving my flock different foods, but so far, I've given them apples, peaches, blueberries, strawberries, tomatoes, bananas, grapes, and watermelon, all of which they love!

Oh, and one of my roos ate mashed potatoes off of a spoon today. c:

 

[PekinBantam]

For meals they get the general poultry feed mixed with powdered corn. My chickens free-range and get to eat lot's of bugs and grubs between meals. During weekends they get coconuts for lunch, and when we eat spaghetti we always save some noodles for them. They also get scraps of whatever snacks we eat on the balcony like crackers, banana, bread, etc...

 

[4 the Birds]

Ours get poultry layer pellets (all they want) fed once each evening. I also throw cracked corn out on the ground and any garden scraps (cucumbers, squash, etc.). They have an acre of area to free range for bugs/insects during daylight hours.

 

[mickey328]

Ours get layer pellets, available as they want. I also give them lots of greens...dandelion leaves, clover, bindweed...all of which grow freely on our property, LOL. Every second or third day, I give them some cooked pinto beans, yogurt or cheese for extra protein. I'm quite sparing with corn...there's already lots of it in their regular feed, and the oil can generate more heat...they'll get more when the cooler weather sets in. They're in a portable coop/run, so they're on grass and nibble that at will. We grow spinach, chard and kale for them...lots of nice leafy greens

For treats, they get grape tomatoes from our garden, oats we grew this spring, various fruit and/or veggies we have on hand that either get a little old, damaged or we just have too much of.

We prefer to really give them a variety..we're still learning what they like and don't like...they won't eat carrots in any way, shape or form, and don't like potato peels or strawberries, but are nuts for the plums off our tree! We give them scraps from the kitchen if they like them, otherwise they go in the compost. We try to stay mostly clear of stuff like potatoes and bread...they're mostly empty calories, imo...so it's a very rare treat for them.