What's your flocks favorite high protein treat?

[yinzerchick]

What's your "go to" high protein treat for your flock? Mine are starting to molt and I want to give them some different things and need some ideas! Do you and your flock have a favorite? If so please share!!

I'd love to get lots of different ideas so I can switch it up for them.

Thanks!

 

[Wyandottes7]

My birds love dried mealworms! Mealworms have lots of protein in them, and chickens love scratching around for them. I just get bags of dried mealworms (like those sold for wild bird feeding), and give my chickens a handful of them whenever I feel like it. Lately, I've been giving some to them nearly every day, as its getting cold and some are molting. Chickens love mealworms!

 

[memphis]

Mine like yogurt. Their favorite is blueberry! They also love scrambled eggs, tuna & of course the dried mealworms.

 

[OScarlet]

mine are still little (2 months) but they really like cheese, like if one takes off and won't come back I wave a thin string of string cheese at her/him. They like yogurt mixed in to their food and fought over a tiny bit of canned dog food I had the other day on the end of the spoon.

 

[Kelsie2290]

Hamburger is a big favorite here.

 

[chickengeorgeto]

Dry cat and dog food. Ditto canned dog and cat food. Minnows, fish scraps left from cleaning fish, beef liver, hamburger, fresh road kill, watermelon, "maters" shelled dent corn, sunflower seeds, bait shrimp left over from a fishing trip. In fact if it doesn't eat your chickens first, it is a chicken treat. To show that there is even an exception to this rule, last Spring someone on this forum killed a red fox that was killing his hens and he fed Reynard to his hens for revenge.

 

[GAFarmGirl87]

Cooked oatmeal. I get the store brand oats (not the kind that goes in the microwave). I cook it on the stove for about 8 mins, and I just dump it on the ground. My chickens LOVE this, especially in cold weather!

Kelsie - The chicken in your avatar is GORGEOUS!! - Is she an EE?

 

[cackleberrycam]

Oats stop chickens from laying eggs.
I do not give mine oatmeal.

 

[Kelsie2290]

Oats are not that high in protein, whole oats usually around 9-10% and oatmeal around 12%, so if you feed too many oats (or anything else lower in protein than their base feed) you are going to lower the overall protein% of their diet which will lead to them laying fewer eggs.
I'm not sure which picture exactly I had up, but the EE looking ones were hatched from these eggs of the winter hardy breeds, https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/758166/rare-south-american-breeds-including-the-colloncas

 

[GAFarmGirl87]

The oatmeal did not take the place of their usual layer feed, it was simply a treat. And I won't be giving it to them more than twice a week - and only then when temperatures plummet to freezing & below. I'm in NW Georgia, so our winters tend to be more wet than anything, and we hardly ever have below freezing temps last for more than a couple of days, if that.

Mostly my chickens get veggie scraps & fruit scraps as treats. Yesterday they got watermelon

Sometimes they get plain yogurt. And of course they get a little 5-way scratch thrown into the run.