Whole kernels of corn?

[Spore]

I bought some whole kernels of corn at the bulk section of my locally owned and operated store. It always feels good to support people in my community rather than sending my money to corporate offices in some far off state.

I thought I would crack them myself but my coffee grinder could not handle the whole kernels. So the girls like to eat the whole kernels. Are there any health concerns with eating whole kernels as opposed to cracked? Thanks flock.

Spore

 

[Kennyog]

They can it eat,it's just harder for them to digest.I would not feed it all the time.

 

[Happy Chooks]

When I had my leftover corn from my garden, I just gave them the whole cob. (as a treat, not main food source) Towards the end it was pretty dry too, so they got whole kernels. They did fine with it.

 

[B'villechicken]

We have 60 acres of dent corn around the house. Up until the farmer harvested the corn, we gave them ears of corn for a treat. As previously stated, as long as it is a treat, it should be ok.

 

[pattypenny]

I feed whole corn in the winter with my layer pellets. I think it helps with the cold weather. When I had bantams I feed crack corn seemed they had a problem with the whole corn but now I keep only standard chickens and I feed whole corn. You have waste with the crack corn I think and the whole corn is better I think. My hens have a pen where they can scratch for grit, if they were confined to a wire pen this might be a problem unless they had grit. I know some feel that corn is not the proper feed for chickens but I use it and my hens love it.
I have bought crack corn that looked like corn meal and sometimes it seemed I got a lot of the cob ground with the corn this bothers me, made me see red but I buy from a place that cracks their own corn and they give me a good price so I just take what I get if every sack was like the corn meal or full of cob I would complain but this didn't happen often.
I have bought scratch which was usually crack corn and milet seed and my hens would eat the corn and leave the milet seed so I think that is a waste.
If I could free range my hens I might feed only corn in the summer month because the hens will get protein from nature. You never have many grass hopper in the summer months if you have hens free rangeing.
Once long ago my husband was out visiting and came home telling me that grass hoppers were eating everthing in all my neighbors garden . I told him my hens would keep the grass hopper population down in my garden and they did. The hens would peck on a few of my tomatoes but that was a small price to pay for insect control.
Since my hens have to be confined to pens because of the dog population where I live now I keep layer pellets in the feeders all the time and throw out some corn in the morning.

 

[Spore]

Thanks for the information everyone. I will save whole corn kernels as a treat towards the end of they day on cold days. Hopefull it will help keep them toasty at night.

Spore