Talk:Raising Chickens/Feeding
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[edit] My chickens love this!
Post food that your chickens love here Klingoncowboy4 22:35, 2 Jul 2005 (UTC)
Laying hens require calcium for egg shells. During the laying season, put a pile or box of crushed clam shells in their pen. Crushed clam shells are available at most local feed/farm stores. If you scatter the clam shells too much, you won't know when the hens need more until you see paper-thin shells. Egg shells also work for the calcium, but you run the risk of the birds learning to eat their own eggs.
The only time I pen/cage my birds is when they hatch a clutch of chicks. (Normally, they and all the other critters on the farm run around together.) When they're penned or caged the thing they love most is greens. I usually throw in bunches of grasses and garden weeds. You might be able to get someone that doesn't spray their lawn to let you rake their clippings for your birds.
I am new to chicken raising - having inherited 6 chickens from the previous owner of the house. At present i am only giving them 'Crumble' and fresh water, but from reading here it sounds like they need more! if I give them 'greens' do i need to chop them up i.e. cabbage, green beans etc? Wha about califlower stalks? Potatoe skins? Any advice would be appreciated! (lfnolan@attglobal.net)
We pull up full cabbage from the neighbouring fields and give them to our chickens and they love them. They will peck at and tear off chunks of leaf and peck at the roots and soil on the roots. They struggle with the solid heart and the stalk though. They will eat cabbage and greens cooked as well. As a general rule of thumb, if its hard and solid they can't cope with it very well, try cooking it and mashing or chopping it. If its reasonably soft or leafy they will shred it themselves. They are not stupid and they know what they like. If they don't eat what you give them stop giving them it. If something makes them feel ill they quickly learn to stop eating it. (so long as it isn't so poisonous it kills them outright, but I've not come across anything like that yet.)We even have laburnum trees and the seeds go everywhere and are poisonous, they just know not to eat them. So don't worry too much about what you are giving them, they'll let you know if they don't like it.
Oatmeal, dry or prepared. Corn. Sunflower seeds (cracked open). Old Cereal. Bread. Grapes (pinch in half or they cant get a grip to peck on) Watermelon rinds.
[edit] Can I feed my chickens this?
Post your questions about feeding chickens here. Klingoncowboy4 22:35, 2 Jul 2005 (UTC)
"Because they are chickens. Although chickens will happily eat chicken and other meat products. After butchuring a chicken you can leave the skeleton in the the pen and they will pick the bones clean. If done on a large scale, making chicken feed from chickens (especially the brain and spinal cord) can lead to an outbreak of encephalopathy, similar to mad cow disease."
This does bring up an interesting point. Chickens being scavangers will eat meat. Is it safe for chickens to eat a diet a meat products including but not limited to poultry? I havn't given my chickens much meat products other than what is in UFA Hog Growers. My dogs end up with most of the meat producsts that people don't eat. I have even started giving moldy buns to my dogs instead of chickens. The chickens don't seem to care too much about the buns anymore. My dogs love them, they are almost like Dog candy. BTW if you are intersted in Buns for Dogs what I ended up doing was given them some old Costco buns that had gone moldy. Klingoncowboy4 21:36, 4 December 2005 (UTC)
Chickens naturally eat meat. They love nothing more than a good juicy worm, in fact I virtually get mugged now when I get the spade out of the shed as they know it means digging and worms. So I don't think meat in their diet is a problem. Our chickens get left overs from all our family and neighbours and they are pretty happy and healthy on it.
Do snails count as meat? Because they love them and the shell would probably supply calcium.
[edit] Chickens Can't/Won't eat this
Post foods that you have found that chickens can't or won't eat here Klingoncowboy4 22:35, 2 Jul 2005 (UTC)
Chocolate can be fatal for birds.
User:Hajhouse adds:
- My chickens don't like rye kernels
- Aledgedly chickens can't digest raw potatoes
They seem to love potatoes! Prefer cooked to raw, as well as prefering them mashed to whole; easier for them to eat.82.38.78.129 13:55, 25 April 2006 (UTC)
Gave them bananas and they didn't seem to care for them. I guess it was too mushy for them??
A lot of leafy greens like bok choi and lettuce they seem to ignore. Nothing the least bit spicy, salty or peppered. Tried giving them pill bugs as 'meat' along with snails. They rolled the pill bugs around and gave me the look. You want me to eat WHAT?
[edit] Disputes
[edit] Bananas
According to the chart chickens don't like Bananas however, I have received a message saying
I feed my baby chicks a ripe banana as a treat, and they love it! I have 18 chicks, and I give them one banana every day, by hand. You can use this or not........The adults like it, too.
Klingoncowboy4 19:48, 30 April 2007 (UTC)
I will second this, my chickens actually fight over banana's and will eat skin and all.
I will also second this, (or third it), my chickens love bananas. A tasty treat for them.
Cautionary Note: Aren't banana skins loaded with pesticide (except organic, one assumes)?
Our chickens go crazy for bananas.
I grind up corn stalks and sun flower plants they love it. I read somewher to give them fish raw or cooked?
my chickens won't touch any citrus fruits, love cabbage raw and bacon rinds... they love meat but i refuse to give them any poultry products. i don't think it's healthy.
My chickens love watermelon! They eat everything but the outside skin, even the green part that we don't eat. They also love tomatoes.
MY CHICKENS DO NOT EAT CELERY OR BROCCOLI
