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Autumn

Feeding Scraps

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I believe DEFRA would say, no s"Ooops, word censored!"s at all. However, common sense prevails - the general rule is no dairy, and no salty foods, although some people do give their chooks yoghurt.

 

Beware of things like bread or cereal, as if you give them dry they will swell up in the crop and can cause problems. Bread soaked in water (or olive oil) is ok, or if it's toasted, but personally I would avoid too much of it.

 

Otherwise - any veg s"Ooops, word censored!"s, cooked or uncooked - the only thing you MUST cook are potatoes or potato peelings. Mine love a bit of broccoli, cauliflower or tomato. Pasta is good, although you might want to rinse off any sauce. I don't think the odd bit of cheese sauce, milk on left-over cereal etc will do any harm, but you shouldn't feed dairy foods on a regular basis.

 

The only things to avoid otherwise are citrus fruit, and avocado - apparently the latter can be fatal to birds.

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See this Wiki link for inspiration on treats to try: http://wiki.omlet.co.uk/index.php/Things_your_chickens_might_like_to_eat

 

We rinse tinned sweetcorn to remove excess salt/sugar.

 

Favourite treats we've made up include:

 

- grapes and cherries (but strawberries were ignored)

- boiled rice (sticks to their beak, which is amusing)

- boiled lentils

- whole corn on the cob (we boiled ours first, also we had to chop it into three pieces to prevent squabbling, as it is *very* popular)

- worms (when gardening)

- And in the winter :oops: : mulch of their normal layers pellets, hot water and sweetcorn, rice, lentils, birdseed etc. Actually, even mulched pellets on their own seem much more popular than in their dry form...

 

Don't go overboard with your treats though. Common advice is not to feed them any snacks before about 11am, so they sate their hunger on proper food first, which has their correct dietary requirements. It's really just common sense, if you give them too much fruit and veg they might get the runs etc.

 

Have fun!

 

/\dam

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And no chocolate - although why anyone would want to give chocolate away is beyond me!

 

Quite right!

 

I've heard a number of chicken keepers feed their chooks cooked meat and meat s"Ooops, word censored!"s but to be honest the thought of it turns my stomach. :vom: I think I prefer my chooks to be semi-vegetarian. I have given mine the occasional chopped hard boiled egg when they needed some extra protein. They also get the leftover porridge most mornings which i mix bokashi into. They think it's a treat :roll:

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So would I.....but.......

 

Worms, flies, mini centipedes, snails (the crushed type), mini slugs and flying ants are very tasty (my chooks only like flying ants as normal ants are ignored). What I can't stand but the chooks love them, are FROGS. :evil: I'm afraid they get torn limb from limb and the chooks chase each other round the garden with them hanging from their beaks.

 

But apart from that ....completely vegetarian :wink:

 

On a serious note, the favourites for my lot are cooked pasta, especially spaghetti which they think are worms and jacket potato skins.

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I have recently started feeding our girls most of our leftovers.

I now have three pots in the kitchen-1 for meat which gets fed to the dog with her breakfast every morning, 1 for the hens which gets filled with the kids left over cereals, toast crusts, veg, leftover pasta/rice, roast potatoes etc and 1 for the wormery which is for tea bags, egg shells, banana skins, and little bits and bobs.

 

It is working out really well. Virtually none of our food goes into the black bag other than chips which are not really any good for the hens, dog or worms but we rarely have chips anyway so it's not a problem. Also meat bones go into the black bag but we now only fill 1/2 black bag per week which is a massive improvement for us :D

 

Years ago dogs lived on table s"Ooops, word censored!"s and from what I can make out-chickens were given food s"Ooops, word censored!"s so I thought it would be better to use our food waste rather than chuck it all in the bin.

I now want to get the bin bags which rot down. They cost quite a bit more but as we are only using 1/2 bag per week-it will be worth it. :wink:

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