quirkas Posted March 5, 2011 Share Posted March 5, 2011 Looking for advice, I grow my own veg and was wondering if the I could give the girls, hens and pekins, the discarded roots which are tough, wormy or damaged. The veg I am thinking of is carrots, parsnips, swede and turnip. Also what about cabbage and broccoli stalks? Mine also love raw cauliflower heads. I know no raw potato; they already have greens and squash when available. I have also heard not avocado (not that I grow them!) is that true or just an urban myth? I have also noticed that they are not interested in raw Brussels but will eat them cooked. Quirkas Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
percy049 Posted March 5, 2011 Share Posted March 5, 2011 personally, our chickens just turn their beaks up to all vegetables we give them. It should be ok to give them swede and turnips. yes, as you rightly said, avocado has a toxin that is (can be fatally) poisonous to chickens and several other animals. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bouldercroft Posted March 5, 2011 Share Posted March 5, 2011 fair warning - if you try to microwave a whole carrot it will whistle and then explode yessssss - seriously - I tried this for the chickens....thankfully it has gotten to the point where nothing surprises my OH any more and he just rolled his eyes muttering 'those ****** chickens' Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Olly Posted March 5, 2011 Share Posted March 5, 2011 I hang bolted cabbages, cauliflowers etc up in the run for my hens (kindly donated by an allotment-keeping friend) and they love them, but they won't eat the stalks, just the leaves. They eat almost anything else, as you have said, you must cook potato or potato skins before you give to the hens, other things should be fine given raw. Whether they will eat tough roots or stalks though, I'm not sure - depend how hungry they are! Avocado is poisonous to birds. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheFeatheredFiend Posted March 5, 2011 Share Posted March 5, 2011 We've been experimenting with veg since we got our girls. Raw veg or peelings is always ignored, including cabbage, broccoli, carrots, parsnip and swede. but if it's been even lightly cooked, they go mad for it, especially cabbage. We steam all the veg that we eat so what I've been doing is putting the hen's veg, peelings and stalks in the boiling water in the steamer's pan after the veg has finished cooking, then I leave it on the stove while it cools. By the time the water and peelings are cold they're cooked just enough to be acceptable to a hen's discerning palate and it's cost nothing extra to prepare it in time or cooking fuel. As an aside, we also have parrots so already knew that avocado was a big no-no. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jools Posted March 6, 2011 Share Posted March 6, 2011 Mine get spare veg in winter and they prefer them raw, greedily tucking in to broccoli, swede, carrot, cabbage etc, but turning their beaks up at celeriac and cauliflower. Picky madams! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mrs Webmuppet Posted March 6, 2011 Share Posted March 6, 2011 Mine won't touch carrots (raw or cooked) but broccoli and cabbage doesn't have much of a life expectancy ( even one of those hard white cabbages only lasts two days). Stalks just get chucked in the run (from a safe distance). I had to stop giving them corn on the cob .........nearly caused a riot in chooky towers! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
