Single hen

[Hotlipz]

Chickens have weird tastes! I've made a large run for my chooks (the lawn couldnt take any more punishment) and this is attached to the safe haven of the Eglu where they are kept at night but a couple of weeks ago when I let them out into the big run in the morning I noticed how they would all run at full speed to the other end of the run - i couldnt make it out so I decided to watch them - they were running to the end of the run where a very large Compassion rose bush lives and every night a few roses would shed their petals - and guess what, my chooks were racing to get the rose petals first!! I now feed them all my dead heads from the twenty odd roses I have and I cant believe how they fight for the petals.

 

Their other favourite is spinach. No surprise I know but their enthusiasm when they watch me picking the leaves is amazing. I give them any leaves that are broken, slug damaged or too big to eat and they go absolutely nuts for them - in fact Padme spreads herself out like a shield to stop the others eating it!

 

bananas - they love bananas - but do they make their beaks messy - yuk!

 

Padme's favourite are meal worms

 

Leia's favourite are beetroot leaves

 

Souffle's favourites are rice and pasta

 

but of course the all time, bestest, most favourite find that can initiate chicken world war is the good old juicy worm!

[KTee]

Ours like all the usual things plus gooseberries. This year our gooseberries are not very sweet and a bit on the shrivelled side but that doesn't put them off.

I wondered if they could be given banana - now I know but can they have cucumber?

[Olly]

oh yes - mine love cucumber! scoff it up in no time. Oddly, they also love courgette, which is bitter when it's raw - maybe chickens don't have tastebuds?

 

Ditto the spinach, they go mad for it.

[xScrunchee]

If chickens don't have tastebuds how come they dislike some foods and go crazy over others?

Just curious as I keep reading about them not having taste buds and I wonder how true that really is.

[Charlottechicken]

I think they must have tastebuds, as Bossy, my pepperpot, squeezes food in her beak before she decides to eat it, especially if she has never seen it before or can't remember having it. I would swear I saw her little tongue once as well, licking the sides of her beak Mine also have different tastes too, only one likes blueberries.

[hasnett]

our girls arn't interested in any treats apert from meal worms OH thinks it's because i started them off on them first

[Gallina]

Mine eat a lot of stuff that I would automatically have composted in the past, regarding it as totally inedible.

 

They love anything that falls from the apple tree: nasty old leaves, and very sour cooking apples that will not be ripe for another three months.

 

(I don't let them eat rotten apples, which they love, because they contain natural cider, and I don't want to have to put drunk hens to bed).

 

Despite appearing to eat any old rubbish, they do seem to know what isn't safe. I was worried about the willow leaves that land in my garden (being vaguely aware that aspirin is made from willow), but they don't even look at them.

[Suzanne]

Avocado pears ! They adore them and will go back to the empty bowl again and again and again pecking at nothing at all, just the memory.

[Gallina]

I would be wary about feeding them avocado pear: it is supposed to be toxic to all animals, and this report says: "In birds, clinical effects seen with avocado poisoning include respiratory distress, generalized congestion, and death".

 

But perhaps chickens are different! Yours are obviously well. (And having read in that report what avocado can do to mammals, how is it that we eat them?)

[KTee]

It is very difficult to know what suits individual species and a forum such as this is of great help.

Years ago we had a Cockatiel. Cockatiels absolutely adore privet which is highly toxic to most birds apparently. At one point I gave her a young horse chestnut branch thinking that it would be fine. She was ill for weeks and never really the same again.

Now I always try to get advice before trying new feeds.

I now know that banana and cucumber are OK, thanks.

Incidentally, a long time breeder of fowl warned me against overfeeding with lettuce, it can have bad effects. Ours love it of course. I was aware that it contains laudenum and isn't rec' as a major part of the diet for guinea pigs but it was a surprise that it can affect chickens espec' whan you consider the rubbish they consume without affect!

[chocchick]

Well chickens eat stones to grind up food. Trinny got excited about a teabag I dropped, but did decide in the end it wasn't edible.

Mine like yoghurt which is fun to watch as they get in on their beaks and throw it about so it goes on their feathers. I tried live yoghurt for a poorly chicken and it was a hit.

[lindsayp]

mine adore mash potato, pears and pasta with pesto!

[bridgy chooks]

Favourites of ours have to be porridge, grapes, strawberries, sweetcorn.

 

They also love radish leaves and unfortunately for our runner bean plants the other week we discovered they like them too

 

Oh and I nearly forgot to mention woodlice - if they see you lift up a rock from the rockery they go nuts for them

[Couperwife]

new potatoes - ones we have left over from dinner.

 

we have to give them one each, the all get one and run away from the others, we find them hiding under trees and shrubs eating their spuds .

 

they also like cherries from our cherry tree - the jump up to steal them - its commical

[Chickaboo]

All mine have had very individual tastes, and are quite fussy. I've think I've a bit of a leanient chicken mummy because they won't touch any greens (they have been known to bury broccolli under the wood chippings!). They have very sweet beaks, and raisins are an absolute favourite, followed by sweetcorn, any type of cereal dry, but preferably with yoghurt and milk! Marmite on toast, and oatcakes. They're also prone to sticking a beak in a cup of coffee, or a glass of Pimms! (I haven't encouraged this habit). Daphne loves blueberries, but Phoebe spits them out. But strangest of all, none of my hens have ever eaten anything red i.e tomatoes, raspberries, strawberries, they just won't touch them with a bargepole. Has anybody else found this? I also sometimes put a budgie seed type stick hanging up in the run, which keeps them busy for a while.

[Hotlipz]

oh and I forgot! Those round fat balls with seeds in that you put out for the birds? Throw one in the Eglu and see a game of chicken football - it's hilarious and keeps then amused for hours!

 

 

 

[Couperwife]

oh and I forgot! Those round fat balls with seeds in that you put out for the birds? Throw one in the Eglu and see a game of chicken football - it's hilarious and keeps then amused for hours!

 

 

 

 

hey,what a good idea, it would keep me amused for hours watching them

[menagerie]

Mine are eating lots of manky plums with caterpillars in at the moment, from the plum trees. Potty about sweetcorn. Maggots (yuck found in kitchen bin after warm weather). Henrietta also drinks tea from the bottom of a cup. And they do like courgettes. Their fave plant in the garden is thrift - they have eaten all the flower buds!

[xScrunchee]

Is it ok to give the girls those fat balls?

I read somewhere on here that the fat is no good for them.

 

I am always looking for new things to keep my girls amused, especially now that I have taken their polystyrene away so what do you all think?

[Couperwife]

is polystrene trouble for the girls? I use it in the bottom of plant pots and ours always seem to find some do I need to go and empty all plant pots of polystyrene????

[beach chick]

cooked rice, veg & pasta. tomatoes (despite what others say!). omlet corn (poss drugged?)

 

on the other hand, they are not keen on cucumber, sweetcorn or green bean trimings!

[BeckyBoo]

Fuschia leaves - they very carefully strip each leaf off one by one until they get chased off by an irate chicken keeper and part-time garden owner! Also woodlice, straight from an old log in the garden that we periodically turn over so they can have fresh grubs. But the best one is midges inthe garden, watch them jump up in the air trying to catch them!

 

Mrs B

[starboyhull]

Ours love worms, flies ( thats very funny watching), slugs and snails but they wont touch woodlice and we have millions of them, the amount of them is getting a bit out of hand.......

[foreveryoung]

I had a ham sandwich and "cocky" hopped onto the table and snitched it!

[xScrunchee]

is polystrene trouble for the girls? I use it in the bottom of plant pots and ours always seem to find some do I need to go and empty all plant pots of polystyrene????

 

Apparently it has chemicals in it that can be harmful.

I doubt that the little bits from your plant pots would cause them any harm, I was hanging lumps of it up in their run so that they could peck at it to stop them from getting bored. I read on the practical poultry forum that it is a good boredom buster-which indeed it was. It kept them amused for ages-but Snowy Howells (sp) told me about the fact that it could be poisonous so I have taken it away from them. It's a shame really as they all loved pecking little balls of it off.

 

How many people give their hens fat balls??

I really would like to know whether people think that it's a good idea or not before I go out and get some for my girls and then read that I shouldn't give them to them neither