Chicken bald back

[ricmonddan]

Hi,

 

In the past I've been well into my weightlifting so have a decent understanding of high protein, low fat, low sugar foods . Mushrooms are some kind of freak of nature in this regard (lots of vitamins too including D), as such i figured they would be good for chickens, to give them something they will go nuts for but won't harm their diet in the way that corn will.

 

Anyone have any thoughts? the only thing I can think is that it would fill them up pretty quick and they aren't really calorific.

 

(i'm talking mushrooms for human consumption by the way rather than random fungus)

 

Dan

[The Dogmother]

I wouldn't bother with treats, just stick to their pellets, some greens and mealworms.

[Olly]

They love them but I'm with Dogmother - pellets are really all they need.

Mine only get vegetable trimmings and occasional green stuff.

[merlina]

gave mine mushrooms once

Got the disdainful 'why are you trying to poison us' look

cooked mushrooms got an equally scathing response

[Beantree]

We have mushrooms growing on occasion amongst the trees and the chickens don't touch them. They usually instinctively know what's good for them or not. Cherries on the other hand!

[ricmonddan]

Thanks for the feedback,

 

One thing I notice is that I get better egg production days when I am at work, so they are locked in the run all day filling up on their rations rather than free ranging picking at grass and me being there giving treats etc.

 

I'm going to start keeping them locked in their run until afternoon at weekends in future to make sure they get all they need from their main food.

 

Have to admit though they go mental for mushrooms.

[Beantree]

That's what we discovered. Let them straight out and they fill up with rubbish with a drastic fall in egg production. The routine we then established was that they stay in their runs until about 10.30 or until their crops are full, then they get let out into the main enclosure. Chickens have little concept of time, so if we go out until 3.00pm they are still fine about it. However if we don't let them out at all in that day they get very stressed. It's important they have a set routine, because chickens don't like changes at all.

[Luvachicken]

gave mine mushrooms once

Got the disdainful 'why are you trying to poison us' look

cooked mushrooms got an equally scathing response

 

Never tried them with mushrooms but did get an equally grumpy look when I gave them a couple of blueberries

I will be sticking to broccoli and mealworms in future.

[mullethunter]

Mine don't like blueberries (the wild birds don't either) or mushrooms.