Allotment Gardening Advice Help Chat
Poultry and Pets => The Hen House => Topic started by: cathy81walking on February 25, 2010, 14:20
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Afternoon everyone :)
Well, my ladies have been with me for about ten days now (will get some pics uploaded of Shadow, Tikka and Kiev soon :lol:) and I have fanatically read everything I can find about keeping happy healthy girls.....
But I would be really grateful to know if there is any fruit or veg that I cannot feed the ladies - I don't want to unintentionally give them anything bad... :(
I've stuck with simple (occasional) grapes, apple, cabbage and parsley, but wondered about citrus fruits like orange, or things like melon? Think I read somewhere that advocado is BAD, but can't find the reference again to bookmark it :unsure:
And boiling veg peelings before feeding..? Is that all peelings, like carrot, spud, sweet potato, parsnip and the like, I'm only thinking of doing it occasionally..... I just can't seem to find anything other than vague references to this :wacko: - links would be great if anyone can help!
These forums have been a fabulous help with the chicken facts I've gleaned so far - you are all so knowledgeable :D
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Just starting out myself. So I am introducing one Veg at a time. Broccoli - mine not keen on, but like Cabbage leaves [ if I chop them 1st] Sweetcorn is good, we shall try that nxt week. Apple ok but I don't think citrus fruits are very good to much acid. So I shall steer clear. I'm sure more advice will follow.
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Hi Cathy, I've had my girls for over a year now and all the knowledge I have mostly from these pages, although there are loads more people on here with more experience than me. I think the rule of thumb is, occasional treats but only at tea time with some mixed corn. Any veg peelings boiled up is good, tomatoes and lettuce and sweetcorn. They especially love corn on the cob, I hang mine up and they strip it bare in seconds! A friend of mine gives his melon and apparently they love it, never tried it giving it myself though. I think it's like most things, a bit of common and sense and everything in moderation. Hope that helps and good luck with your girls, don't foget to let us know when you get your first egg! ::)
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Thanks flangey and bellagirl - I'll try the sweetcorn, sounds like fun for them too! 8) I'd forgotten about lettuce ( ::) d'oh!) and will get some next shopping trip!
They have been laying since I got them - they are 10 months old (or thereabouts) and a friend had them from POL - but decided that it wasn't fair on them to keep them where she lives (they were in the coop 24-7 as her garden's not secure) and when she heard I was in the position to take them it was a done deal :D :D :D
Must work out how to post pics - I've done it before..... :nowink: :wacko:
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hi cathy i asked the same question and was told not to give advocado & kiwi fruit.
heres the link.
http://chat.allotment-garden.org/index.php?topic=50896.0
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Fantastic walker - thanks for that!
:D
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:)Hi Cathy
Welcome to the site :D. Another no no is the Potato plant/leaves :tongue2: :mad: so I've been told.
Best Regards
Steve :)
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mine love ripe bananas :D
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They love to have a cabbage hanging up for them and it gives them some exercise. Lettuce can give them diarrhoer. Mine also so love melon seeds but only now and then but they wont go near a apple.
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Hi I've had my chooks for a year now abnd tried them with different things. They dont like cabbage, or banana, but things I have had success with include, mashed potato, mushy peas the melon left over when I've finished with the melon baller, and any dropped bird seed! Oh also one day I put some giblets down for the dog, and one of my girls grabbed some and made off across the garden!! I read somewhere that a small amount of meat does them no harm. I heard about one lady who gives her chooks small amounts of cat food!! I think there might be some ruling somewhere about not being allowed to sell eggs if you feed your chickens with kitchen scraps??? :unsure:
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hi i have had my chickens since last september and so far have tried them with cooked potato carrot parsnip cabbage stumps all boiled up together and mixed with layers mash,they love that and it was served up to them before they were put to bed for the night it keeps them warm and the layers mash mixed in keeps them laying. they also eat pasta any type including spaggetti and also rice, grapes, and a cabbage skewered on a bamboo cane and stuck in the floor so they can all peck at it off of the ground. mine do not eat apples but citrus fruit is a definate no :nowink: too acid.
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My chickens are dustbins! They eat anything!! Spagetti,pasta,scraps from the table,I occasionally give them a treat of maggotts (they go crackers for them),cat or dog food if they're poorly, tuna,cake,yogurt,porridge, anything!! I even tried on some bananas today like joy said & they ate them to my surprise! My geese though are very fussy eaters. If they dont like something they shake their heads & spit it out as if they're saying "nooooooo". lol.
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Oh I forgot... they loooove mealworms too!
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Crikey! Thanks everyone, thats quite a list ??? - I'm going to have to write some notes to keep in the kitchen!
And with regard to the potato plant leaves etc - are they likely to peck at them then :blink:? I keep my girls in my fenced off veggie plot in the garden (which has nothing growing as yet), and I was (naively?!) hoping that things that didn't taste good would be ignored and try to fence off the rest.... some sort of 2.5 foot high barrier of some kind....??
I can't let them have the run of the rest of the garden - my staffie is FAR too interested in them :wub: (although she has had a few pecks on the nose through the fencing ::)
Any advice? Any links to other threads of a similar nature..... I knew that one question would lead to others! :)
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I would keep them off the veggies otherwise you will not have many veg left :lol: Last year mine got over the netting fence (2'6" ish ) and ate tomatoes, sweet corn (this was grown just for them anyway as I hate it but would have preferred me to decide when they could have it), cabbages, caulis, strawbs, raspberries and cherries, plus fallen plums and apples but not my courgettes :lol: :lol:
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eek!
Hmm, going to have to rethink aren't I?? ???
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I definitely keep them off the veggies.
I was extremely proud of my new raised beds last year, all planted up, seed rows labelled - looked pretty professional until an army of rotivaters turned up, loving the freshly turned soil :(
My neighbour nearly did herself a mischief from laughing tho.
Chucks were oblivious, and delighted in eating every worm and bug going.
I had carrots and coriander growing all over the place...it looked quite pretty really ;)
They did enjoy the surplus courgettes!! :tongue2:
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they will help you though when you want to turn over the soil - just pen them in onto that bit and they will scratch around for ages fertilizing as they go - just be careful though when digging as they do tend to get in the way :D
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they will help you though when you want to turn over the soil - just pen them in onto that bit and they will scratch around for ages fertilizing as they go - just be careful though when digging as they do tend to get in the way :D
Joy im shocked at you! chickens dont get in the way...they HELP! ;)..ask any chicken
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Going by the amount of chickens toes that have nearly met with the sharp end of my spade they definitely get in the way :lol:
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....note to self: stay away from joy if she is armed with a spade :wub:
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good job I'm now going to do container growing instead isn't it :lol:
Anyway we have gone off topic just a little bit :(.
I tried boiling veg peelings up and my girls won't touch them, they don't like cabbage when it's on the floor but love it when it's still growing, love tomato seeds but hate grapes. So what I am trying to say is all hens are different but you can be sure if you don't want them to eat your veg plants you had better make sure that they are well protected ;)
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Thanks everyone - I shall be definately having a rethink over the roaming space during the growing season then ???
I did a bit of digging over the weekend (shiny bright yellow thing in sky on Saturday - can't remember its name :lol:) and the 'under gardeners' were a great help, I just hope they left some worms for the sake of the soil :ohmy:
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I've found this site quite good so far.
http://www.backyardchickens.com/
Pluss all the advice on here too :happy:
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Thanks Stompy - I'll bookmark that and have a good look round it!
:)