Allotment Gardening Advice Help Chat

Poultry and Pets => The Hen House => Topic started by: mattb on January 24, 2010, 16:39

Title: Fat balls!
Post by: mattb on January 24, 2010, 16:39

Heres something I've been wondering about...
Can I buy/make fat balls to hang in my girls run?  On a couple of other forums people have said i shouldn't be feeding the birds anything but pellets and corn.  I did  think that hanging fat balls would be a good way to keep them entertained when confined to their run.

All comments welcome.
cheers

Title: Re: Fat balls!
Post by: Ice on January 24, 2010, 16:49

This has been discussed and I'm pretty sure it was a bad idea.  Have a look in the search facility.  I hang up cabbages for mine, much more healthy. :)

Title: Re: Fat balls!
Post by: SusieB on January 24, 2010, 16:50

I think fat balls are for wild birds that need all the energy they can get.  I think they will have too many calories for greedy hens.  Hopefully an expert will be along soon as, if I'm wrong, I agree it would be a good idea.

Title: Re: Fat balls!
Post by: dizzylizzie on January 24, 2010, 17:06

not good for chucks...too much fat ;)
try cabbages/lettuce's hanging up to make them work abit. Do they have anything to do?
i.e. dust baths, logs to perch on etc etc. What flooring do they have in the run?, if its soft give it a rake over, they will spend ages digging and scratching for grubs etc :)

Title: Re: Fat balls!
Post by: DD. on January 24, 2010, 17:57

http://chat.allotment-garden.org/index.php?topic=47591.0

http://chat.allotment-garden.org/index.php?topic=49124.0