[lynnie]

As I am new to I was wondering if you can feed chickens bread crumbs aswell as there chicken feed

Thanks

[Aunt Sally]

Why would you want to ?

[lynnie]

I was just wondering if they could have it

[Aunt Sally]

In very small amounts in the afternoon as a treat would be ok.

[lynnie]

cheers for the info It was my little girl was asking x

[Casey76]

Bread is acutally bad for chickens.  It contains nothing good nutritionally (all carbohydrate and no protein) and if it isn't fed soaked it can swell in the crop and cause impactions.

Consequently feeding bread should really be avoided if at all possible

[Helenaj]

Bread is acutally bad for chickens.  It contains nothing good nutritionally (all carbohydrate and no protein) and if it isn't fed soaked it can swell in the crop and cause impactions.

Consequently feeding bread should really be avoided if at all possible

I agree entirely. I had to put a sign up on my compound gate in the end as one elderly gentleman with his grandkids - with the best intentions - fed half a loaf of white processed bread every day to my girls. Result - impacted crops. It took me ages to find the cause.
I had a chat with him and he really couldn't see the harm until I showed him one of my poorly girls. Now he brings half a cabbage every day and my girls enjoy that much more.

Feed them greens in moderation, much healthier for your girls!

[lynnie]

So I take it ..... it's not a good idea to feed them breadcrumbs

[ChristyRose]

I've fed mine breadcrumbs occasionally and never had a problems....      Dont know if I should now after reading this post....

[orchardlady]

I've fed my girls bread crusts and stale bread for years and years and had no problems at all with impacted crops. However I ALWAYS SOAK IT for a couple of hours first. It is only fed as an 'extra' treat in the afternoons and is not seen as part of their normal diet. If the bread is available they get it if not they don't. Simple....

If your little children want to give a decent treat teach them to hold their hands still and let the hens peck some corn from their cupped hands. Hens are very accurate with their peck so no need to worry that the children will be hurt by the beaks. It might pinch ever so lightly but certainly not hurt. And/or offer lots of greens the hens will just love the treats and will come to associate you and the children with yummy times...total cupboard love!

Orchardlady.

[orionsquare]

"Hens are very accurate with their peck so no need to worry that the children will be hurt by the beaks. It might pinch ever so lightly but certainly not hurt."

Orchardlady.

I beg to differ. My hens always try to vie with each other for food so they just dive in at whatever you have in your palm to snatch it as quickly as possible from the others and some of them really go for it with their pointed beaks and pinch really hard.  :blink: Ouch! My ex-battery hens however are a little better as their beaks are  already trimmed but it doesn't mean they don't dive in and peck hard! LOL 

[Lindeggs]

When my little nephews come to visit we feed the chickens their "normal food" out of our hands.  For some reason food seems to taste better when fed by hand than eaten out of their food hopper! 

The three-year-old is a little scared of the chickens so he had to be taught to drop the food on the ground if they were getting a bit rough, rather than pulling his hands closer to his body with the food still in them. 

[Lindeggs]

The nutritional value of bread is a direct result of the ingredients in it, of course.  And that applies to humans as well as chickens!

My favourite multi-grain bread recipe has wholemeal flour, oatmeal, buckwheat, corn meal, flax seeds and sunflower seeds. The only other ingredients are yeast, salt, sunflower oil and water.  Sometimes I add whey instead of the water, or rye flakes instead of the oatmeal. 

This bread has a high protein content because of all the whole grains, and is low in gluten so it's not as sticky as most white breads. 

So there is no 'absolute' rule saying bread is bad for chickens.  But if you are hesitant to throw your bread to the chickens, then you might also ask yourself if it's good enough for your family!

[freebirdy]

I attended a "chicken talk" yesterday with a very reputable breeder and one of the subject covered was feeding bread to chickens. His advice was preferably not to feed bread to the birds. As others have said it can cause impacted crop.
The crop is actually ridged and the bread being very gooey and dense can stick in these ridgres and can build up to cause severe problems. Yeast infections in the trachea and throat canker.
The way he put it so elloquently was, when chickens were wild fowl they didnt used to pop down the road to the local Subway shop and order a bread roll so why feed your birds something totally alien to their natural diet?!
Having listened to his advive and other keepers exeriences of impacted crop I will not be feeding my birds bread. (not that I have done anyway!) but now I know what problems it can/may cause, the angle I'm personally taking on this subject is "better off not than facing possible problems later."
Hope this help.