[leebou]

hi all
I have had my chickens since tuesday and have settled in nicley they are about 16 weeks old.I think i have read somewhere(i did a search but couldnt find it)that you can feed fish waste to the birds if so does it have to be cooked.I have just caught 3 lovely rainbow trout and dont want to waste the heads etc much to the cats disgust.
Hope you can help Lee

[8doubles]

If you`r chooks are like mine they won`t  go near a whole fish head, too scary. If you scrape the cooked flesh off the bone i`m sure it will go down a treat, mine had plaice trimmings the other day and wolfed it down.

[T C]

Hi, im always worried about the bones in fish, i gave mine some prawns the other day, but i took the heads and tails off for them, i was a bit worried that the sharpe bits would lodge in the throats? we have lots of fish being near the med, but also lots of bones so the hens do miss out on a lot of wounderful tastes, TC

[Kate and her Ducks]

Not a chook person but as they eat bits of rock to grind up food kind of thought they would be ok. Never worried with my duck.

[leebou]

thanks for your replies,think ill let the cat have this lot and do some more research lol.
Lee

[Paul Plots]

It was almost a very long time ago but fish heads were fine in the late 1950s!

My dad kept about 200 chickens and as a nipper I had the job of putting the fish heads through the hand-mincer. We always had a good supply as some surplus eggs were traded with the local fish-monger for fish for us to eat and the scraps for the chickens.

I really can't remember if the fish heads were cooked - probably not when they went into the mincer as I can recall having trouble getting the eyes to disappear  they always seemed to be looking back up at me once the rest had vanished.... The joys of childhood!

The fish was mixed with a mash so it was not in high quantities - we also boiled potato peelings and added bran (I think!). This was feed as a treat and mainly in the winter months.

Too much fish might make the eggs taste fishy.... but that might have been the odd dollop of cod-liver oil they used to eat as I refused to take it most times even though it was free and "good for you" - thank heavens for chickens!! 

[andreadon]

I would mince them up before giving them the fish.
(although, I think one of ours would love to peck at the fish head complete with eyes!    )

the mincing should chop up any sharp bits you're worried about.

as for the fishiness of the eggs - would this be added omega 3??
you pay a fortune in the shops for that! 

[leebou]

thanks again some great replies you all make learning so easy thnks again
Lee