[adi]

I'm new to the chicken thing and have been reading up on the subject constantly,( much to the annoyance of my wife). i understand greens are important but i'm not sure what to give. i know onions and peppers are off the menu and i understand cabbage is a good one. but what about leaves? i grow some veg myself and live near an allotment and once harvested most veg has the leave removed and i assume these would be fine for the hens? the leaves i'm not sure about are the ones from my potatoes, would they be poisonous?  what other greens would you recomend also?
thanks adi.

[Brambles]

My experience is that chickens eat the things that are good for them... if they free range they come across potato leaves etc... but they wont eat them if they are bad...  The main food is Layers Pellets with some corn for a treat in the late afternoon.   Green stuff is good but not too much as they have a proper ballanced diet in the pellets (so I am told)

I grew curly kale last winter and the chooks LOVED them so am growing more this winter just for them..  Mine love dandelions, slugs, most soil pests , they adore apples but I am careful about giving them too many....  Layers pellets are  definitely the main food for my girls.

[bexy]

They love brassica leaves,spinach,beetroot leaves and pea shoots.
I also give them tinned sweetcorn which they go absolutely crazy over and cooked potatoes....ooooh and spagetti

[Cass]

Our chooks love broccoli, green beans, carrots, peas, sprouts - anything leftover from sunday roast veggies really!  (composter somewhat depleated since we got the chooks!) they also go mad over bread - but not massive chunks of it!!

[8doubles]

When  you`r weeding don`t forget they love chickweed.

[adi]

thanks for the replies guys, mine do go mad for dandelions and the leaves off the broccoli,but dont like pea pods. seems they can be as fussy as kids when it comes to veggies?

[Tricky]

mine wont touch greens, the only greenish thing they'll eat is yellow, sweetcorn!

[adi]

i may try some tinned sweetcorn, they will eat better than me soon.

[joyfull]

mine love sweetcorn (make sure you rinse it first as some has salt and sugar added). At the moment my hens are being wormed so I stir their flubenvet into it and being damp it sticks lovely, the older hens eat more corn than the youngsters so they all should get about the right amount of wormer 

[snowflake]

also grass clipping as long as no weed and feed has been applied.
I hand feed my 12weeks old bits of cabbage in very small bits to get them use to it then when they get the hang of it they are off and running.
mine love lettuce but it does give them the runs if they have too much black poo everywhere.

[viettaclark]

Thanks for that wormer and sweetcorn tip!
I only give my birds greens in their run and they DEMOLISH radish leaves (easy to grow) and go mad for carrot, swede and turnip tops, comfrey, bolted lettuce, thinnings from pak choi, broccoli, cabbage etc.as well. Can't get enough and doesn't seem to affect poo.
 I was worried about the winter months but thanks to advice on this forum have got kale, beet and cabbages sown that can go in when the peas and beans finish!! As you say...they eat as well as us!
 Doesn't seem to fill them up too much and their eggs are a blinding deep yellow! Loadsa iron!

[animal mad]

hi my chicks are 5 weeks old can i give them greens now

[joyfull]

yes, my chicks have been free ranging with mum since they were 2 weeks old so have been eating grass and plants all the time 

[janeheritage]

Mine free range all day so eat what they like (except my veggies  ) but they still go bonkers for a bit of lettuce or gone-to-seed chard. And if for some reason they are shut in the coop, all they want is grass.

[karlooben]

mine eat anything but they dont like runner beans , i dont feed them to them someone esle put some though wire an they didnt touch them . one thing i need to ask there is a hlaf eaten raw cabbage in the kitchen do i need to boil that first befire i give it to them. normally i just hang them up fresh from the gound in the run an let the girls attack them and they certainly love doing that .

i grew marrows this year for the first time for the girls but they only thing is all 9 plants erputed , there must be 6 -8 marrows per plant my girls cant eat them quick enough  i am having to give quite a few away .