[Fredjones]

I was digging my very small garden over today getting ready for spring, every spade full of soil had loads of worms in so i started picking them up and throwing in the direction of chooks eating there mash, what happened next was unbelievable, they went into a feeding frenzy as 5 are ex batts and 2 are 16week old i thought they would take time to find out they are good to eat, they have eaten them now and are back mashing, what i am getting at is even though they were caged birds they never lost there instinct for other types of food-----Fred

[Flowerpower136]

Mine are the same.  They can spot a worm from 20 paces, amazing eyesight.  Though they've now learnt that when I pick up the garden fork, its worm time!
 
I turn the soil over in the pen from time to time (it getts compacted), and now they know what I'm doing,  I'm mobbed before the fork is in the ground.  They all join in digging.  So funny levering up a great sod of earth with 3 chickens balancing on it, and the other 5 all waiting to dive if anything edible is revealed

[taximan]

when i find worms i throw them to the chooks and they aint interested.dunno why. they free range in garden all day so must be better stuff around i suppose.

[8doubles]

It took 6 months before my hens got interested in worms , anything else that moved was eaten but not worms. When they do get the taste for them the excavations really begin.

[Fredjones]

I am quite suprised how quick they took to them especially being ex batts i thought a couple of weeks or months before they acted like chickens.
Some of my ex batts look like scrags, lots of feathers missing  i know they lose them in there cage but how do you tell if they have moulted.-------Fred

[Nails]

Mine love spiders and slugs too, as well as the worms, we have purposely put large breeze blocks in the pen and every weekend i turn them, imagine 25 chickens trying to get there first its great fun and it keeps them busy for a long time after i have turned them as well. And they know when i'm going to do it, they all follow me!!!!!

[Flowerpower136]

I am quite suprised how quick they took to them especially being ex batts i thought a couple of weeks or months before they acted like chickens.
Some of my ex batts look like scrags, lots of feathers missing  i know they lose them in there cage but how do you tell if they have moulted.-------Fred

With the very scraggy, like my Tilly, not sure you can tell if moult is taking place, and as yet, she hasn't grown anything back.  Am in process of knitting a chucks sweater just in case she suffers in winter.  Pics will be posted when its done!  Others, in the 3 months I've had them, have re-grown beautifully, and a couple of them just starting to moult.  You just finding feathers in the coup and round about.  Egg production is likely to cease, though no sign of that yet here.

[alisonwo]

Some of my girls likes worms and go crazy for them, the others don't seem bothered, my black rock loves to climb on the compost heap and spends many hours happily scratting about on it for bugs and worms, they also love slugs, but won't touch snails dunno why!  They found a frog once as well, I was most upset to find them tearing the poor thing to pieces before I could rescue it. 

[goosebusters75]

Out of all our hens we have 2 little ex-batts that love to help dig. Whenever i get the spade/fork, even if its just to move them, i turn around and there are my little 'helpers' waiting to help. the novelty wears off when they fill the holes in quicker than i dig them though

[pink-chicken]

Three out of four of our girls are crazy about worms, the other one picks delicately over any given to her, tasting and testing them out. Needless to say she's soon relieved of any as she doesn't waffle them down quickly enough. So cute that all girlies are different not only in their characters but palate too.

I can't wait to see the knitted chicken sweaters!  How sweet those girlies are going to look

Jan.x

[viettaclark]

Raked up the wet leaves into piles then went to have a cup of tea. Blow me if the chooks hadn't spread the whole lot back again! They looked very smug and they must have found some worms....their crops were huge!

[Fredjones]

My chooks did the same when i raked the leaves into a pile they waited till next day and spread them all out again i noticed it was slugs they were eating a good thing i suppose i can`t watch them eating slugs there ----yuk

[Flowerpower136]

Have put all our leaves in one of the compost bays which are in the girls pen

OMG, let the games begin.  All 8 were in there, treating it like a bouncy castle.

[Jane-M]

Yup - mounds of beech leaves go into the run all winter long and come out lovely compost in spring - in fact I have an electric garden vac for sale now if anyone is interested 

 My lot too will mob any garden tool on the grounds that worms appear from it. Why oh why won't they eat cabbage caterpillars though  I have explained over and over that they only *look* poisonous

[sallylouise]

intersting about the leaves I didn't think about putting them in with the chickens I do however put my grass cuttings in and they get rather excited when i am mowing the lawn as they know whats coming, they also get very excited when they see my son going out with a shovel as they know worms, slugs and bugs are coming there way, they also love spaghetti pasta not sure if it's because it looks like worms