do you feed scraps to your chickens?

[Consils]

Can I give them fish and chips or would they be too salty?

I read that chickens weren't supposed to eat potato at all .

I think the kitchen scraps actually comes from the Environmental Protection Act that deals with lawful removal of waste, so not sure why DEFRA would quote animal welfare regs....

they can eat cooked potato. it's because people think about giving them peelings which they can't have.

I give mine pork, lamb, beef, turkey, chicken, fish - anything really, and they love it. Not much meat because we do not waste much, but the scraps. It is fine for a home producer - you ate the meat so it must be OK for you, and OK for you recycled in chicken eggs. The whole BSE (mad cow) problem was institutionally feeding animals to animals, spread across vast numbers of feed bags.

This is an end user situation.

My problem is too many eggs. I just bought an ice cream maker and will begin pickling eggs for salads. I asked my doctor about eating lots of eggs and he said it was fine.

I also give mine scraps, but not meat, i also read avoid peppers and mushrooms, and not too much garlic/onion or it will taint the eggs. Mine get porridge on cold days too (made with oats, a few pellets, poultry spice and some grit and hot water) They love stuff from the allotment too- Kale is a favourite! I read that you shouldn't give them anything thats been in a kitchen - bit hard as I live in a terrace so even their pellets come through the kitchen, I just ignore that, but we do sell a few eggs - only to work colleagues though. Give them away to family too. Things I make when I've got a surplus are the usual quiche, scrambled egg, omlettes etc, but meringues are great and freeze well and we really like kedgeree too!

And besides, chickens aren't naturally vegetarians, whereas cows are. They aren't designed to eat meat so why was it put in their feed? I've never understood why anyone thought that was a good idea. I mean, scientifically it's been shown to be a Bad Idea, but even morally it's a bit icky.

On the subject of scraps, my grandad had a smallholding many years ago, and he used to go round in his trap with a big bin for people to put their kitchen scraps in. It would then be boiled up and made into pig swill. Of course DEFRA has stopped any of that malarky but it was all boiled, I can't see what the harm was, and we are always being told to keep scraps out of landfill. Seems like the ultimate recycling to me!

Yes, I give them anything they will Hoover up. Yes, that includes left over meat. Don't send the cops though!

yup mine get loads of scraps - pasta, sweetcorn, shreddies are their favourites. Their winter treat is porridge, poultry spice & a dollop of canned salmon

In a home environment, I wouldn't worry about feeding any scraps, even if there is the odd bit of meat/fish in there. Chickens are omnivores and can eat pretty much anything.
In a commercial environment or anywhere where the meat/eggs will be sold it is illegal to feed them anything which may have come into contact with meat, fish or dairy so anything which has even been in a kitchen is out of the picture or may have contacted any food substances along the way is out. Very strict, but my home chucks have pretty much anything (alhtough we don't eat much meat, I do give them the odd bone to pick at and plenty of meal worms :))

BSE was cased by cows being fed other cows, specifically their spinal columns, not just any meat.

Catering waste cannot be fed to commercial animals, unless it is authorised. Domestic scraps to domestic animals is fine as I understand the law.

well, mine get homecooked mince for Xmas dinner, and leftover cat or dog food. They love it. They also like drippings form roast meat. Don't tell DEFRA. I otoh never give them fish as I don;t want fishy eggs.

Hi!
We always give our chiks all left overs. They love it. And no complaints from them. The only thing with it, your eggs can have specific taste after eating strong flavored food, such as fish.