Treats and Scraps

[ArchbishopOfBanterbury]

I've recently become a proud chicken keeper to 4 ex-battery hens. I know we're not meant to give them kitchen scraps (not sure why not though?!), but I have occasionally been giving them eg 1/2 a broccoli, a handful of fresh spinach, some carrot peelings, with varying success. They're still mostly on mash.

I've also given them some of our garden marrow, and some apples. It seems they enjoy them more as toys than food though. Grapes, strawberries and plums have just been trodden on and thrown around. Bread roll was totally ignored.

The sweetcorn and the sunflower head have been big hits though!

What do your chickens like?

We used to but it made them fat and produce a huge amount of poo. Now they get occasional raw veg bits (once a week or so). Lost weight, egg production is huge and far far far fewer colossal turds.

Ah... they are bulking out a little but they were so skinny and gangly to start with, I'd assumed this was a good thing.

They have as much corn mash/crumb as they can eat, but perhaps their will power and portion control isn't so good with treats... good to bear in mind, thank you.