Bicarbonate of soda

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Lucylou

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Hi everyone, :-)99

Has anyone heard of this please, I said I would ask on behalf of a friend who is new to chickens. She has been told to add bicarbonate of soda to her veg 'mash' (stewed up veg peelings, etc) I've never heard of it! Has anyone else & if so what does it do???

Thanks :-)19
 
Never heard of it being used for chickens Lucylou. It is a raising agent in cooking. It has slight anti-acid properties so if the 'mash' is acidic it may stop heartburn problems that we have solved by adding chalk (blackboard) to feed. Could be an overlooked 'quack' solution that works?
 
LucyLou.
If you're more of a scientist than a chef, bicarbonate of soda is also known as sodium bicarbonate or sodium hydrogen carbonate.
You'll find it in the baking section of supermarkets as bicarbonate of soda, & might also find it for sale in chemists' shops.

As well as being added to vegetables in days of old (my grandmother would add it to veg before boiling them to death), it's also useful for absorbing smells from confined spaces such as fridges & bins.
 
Thanks both of you,
None the wiser why this was suggested to my friend, maybe it was an old fashioned thing as suggested. She told this by the person who gave her the chooks, I'll tell her to forget it!
 
Yes I'm sure you're right. Many chickens get fed all sorts of unnecessary and even harmful 'extras' when all they need is a plain, simple diet, some greens and clean fresh water.
 
By law she shouldn't be feeding them stewed vegetable peelings anyway. Since the outbreaks of CJD and Foot and Mouth the Defra rules about what can be fed to livestock are quite draconian.
 
Hi Margaid.
She's allowed if she keeps a vegan kitchen (but not if she's lacto / ovo veggie, which most hen-keeping veggies are, or we couldn't eat the eggs).

Technically, a hot mash isn't allowed either, if it's been prepared in a kitchen where meat or other animal products are handled!
You could always keep a camping cooker in the garage of course, & boil up your veg there... :roll:
 
They don't bother with all that DEFRA nonsense over here. Everyone feeds their chickens kitchen scraps except us, it appears. Visited a Brit couple who had a pet hen with a badly deformed beak. Lovely healthy hen fed on strips of meat and grain from a bucket. So domestic French hens have a diet of all the kitchen scraps, wheat and sunflower seeds plus all the grubs they find from free ranging everywhere. Foxes here generally hunt at night because they are hunted during the day. It is only at cub time when chickens are in danger from daytime attack really.

We were told when we arrived in France that Brits can't donate blood because the French believe we all have CJD!
 
You're quite right Icemaiden. Food scraps from a
domestic
Click to expand...
vegan kitchen are exempt.

This is the link to the Defra leaflet for anyone who's interested:

http://www.defra.gov.uk/ahvla-en/disease-control/abp/collect-feed/ban-kitchen-scraps-pet/
 
For a moment, Margaid, I thought you were going to say that I was right - I am a mad cow :lol:
Got me worried ;-)
 
Sorry Icemaiden, didn't mean to cast aspersions. Just shows my brain doesn't work mid/late afternoon!
 
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