Scraps or no scraps, which is best?

J

JanineE

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Hello,
I'm a newby to keeping chickens & I'm finding the information on here so useful & the people very helpful.
I know a few people that keep Chickens & have had conflicting advice about feeding the girls our scraps. Some seem to give their girls all sorts of leftovers including past, rice veggies etc & others say to only give them pellets.

I like the idea of feeding them a variety of scraps (ie fruit & veg peelings, leftovers etc) I can't see that it would do any harm & might add a bit of interest to their diet.

I just wondered what the general feeling is here. Do you feed your Hens scraps or just the pellets?

Thanks J
 
The problem with a lot of things in the scraps is that they can be very fattening. Fruit & veg is better than pasta ! The problem now is that there is so much waste from a household that it is too much for a few hens. If they get too fat, they are more likely to get egg laying problems . If you have good layers, they will be more inclined to burn off fat producing food. Less productive stock could be worse affected. No meat is allowed to be fed.
Traditionally, hens were kept and used up a few household scraps and ate potato peelings boiled up and mixed with a little meal but they got little else except a handful of grain.
 
I do feed my chickens scraps but have not yet given them potato peelings as I thought this was bad for chickens. is there any veg or fruit that should NOT be given. I do not have access to pellets but do get crushed corn.
 
Thanks Chuck :o)
We have quite a little amount of food waste considering we're a family of 6! But I'd just like to give them a little variety but Like Cherrycoup was wondering if there are things they shouldn't have? Would never feed them meat but are all fruits & veggies ok? Is there anything that could harm them? They're young girls I've got & aren't laying regularly yet, but I'm not worried about that side of it really, I just want them happy & healthy x
 
Sorry to put a damper on things, but please note that it is against Defra Rules to feed any sort of scraps from your kitchen to your birds. Some folk do, but it is against the law. Please bear this in mind :)
 
REALLY??? Oh! I'm really surprised. Is that even for 'pet' hens ie only using Eggs for your own household? or for people who sell eggs on or use them in products they sell to the public?
 
Philcott is right, the rules came in a few years ago in response to waste food from catering outlets being fed to livestock and causing foot and mouth disease. Although intended to apply to commercial kitchens, they also relate to domestic setups. It is actually illegal to give ANY leftover food scraps which have been prepared in a domestic kitchen, even if you know it to be of human-consumption standard, ie what you and your family have just had for dinner. You are not even supposed to feed anything which has even passed through your kitchen on its way to the chicken run, eg cabbage bought specially for them.
The law is, of course, unenforceable in a private setting, although ignorance is no excuse, as with any other regulations. But it does highlight possible problems with feeding unsuitable food scraps to poultry. Personally I give stuff like the cut-off bottoms of cauliflower or other green veg, or fruit peelings (which of course I prepare in the greenhouse not the kitchen, LOL,) but I never give any cooked food or anything like bread, cakes or biscuits, which are nutritionally unsuitable anyway because high in fat, salt and sugar. Hens are just like us, they love junk food, but it is bad for them, makes them deposit fat round the ovaries and this causes egg laying problems as they get older. Also they will fill up on the junk food and not have room or inclination to eat the proper food from which their eggs are made.
There is no problem at all in NOT feeding any scraps, as far as i can see, or just confining these to small quantities of things which are a good dietary supplement anyway, such as fruit, veg or a few sunflower seeds sometimes, with a handful of wheat in the afternoons.
 
Thanks Marigold (again!) I only really want to give them 'good' stuff like the outer leaves of the cauliflower, veggie peelings/tops or fruit. I got them some mixed corn as a treat today & they went mad for it (just a handful a day!) Think I'll give them the fruit & veg stuff as I really can't see how it could be of harm but obviously I shall prepare it in the shed, not the kitchen!!! Much appreciated
 
Potato peelings have to be boiled for chicken feed. I don't know why, but the protein lies just under the skin so its got to be good. Friend used to make a warm mash out of crushed grain and boiled potato peelings plus left over veg bits. There was never any meat left over as they used to make soup from the bones and bits for themselves.

As Chuck says be careful as they could get too fat and stop laying. I personnally would ignore the broad-brush DEFRA rules if it is only produce for your own use. There are millions of people in France feeding their chickens on household scraps plus bits of corn and then free ranging them. That's the point of having chickens -turn your waste into eggs. In Holland a few years ago you could get a grant to buy a coop and chickens to process your food waste rather than it going into landfill. The poo was then meant to be able to be safely composted (without a rat problem) and go on the garden.
 
Strictly speaking, kitchen scraps ARE against the law but this is to avoid contamination with meat, meat products and offal which has been the cause of many an animal disease outbreak. If it hasn't been in your kitchen it is perfectly legal. I was heavily involved in the disastrous Foot and Mouth epidemic of 2001, representing goats for the British Goat Society at Defra's London HQ. These rules are not Defra, they are EU rules and should apply to all the countries of the EU - fat chance of that ever happening ! We are the mugs that stick to the rules and it costs us millions.

Potatoes are fine cooked but are poisonous if eaten raw as they are of the nightshade family.

The only fruit which I believe is poisonous is avocado.
 
Thanks for all the feed back. Will make sure I only use the outside kitchen for all food preparation and feed my family on the scraps! Pity about the avies as we get loads here - dogs love them and their coats really benefit.
 
Thanks again Chuck,
All this advice is much appreciated. I just want to do the best for our girls. Delighted to say our poorly hen Delilah has made a full recovery
 
Going back 50 years now And my parents had chicken- about 30 on 1/4 acre and were freerange. They were fed on scraps from a local Greengrocer (Who got a dozen eggs a week) which were boiled up and mixed with bran. When the Greengrocer had no scraps- they were fed Chit potatoes-Ones too small to sell- and were once again boiled up. But everything went into that boiling food pot.Fruit- veg- and any of our table scraps.

Nowadays- all garden waste goes into the run- Don't know if any of you try to compost any pond weed from your fish pond but it will still be there in 6 months time. Give it to the chickens and if they don't eat it- they will scratch it to death. I grow too many cabbage for me and the Pigeons to eat so the chickens get it. They love vine leaves- Bean leaves and garden weeds. Only garden waste I do not feed them is potato and tomato haulm. They are poisonous and I don't even compost that now due to possible blight the following year.
 
hi me again ask yourself this question would you eat the same thing day in and day out no chickens are omnivores they eat a wide variety of things kichen scraps being one of them dont give them anything with salt in it .boiled spuds are fine as is most green stuff carrots and sweed should be cooked also, and if you use a little common sense you wont go far wrong (which seams to be in short supply on this forum sometimes) one thing i would like to know this rule or law or what ever it is i would like to see it in black and white can anyone point me in the right direction .all the best uncle fox
 
I am also a newby and have 7 girly's. I have found the info really interesting. I was debating giving them some left over meat/bones to pick, but I think on balance that I will take it out. They do love the scraps though with brown rice and potato peelings (cooked of course) being their favourites. They look so disappointed if I go in empty handed. They do find their own meat though, they caught a slow worm the other day and spent the next half an hour chasing around the run in relay fashion. One would pick it up and the other six would chase until she dropped it and then the batton would be pick up by another and the whole race would start again. It was the funniest thing I have seen and I should have filmed it, I am sure that I would have got the £250 from You've been framed. I did consider rescuing the slow worm, but was worried I would loose my fingers in the process!! :D
 
Hi Jen, and welcome to the forum.
Personally i would have dived in there and rescued the slowworm, since they are an protected species. We are lucky enough to have them under a pile of old bricks in our garden, and they sometimes lay their eggs in the warmth of the compost heap. They are very beautiful and harmless creatures and we feel so lucky to have them to cherish. Can't bear the thought of the chickens tearing one to pieces for that length of time.
 
On the subject of MEAT and DAIRY. They will come to no harm if it is given to them- but like everything else in moderation. I have seen Mice killed and eaten by chickens and I knew of a Dairy farmer that gave all his "Contaminated" milk to the pigs and Chickens in their bran mix. As part of a well founded diet- then some protein in the form of Meat and Dairy will do no harm.

Saying that- It does go against the grain to give it to Fowl and is not something that I would do. And if you have seen how quickly a Chicken can be cannibalised once the chooks have got a taste for Raw meat- it is something i would be wary of doing.
 
Marigold said:
sometimes lay their eggs in the warmth of the compost heap.
Click to expand...
Slowworm female gives live birth to the ofspring so the eggs which you see are not theirs.You are very lucky ihad not seen in the wild ever.People often mistaken that is a snake but it belong to the lizard family and will drop its tail to escape danger.
 
What I saw was actually baby slowworms, not eggs, as well as an adult, I didn't know they were live-born, thank you Tyg. I cover the heap with bubble wrap to keep it warm and in summer it gets really hot when the grass clippings go on, so it must have been a good brooder for the babies. Sometimes I disturb a slow worm when I move big stones, and they also can sometimes be found in heaps of wood chippings from the garden processor. Our garden is on chalky soil so drains well, plus it's designed for wildlife as far as possible with mature hedges to get under, and I think that's the sort of conditions they like, plus minimum disturbance of course.
 
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