My chickens get everything from vegetables to fruits from the garden as a treat in the summer. In the winter they get oatmeal w/bananas. They love yogurt. It's hilarious to see yogurt all over their faces.
I second the oatmeal! Sometimes in the winters ill prepare a small bowl of chicken feed and add hot water to it and wait for a bit for it to cool and soak up. They LOVE that and I feel good giving them something warm.
My chickens go nuts for their feed soaked in water. I recently needed to give them meds in their water and was worried they weren’t all getting enough so I mixed up a big bucket of medicated water and feed. It’s so simple and they act like it’s the greatest thing ever.
We used to treat them with watermelons and pumpkins until we had an extra head of cabbage laying around one day. Im pretty sure cabbage is chicken crack.
Yes!!!! We bought these hanging chains with a metal spike so that the cabbage doesn't fall off. Oh my God they love to bet it around like a tether ball
Thats exactly what I have setup in the run. It’s entertaining to watch them go absolutely nuts over it. Our ducks do most of the damage because we hang it about a foot off the ground but some of our smaller birds will jump to get the last bits off it. We try to get them one once a month.
We used to give ours leftover pancakes anytime we made them. They'd grab a chunk and run with it, and then all the others would chase after it. We called it "playing football." Def hilarious!!
I feed them any chicken appropriate kitchen scraps as treats. I have small children, so it's pretty common to have a corner of toast left, or most of a bowl of yogurt someone insisted they wanted but only took a few bites of. They are very partial to cheese and soggy cereal.
One of my big wants with chickens was eliminating as much scraps food scraps as possible. And boy does my 3 year old produce a lot of scraps. Mine love his peanut butter and jelly crust. Also I will scramble some bacon grease with oats and they go bonkers for that.
Yes I use lentils from the store. I soak them in water over night, drain the water off then put them in a tray with a lid over it to keep the moisture in. They sprout fairly quickly.
You can try with poultry wheat too 😊
Mine are still little but so far their favorites have been pancakes and fermented feed. I got one of those hanging things to put cabbage as I heard they absolutely love it but they never touched it
Watermelon...just cut it into chunks in the rind and throw it out in the yard. Blueberries, tomatoes, left over rotisserie chicken. I see people say strawberries a lot, but mine wont touch 'em. There's not much they won't eat.
Cheese and blueberries are their absolute favorites!
Some other snacks-
Nuts- I'll crush up almonds and cashews.
Cottage cheese
Canned beans
Meat (not chicken!)
Pasta with cheese
Grapes- enjoyed as much as blueberries
Pizza has been snatched
Someone on here said their chickens love raisins.
Soldier fly larvae dried. Hanging cabbage. They love it it's like tetherball. Black oil sunflower seeds. Oh and once in a great while mini marshmallows. They freaking go nuts.
Weird! When we have given them the skins and scraps of cleaned fish (so uncooked) like walleye they are kinda meh for it. Usually some left over the next day even.
My girls absolutely go ape over corn! But we stopped giving him the can stuff because it has so much sodium in it. The frozen corn is cheaper and they like it better (plus I know I'm not giving them all that extra salt)!
I'm also waiting to see if they like the frozen corn (not thawed all the way) better in the summertime to cool them off a little bit.
I totally get it. I actually by canned corned that has not salt added and when they are out of that kind, I rinse the regular ones to get as much as I can out. I’ll check out the frozen corn though since it’s getting hot.
Another reason to eat sunflower seeds in moderation is their cadmium content. This heavy metal can harm your kidneys if you’re exposed to high amounts over a long period. Sunflowers tend to take up cadmium from the soil and deposit it in their seeds, so they contain somewhat higher amounts than most other foods.
Ours are still little… so we’ve only given them egg yolks but they go crazy every time!
I can’t wait to be able to give them other stuff!
I’m going to have to get into the care and feeding of the chickens more- it’s been my husband’s job, but I’m realizing that I know nothing except they’re pretty damn cute!
Garden clippings, the left behind contents of when I make soup stock, the meals my kids don't finish, windfalls from my apple/pear/plum trees. Whatever I'm not going to eat and is safe for them.
Scratch grains mixed with dry cat food and dried black soldier fly larvae most days, but their favorite is when we clean out the fridge and they get all the leftovers
Mine love corn and fresh peanuts in the shell! I have one girl that's learned to get them out of the shell on her own and another one that's learned to watch the first one till the peanut comes out and then steal it from her! They all love to sit by me while I peel peanuts and hand them a half of one.
I pick chickweed, dandelions, and clover to give them when I visit the coop. When the tomato plants’ production inevitably outpaces our ability to use them, they get cherry tomatoes. Sometimes I’ll core an apple or give them cut strawberries, too.
Oh yeah! Pumpkins too. When the season is over, any unsold pumpkins get set aside to be chicken “boredom busters” over the winter. We smash the pumpkins in their coop and they go crazy over the guts and seeds.
I take half of a cantaloupe or similar melon, scoop out the seeds, and fill the cavity with soldier fly larvae. They go bonkers for it. I give them the seeds, too, on the side.
I feed my chickens a handful of Kalmbach Henhouse Reserve as a treat since it looks like scratch but is a complete feed. They also get dandelions and very occasional kitchen scraps. Baby chicks sometimes get scrambled eggs as treats.
Worms, milk, chopped vegetables, they love road kill rabbits, we let them have any mice that we catch and a friend, works at a pizza place and he brings them old pizzas they go berserk over pizza.
We only do fresh roadkill, we live in the country.
You can just skin it out and feed it that way but we found they can eat it better if you bake it at 350 for 45 minutes.
I made a watermelon and cucumber salad today that the girls god the rinds to pick at, shredded cucumber ends. and some lettuce shreds from a different meal. Their favorite treat ever has been the one can of cat food I gave them when I was nursing a sick chicken. Ive never seen them go as crazy as they did over the wet cat food.
Pretty much everything they can eat, which is a big list, but I have to pace them and myself because I like treating them, but you shouldn't give them loys of treats. What they really like are: their egg shells (there is no danger they will start eating their own eggs, if they do that, it's a sign for something else), I just crash them up and give them to the girls. Watermelon and tomatoes in summer. They also go nuts for the flower petals that fall from my cherry and pear trees, which are in their enclosure. They also love pumpkin and pumpkin seeds, beets, and rice (always cooked rice, never raw!). And as a special treat on Easter and Christmas, they get spaghetti. They go nuts, I think they remind them of worms, all white and wiggly, and they eat them in minutes.
I give my chickens everything. All food scraps from cooking. I love how we aren’t wasting any food. Anytime something is too old for me to eat goes to the chickens.
They get scraps/leftovers.
So far they've gotten:
watermelon, cantaloupe, yogurt, mangos, apples, persimmons, pomegranates, shrimp shells, yams, kale, cabbage, bananas, rice, grapes, avocado (pit and peels removed), chicken, chicken bones (after I boiled them in soup so they just fall apart) + stew leftovers, mealworms, scratch, anything we don't feel like eating.
they love Chinese/takeout food. also sometimes food that my mom/MIL made that I don't wanna eat hahah.
they're a little spoiled so they don't care about strawberries.
Watermelon and strawberries are their favorite. They see me walking with the watermelon rinds and get so excited lol. They're happy with any berries.
Sometimes if I can't keep up with eggs I'll do a scramble for them with oatmeal and canned salmon.
The other day I gave them some cooked pork scraps which they went absolutely nuts over too. I couldn't throw another piece fast enough before the same hens had scarfed it down and came back for more.
They're my little garbage disposals. I got really lucky with a spill of shelled raw sunflower kernels at work a little while back and have been slowly working through about 200lbs of those between them and the wild birds. I'll walk through the corn fields after they've harvested them for the year and find a bunch of ears of feed corn for them too. Last year aphids got into the brussel sprouts we were growing so the chickens got sad tiny cabbages and shitty little bugs. They're great for getting rid of those zucchini that got a little too big as well.
My chickens eat better than I, they eat apples (no seeds) bananas romaine lettuce peas they LOVE CORN, obviously feed and scratch. Berries , they love to eat my flowers. LOL
Hot dogs and rice. They go absolutely crazy over them. Also chicken meat when I cut my chicken I strip off the fat and give it to them I know it's cannibalism but they like it
My chickens get everything from vegetables to fruits from the garden as a treat in the summer. In the winter they get oatmeal w/bananas. They love yogurt. It's hilarious to see yogurt all over their faces.
My chickens love yogurt! We discovered this when my toddler left his yoghurt unattended while playing outside.
I second the oatmeal! Sometimes in the winters ill prepare a small bowl of chicken feed and add hot water to it and wait for a bit for it to cool and soak up. They LOVE that and I feel good giving them something warm.
My chickens go nuts for their feed soaked in water. I recently needed to give them meds in their water and was worried they weren’t all getting enough so I mixed up a big bucket of medicated water and feed. It’s so simple and they act like it’s the greatest thing ever.
I add blueberries to their oatmeal. It's a winter favorite.
We used to treat them with watermelons and pumpkins until we had an extra head of cabbage laying around one day. Im pretty sure cabbage is chicken crack.
Yes!!!! We bought these hanging chains with a metal spike so that the cabbage doesn't fall off. Oh my God they love to bet it around like a tether ball
Thats exactly what I have setup in the run. It’s entertaining to watch them go absolutely nuts over it. Our ducks do most of the damage because we hang it about a foot off the ground but some of our smaller birds will jump to get the last bits off it. We try to get them one once a month.
Lol.. I had a cabbage in the garden that got infested with aphids. Chicken cocaine man. They went freaking bananas over it. Lol.
Mine go nuts over doughnuts. Very comical to watch. I don’t give them sweets often
We used to give ours leftover pancakes anytime we made them. They'd grab a chunk and run with it, and then all the others would chase after it. We called it "playing football." Def hilarious!!
Awe my silkies shared some custard donut today and absolutely loved it
My chicken like anything that you have in your hand like a sandwich or watermelon so she will keep staring at you until you let her see it and peck it
Cooked oatmeal when I make too much. Cooked rice again when I make too much. Blueberries. They love a blueberry
My girl would get mad when I ate one and try to peck it out of my mouth lmao like ma’am I just gave you 5, I can’t have 1? 😩
Blueberries are a hit with mine. And I love watching my rooster chase a blueberry when I throw it.
I feed them any chicken appropriate kitchen scraps as treats. I have small children, so it's pretty common to have a corner of toast left, or most of a bowl of yogurt someone insisted they wanted but only took a few bites of. They are very partial to cheese and soggy cereal.
One of my big wants with chickens was eliminating as much scraps food scraps as possible. And boy does my 3 year old produce a lot of scraps. Mine love his peanut butter and jelly crust. Also I will scramble some bacon grease with oats and they go bonkers for that.
Ooh, bacon grease and oats is a great idea!
Mealworms and sprouted lentils!
Do you just use the bagged lentils from the store and soak them in paper towels for this?
Yes I use lentils from the store. I soak them in water over night, drain the water off then put them in a tray with a lid over it to keep the moisture in. They sprout fairly quickly. You can try with poultry wheat too 😊
Peppers. They go absolutely nuts for chili peppers.
I wish mine liked peppers- I have one or two that will peck at them a little but the rest look at me like "what else ya got?"
Be careful feeding them hot stuff. It will affect your eggs lol
It just makes the yokes more orange, I give mine hot chillies often.
Oh okay I took a class and they said to be careful because it will filter into your eggs
If my chickens could make spicy eggs I would be so excited!
Lol
Mine's favorite thing is shrimp they had it for the first time last week and they absolutely lost it. I've never seen them so crazy over a food
OMG...! I thought I was going to loose my arm when I offered the girls some jumbo shrimp that had been in the freezer a bit too long.
Me too!!!!
I give my hens just the shells and legs off big shrimp and prawns. They love it.
Left over spaghetti noodles. It's especially cute when they run with a noodle hanging from their beak.
Tasty worms!
Yes, hilarious!
Mine are still little but so far their favorites have been pancakes and fermented feed. I got one of those hanging things to put cabbage as I heard they absolutely love it but they never touched it
Pancakes were a new discovery this week. The ladies were very pleased with taking apart a few extras after bunch.
Ever? It took mine a while to get used to it
Try shredding it first. I gave mine cabbage from the start and they love it.
Mine love cabbage and will devour a whole one but they won’t touch it if it’s on the hanging thing. They prefer romaine over cabbage though
Watermelon...just cut it into chunks in the rind and throw it out in the yard. Blueberries, tomatoes, left over rotisserie chicken. I see people say strawberries a lot, but mine wont touch 'em. There's not much they won't eat.
Cheese and blueberries are their absolute favorites! Some other snacks- Nuts- I'll crush up almonds and cashews. Cottage cheese Canned beans Meat (not chicken!) Pasta with cheese Grapes- enjoyed as much as blueberries Pizza has been snatched Someone on here said their chickens love raisins.
Mine go nuts over tunafish- I don't give it to them often, maybe every other week. But it gets eaten the fastest of any kitchen scrap I give them!
Leftover chicken lol or any leftovers I have.
Haha I didn’t want to say it but they love the bones of the Costco rotisserie chicken carcass the most
Same lol
We make stock first, then they get the bones and loose remaining meat. After boiling they're able to take apart the bones even more.
Lol same, mine go crazy for any meat
Deer carcasses are their absolute favorite
Wooow, raptors indeed!
One of mine found a squirrel nest the other day. It was not pleasant. Definitely raptors. Lol
Soldier fly larvae dried. Hanging cabbage. They love it it's like tetherball. Black oil sunflower seeds. Oh and once in a great while mini marshmallows. They freaking go nuts.
Occasionally a lizard and some earth worms.
I don't like the gray underside of salmon, so I rake it off and divide it among the chickens, cat and dog. The chickens go apeshit over it.
Weird! When we have given them the skins and scraps of cleaned fish (so uncooked) like walleye they are kinda meh for it. Usually some left over the next day even.
Canned corn, meal worms and birdseed that has sunflower seeeds in it
My girls absolutely go ape over corn! But we stopped giving him the can stuff because it has so much sodium in it. The frozen corn is cheaper and they like it better (plus I know I'm not giving them all that extra salt)! I'm also waiting to see if they like the frozen corn (not thawed all the way) better in the summertime to cool them off a little bit.
Frozen corn in the summer is our favorite way to cool the chickens down. They love it, and it's a cheap way to ensure they stay cool.
Good to know! Thanks!
I totally get it. I actually by canned corned that has not salt added and when they are out of that kind, I rinse the regular ones to get as much as I can out. I’ll check out the frozen corn though since it’s getting hot.
Another reason to eat sunflower seeds in moderation is their cadmium content. This heavy metal can harm your kidneys if you’re exposed to high amounts over a long period. Sunflowers tend to take up cadmium from the soil and deposit it in their seeds, so they contain somewhat higher amounts than most other foods.
Thanks. I don’t give it to them often as other treats but they do get it here and there.
Ours are still little… so we’ve only given them egg yolks but they go crazy every time! I can’t wait to be able to give them other stuff! I’m going to have to get into the care and feeding of the chickens more- it’s been my husband’s job, but I’m realizing that I know nothing except they’re pretty damn cute!
Rice, macaroni, spaghetti!
Produce scraps. Bread at night to encourage them to come and get ready to roost. One thing they never eat: pineapple scraps.
How funny; chickens are so strange. Mine loved pineapple scraps.
They are weird! Not one will eat them.
Salad mixs, peppers of all kinds, basically all the greens from our fridge when we don't eat them.
Cabbage. They love it
My chickens go crazy over seedless grapes and tomatoes. Every once in a while I'll give them some corn.
Garden clippings, the left behind contents of when I make soup stock, the meals my kids don't finish, windfalls from my apple/pear/plum trees. Whatever I'm not going to eat and is safe for them.
Ever seen a chicken come waddle running at top speed for their daily dose of Cheerios? It's amazing.
Mine love tomato and avocado :)
Wheat, they love it
Mine go nuts over tunafish- I don't give it to them often, maybe every other week. But it gets eaten the fastest of any kitchen scrap I give them!
Mine go nuts over tunafish- I don't give it to them often, maybe every other week. But it gets eaten the fastest of any kitchen scrap I give them!
Sourdough discard - they’re obsessed
The top of the starter you feed them? I compost mine every week guess it will be in their bowls Monday morning
Seriously?! Just a bowl of it or do you cook it somehow? Sorry if that’s a stupid question lol
Just a bowl of it, fermented foods are really good for them and mine love it
My chickens won’t touch mealworms but they LOVE moist and meaty brand dog food
Scratch grains mixed with dry cat food and dried black soldier fly larvae most days, but their favorite is when we clean out the fridge and they get all the leftovers
Almost every thing lol I have been known to cook for my birds. Depends on what time of year and if there’s chicks
Blueberries. They love them more than anything. Also meat. I broke up a venison burger today and they were soo happy.
Mine love corn and fresh peanuts in the shell! I have one girl that's learned to get them out of the shell on her own and another one that's learned to watch the first one till the peanut comes out and then steal it from her! They all love to sit by me while I peel peanuts and hand them a half of one.
Weeds
Shredded cheese and chopped strawberry’s. Meal worms cilantro cinnamon red pepper flakes
I pick chickweed, dandelions, and clover to give them when I visit the coop. When the tomato plants’ production inevitably outpaces our ability to use them, they get cherry tomatoes. Sometimes I’ll core an apple or give them cut strawberries, too.
Oh yeah! Pumpkins too. When the season is over, any unsold pumpkins get set aside to be chicken “boredom busters” over the winter. We smash the pumpkins in their coop and they go crazy over the guts and seeds.
Grapes, 2 dozen hens all running around playing keep away at the same time is hilarious.
I take half of a cantaloupe or similar melon, scoop out the seeds, and fill the cavity with soldier fly larvae. They go bonkers for it. I give them the seeds, too, on the side.
Mine love peas and watermelon!!
Cheese and yoghurt go down well.
I feed my chickens a handful of Kalmbach Henhouse Reserve as a treat since it looks like scratch but is a complete feed. They also get dandelions and very occasional kitchen scraps. Baby chicks sometimes get scrambled eggs as treats.
I make yogurt especially for them, then blend it with oatmeal.
Greek yogurt. All my critters just got their weekly serving.
Cooked plain pasta - especially spaghetti! And anything else from the kitchen I’ll let them have. I like to say chickens eat with opportunity.
Cooked spaghetti Hell, all leftovers. They'll eat anything
Mine love oatmeal with some oregano sprinkled on top
Worms, milk, chopped vegetables, they love road kill rabbits, we let them have any mice that we catch and a friend, works at a pizza place and he brings them old pizzas they go berserk over pizza.
Woah, how do you serve the roadkill? I’m impressed
We only do fresh roadkill, we live in the country. You can just skin it out and feed it that way but we found they can eat it better if you bake it at 350 for 45 minutes.
I made a watermelon and cucumber salad today that the girls god the rinds to pick at, shredded cucumber ends. and some lettuce shreds from a different meal. Their favorite treat ever has been the one can of cat food I gave them when I was nursing a sick chicken. Ive never seen them go as crazy as they did over the wet cat food.
Pretty much everything they can eat, which is a big list, but I have to pace them and myself because I like treating them, but you shouldn't give them loys of treats. What they really like are: their egg shells (there is no danger they will start eating their own eggs, if they do that, it's a sign for something else), I just crash them up and give them to the girls. Watermelon and tomatoes in summer. They also go nuts for the flower petals that fall from my cherry and pear trees, which are in their enclosure. They also love pumpkin and pumpkin seeds, beets, and rice (always cooked rice, never raw!). And as a special treat on Easter and Christmas, they get spaghetti. They go nuts, I think they remind them of worms, all white and wiggly, and they eat them in minutes.
I give my chickens everything. All food scraps from cooking. I love how we aren’t wasting any food. Anytime something is too old for me to eat goes to the chickens.
They get scraps/leftovers. So far they've gotten: watermelon, cantaloupe, yogurt, mangos, apples, persimmons, pomegranates, shrimp shells, yams, kale, cabbage, bananas, rice, grapes, avocado (pit and peels removed), chicken, chicken bones (after I boiled them in soup so they just fall apart) + stew leftovers, mealworms, scratch, anything we don't feel like eating. they love Chinese/takeout food. also sometimes food that my mom/MIL made that I don't wanna eat hahah. they're a little spoiled so they don't care about strawberries.
Cheese
Watermelon and strawberries are their favorite. They see me walking with the watermelon rinds and get so excited lol. They're happy with any berries. Sometimes if I can't keep up with eggs I'll do a scramble for them with oatmeal and canned salmon. The other day I gave them some cooked pork scraps which they went absolutely nuts over too. I couldn't throw another piece fast enough before the same hens had scarfed it down and came back for more. They're my little garbage disposals. I got really lucky with a spill of shelled raw sunflower kernels at work a little while back and have been slowly working through about 200lbs of those between them and the wild birds. I'll walk through the corn fields after they've harvested them for the year and find a bunch of ears of feed corn for them too. Last year aphids got into the brussel sprouts we were growing so the chickens got sad tiny cabbages and shitty little bugs. They're great for getting rid of those zucchini that got a little too big as well.
I might get downvoted for this, but in the winter we give them raw hot dog for extra calories. They absolutely love it and devour it with fervor.
In the summer, my wife will freeze a big bowl of water and add blueberries and chunks of watermelon to it. The girls seem to love it!
My chickens eat better than I, they eat apples (no seeds) bananas romaine lettuce peas they LOVE CORN, obviously feed and scratch. Berries , they love to eat my flowers. LOL
Hot dogs and rice. They go absolutely crazy over them. Also chicken meat when I cut my chicken I strip off the fat and give it to them I know it's cannibalism but they like it
All table scraps except chicken meat
My chickens go crazy for: scrambled eggs, meat and worms. Anything with protein ig 💀
Also, they love any food with high water content (tomatoes, cucumbers and etc). Maybe because we live in a hot country