Gingerbread?

[wood&feathers]

I did a search and cannot decide if it is safe. We have a year old gingerbread kit that includes prebaked slabs. They are hard and dry with no sign of spoilage. Can I give this to my chickens? I am thinking it would be really cool to ice and decorate with suet and birdseed, but I would have to put it up out of reach of the dogs. Dogs + birdseed laden fat = stinky tarry yard disaster and dog with abdominal pain!

Any other chicken edible stuff that could be used to decorate?

 

[mcjessen]

wood&feathers :

I did a search and cannot decide if it is safe. We have a year old gingerbread kit that includes prebaked slabs. They are hard and dry with no sign of spoilage. Can I give this to my chickens? I am thinking it would be really cool to ice and decorate with suet and birdseed, but I would have to put it up out of reach of the dogs. Dogs + birdseed laden fat = stinky tarry yard disaster and dog with abdominal pain!

Any other chicken edible stuff that could be used to decorate?

I would think gingerbread would be ok but, like any "bread" products you wouldn't want to get them too much at once. As far as other suet treats, my DD has made suet (or peanut butter) covered pine cones as school projects and we've hung them out for the birds. Something like that might be ok.​

 

[terryg]

Gingerbread is fine for chickens - if it's hard and it takes them awhile to eat, even better. I'd be careful about the suet, though. In a small quantity it is fine, but I don't know how wild you're going to go with the decorating

There are very, very few foods that are actually bad for chickens - it's all in quantity. Too many empty calories, too much bread and they won't get enough of the nutrition and minerals they need. Too much corn and they'll get fat (so many egg laying issues I hear about are due to pet chickens that are oven-indulged in corn.) You can't go wrong with greens and veggies. But, if I had a leftover gingerbread house, my girls would get it too - without the candy roof tiles. Your idea of birdseed is great. What about using an egg wash for the glue?
(I have a blog post about the dangers of too much junk food for hens here: http://www.hencam.com/henblog/2011/07/thin-shelled-eggs-old-hens-and-the-miracle-diet-cure/)