How Much Fruit and Veggies is good for a Chicken?

[RonP]

FYI,
Alfalfa pellets, all green vegetation, bags says 15% protein.

 

[Sandyd]

If you have the regular feed out and throw in the fruits and veggies for them to eat when they want to it will be ok. I have kept chickens for 25 years and it has never hurt them to toss my wheelbarrow full of grass, weeds, fruits and veggies into them. If it takes a couple of days for them to clean it up, it doesn't hurt them. If they were free range, think about all of the things they do eat plus it would bring ants and bugs to the feast with higher protein for them to munch on. You get more diversity with natural foods than store bought vitamins and minerals put in their feed. Just my thoughts. Maybe the 1st day their poo will be loose but they adjust and adapt.

My girls still eat their ground feed besides everything else.

 

[aleksilkie]

In my flock I never measured and made a fuss about it that way, I supplied them with the necessary food for daily intake and then went in a gave them all kinds of table scraps and they loved it and were all healthy as can be, never measuring exactly how much..It was however much I had at the time. They know how much they can eat and move on, they eat it in the wild naturally anyways. I gave them whatever and how much I had , excluding harmful foods like spicy, candy, ect. Although I have never given mine a whole cantaloupe I think it would be fine to give it to them as long as they are eating their daily intake of nutrients like their seed, scratch, ect. Don't over analyze everything. Hope that helped!

 

[bobshere]

My 5 babies are over 3 weeks old now. I have been feeding them treats for 2 weeks now. Just dont over do it and make sure they have grit before you start feeding them treats. I just give maybe half a teaspoon a day from a bag of construction sand i have in the garage. That seems to be fine. I now hang a slice of watermelon from the top of the brooder. They love that....I make sure they are still eating their food. If you can hang your treats from a string...its much cleaner and keeps them busy through the day. Give them something to peck at. I hang slices of cucumber too. They sure appreciate it. They go crazy when i get home at night. They are like a bunch of kids. Unreal. Im sure happy i have them. The only problem is im not getting anything done around the house. Lol

 

[adgcountrygirl]

I have l left the remains of a watermelon that was over ripe for 20 -24 hens. What they don't eat the first day, they either eat the next day or leave for the wild birds. If I give them a large amount of fruits and veggies, I never do so in the coop. I give it while they free-range. If I give treats in the coop it is a limited amount, and it is because the weather does not permit them to leave the coop.

Try not to over think it. They get bored with treats just as easily as they do the feed.

 

[Angie16hearts]

Such wonderful advice! Thank you! I will go ahead and feed my RIR what they would naturally eat in the wild. If course along with feed!

 

[slingshotandLAR]

Ok.....

First off they are chickens, they eat almost anything....lol

You can give them what ever you bring home a day like a shopping bag full or what ever. As long as they have feed to eat also it's fine.

I have 10 hens and 2 guineas , the other day we had a bag of apples we found starting to spoil. There were 10 or 11 apples the birds cleaned them up in a couple hours.

Start out with a little bit and keep giving to them until you see there is some left the next day.

Alittle off topic, have you thought about raising a couple piglets? All the farm stand waste you can carry would feed them for almost free


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[Irishhenman]

I would give them as much as you can get. It is not going to do them any harm, I don't really consider veg and most fruits to be treats (there are some exceptions like really sweet fruit like apples). Fruit and veg are good for hens, they are full of vitamins, minerals, proteins and all sorts of other goodness. Things like bread, baked goods, carbohydrate rich foods etc are what I consider to be treats. I give my hens as much fruit and veg I can get for them (only limited by how much they will eat in a few hours so it won't attract rodents). I also only give it to them in the evening so they do eat some grain and pellets in the morning

 

[snoooks2u]

Can't someone give me a basic level of information on this?

Can one hen eat a tomato? Two tomatoes?

Can one hen eat two pickling cucumbers? Two ears of wormy sweet corn?

How many hens does it take to eat a cantaloupe? A watermelon?

Isn't there some general figure someone can name between one string bean and a whole pound of them for one hen?

I'm not trying to concoct a scientifically-measured diet. I just want to know if I should think in terms of a coffee cup or a coffee can for each hen.

Answer is a coffee cup per day, per chicken. And the protein in the fruit is from the seeds. My chicks go through a half small melon in minutes.

 

[3KillerBs]

Answer is a coffee cup per day, per chicken. And the protein in the fruit is from the seeds. My chicks go through a half small melon in minutes.

Welcome to BYC.

That post was nearly a decade ago.

I'm much more relaxed about it and willing to trust that when I toss a pile of fruit or veggie trimmings into the run the birds will eat an appropriate amount and the rest will become one with the litter.