Best greens for chickens in the winter?

[TooCheep]

@Chickie McChickerson -
A little chicken biology to help understand the answer:
We have teeth to help break down food for further digestion. Chickens don't. Instead, they must quickly swallow chunks of food (up to and including full mice as adults) because they are prey animals. That food ends up in a storage sack called the crop. Food then passes to the gizzard where the grit is stored. The gizzard is a powerful muscle that uses the grit to crush the food into softer/smaller bits before passing it onto the rest of the digestive system.

Commercial crumble/pellet ingredients are already pre-ground and quickly dissolve in water. So, chickens that only eat commercial feed do not need grit and commercial egg producers don't bother with grit. Backyard chickens generally eat lots of vegetation, insects, worms, etc. All of those things need to be ground to get the most nutrients out of the food.

Hope that helps.

 

[Chickie McChickerson]

Thank you!

 

[Nancy lavea]

Whatever you choose to give them, it should only be a small percentage of their diet. If you are using a good feed it should provide all of the daily needs.

I save my kitchen scraps (never mold or slimy) and purchased. Things they seem to like are cabbage, broccoli, green onions, cilantro, tomatoes, lettuce not so much, sweet potato, acorn squash, mashed hard boiled eggs, cucumber, peppers of any kind including seeds.

I have a bunch of mini pumpkins that I used for fall decorations. I quartered some and baked them in the oven (drizzled with water and covered with foil to prevent drying out). They love those and the seeds too.

My chickens do not like pumpkin cooked or raw. Never eat the seeds