Cucumber

[Birdsong 82]

My chickens love blueberries or really any kind of berry but I love them more. I love them but I draw the line on what I share

 

[Red-Stars-in-RI]

Thanks, I just didn't want to be over doing the cucumber lol

if you start to see particularly wet manure, you can pull back a little, and you want to make sure they’re getting all the nutrition they need, so make sure they’re still eating plenty of their feed (a good trick is to give the cucumbers later in the day after they’ve had plenty of time to eat their feed).

 

[Bear1978]

it is safe to feed chickens the following:





• Apples


• Artichokes


• Asparagus


• Banana


• Beans [cooked]


• Beets


• Berries


• Bread


• Broccoli


• Brussel Sprouts


• Cabbage


• Cantaloupe


• Carrots


• Cat food


• Cauliflower


• Cereal


• Cheese


• Cooked meat [yes, even chicken]


• Corn


• Cucumber


• Dairy


• Dog food


• Eggs [only feed cooked eggs as raw eggs might encourage your birds to eat their own eggs after they are laid]


• Eggshells


• Eggplant [not the leaves]


• Fish


• Fruit


• Garlic [be careful with how much garlic you give as this can affect the taste of a hen’s eggs]


-Grains


• Grapes


• Greens


• Herbs


• Honeydew


• Kale


• Lettuce


• Milk


• Noodles


• Oatmeal


• Pastas


• Peas


• Peppers


• Pomegranates


• Popcorn


• Potato [no green spots and must be cooked!]


• Pumpkin


• Quinoa


• Raisins


• Rice


• Spaghetti


• Spinach


• Squash


• Sunflower seeds


• Sweet potato


• Tomatoes [not the leaves]


• Turnips [cooked]


• Vegetables


• Watermelon


• Yam [cooked]


• Yogurt


• Zucchini





Do not feed your chickens the following:


• Avocado


• Candy


• Chocolate


• Citrus [a little won’t hurt your birds but in general it’s best to avoid]


• Certain herbs [most herbs are fine and healthy to feed your birds. However avoid the following: Azalea, Philodendron, Rhododendron, Sweet Pea, Black Nightshade, Foxglove, Oleander, Castor Bean, Vetch, Henbane, Irises, lantana, St. John's Wort, Trumpets Vine, Morning Glory, Datura, Clematis and Honeysuckle.]


• Leaves from tomato or nightshade plants


• Nuts


• Onion


• Raw beans


• Raw egg


• Raw meat


• Raw potato


• Rhubarb


• Salt


• Spoiled, rotten, or moldy foods

 

[Red-Stars-in-RI]

Apple seeds do contain something that when exposed to oxygen makes cyanide.

But to get that level of oxygen exposure, you’d need to grind the seeds...and you’d need a lot to get to a dangerous level.

So, I would recommend NOT making any apple seed flour muffins for your flock (or anything else). But otherwise, apples are safe.

 

[Red-Stars-in-RI]

My chickens love blueberries or really any kind of berry but I love them more. I love them but I draw the line on what I share

Ha! Right! I generally avoid buying expensive fresh food specifically for the flock...but they make short work of strawberry tops, the odd soft blueberry, watermelon rinds, etc.

 

[Birdsong 82]

be fine as long as they've had time to eat their feed to get proper nutrition. Treats should be about 10% of their diet

 

[Chickenhappy8708]

Cucumbers, apples (with cores), potatoes, and tomatoes are all fine. Your extra cucumber this time of year will be good for hydration (watermelon, other melon, and summer squashes are too).

Very few of the things that are “poisonous to chickens” are poisonous to chickens.

Best to be on the safe side in my opinion, besides, what do my chickens have to gain from apple seeds?


All culinary herbs are safe, but herbs like eucalyptus are best avoided.

 

[Red-Stars-in-RI]

Best to be on the safe side in my opinion, besides, what do my chickens have to gain from apple seeds?

I guess I’d turn it around to “why NOT give them a delicious apple core because of the non-risk from the seeds?”

I guess the compromise would be to de-seed the core before feeding to your hens.

 

[Chickenhappy8708]

Possibly, mine dislike apples anyhow.

 

[Red-Stars-in-RI]

I made some cider with some rescued apples about a month ago. My flock got all the squeezings.

Of note, they don’t de-seed apples before they’re ground to make apple juice or cider.