Feeding ground beef?

[fiberart57]

I see posts from people who get mealworms from the pet store as extra protein in the winter for their chickens, but does anyone just give them a little raw ground beef? I gave some to my girls on a very cold night mixed in a polenta gruel and again last night mixed in a gruel from Flock Raiser. It's the 80% lean type so they have some fat for the cold. They scarf it down and seem fine the next day.

Mind you , I don't give them much, about a tablespoon full.

I ask because it's good protein, and even the organic, grass-fed beef from Vitamin Cottage is $5.50 a pound and will last a long time. Much longer than a container of mealworms.

I like to give them the worms, but pet stores that carry them are far away.

Mary

 

[Cornychick]

I hope it's fine. I have given mine leftover chili, spagetti, taco meat.

 

[technodoll]

I give my flock meat almost every day, they go crazy for it and are all producing big eggs like crazy and nevermind the cold weather and less light hours.

They get cooked meat, raw meat, canned fish, organ meats, anything.

Suet for the beef fat, bacon fat when we have some left over from cooking brunch.

Of course I don't give a lot at a time and it's mixed in with proper grains, fruits and veggies as their morning breakfasts and it's shared by a flock of 20 or so birds

 

[Southernbelle]

I would feed it cooked for safety, but mine get any and all kitchen scraps which includes a lot of groud beef dishes.

 

[Jenski]

I feed very small amounts of beef, but I am very careful to NOT give them anything with added salt.


*I* am the only one who gets that.

 

[cw]

Quote:
i agree 100% i would cook for safty reasons, but our catch and eat mice all the time and even eat what was left of the squarrels from a squarrel hunt

 

[fiberart57]

Thanks for the responses, but now I'm curious. What kind of safety concerns would there be? Beef is not the meat to be concerned with, like pork or poultry, for liver fluke or salmonella, is it? Also, others talk about feeding raw game to their birds. Wouldn't that be more likely to have parasites than organic, grass fed beef? What could the chickens get from it that humans wouldn't?

Mary

 

[KattyKillFish]

my birds love raw meat. i would just give it to them. once we had a moose bone with a lot of raw meat still on it and they loved it to bits! i would just give it to them.

this may seem a bit weird to the lot of you but i was processing a meatie this past fall and one of my girls ran away with a pile of guts. i was surprised at first and tried to take it away but then i was like "aw, what the heck, how much harm could it do?"

i've let them since and have had no problems with anyone getting sick at all. they like the raw meat. sometimes the fayoumis even catch mice and eat them whole

certainly not something i personally would do. i agree about the comment on salt, they shouldn't have any of that.

i just feed them any leftovers we have (and i mean any!) along with their regular food and they don't complain. heck, they LOVE raw fish!

 

[thaokou21]

its should be fine. the meat just makes them fatter.

 

[Kanga77510]

Quote:
My girls sometimes get what the kids won't finish. They love it!