Official BYC Poll: What’s your favorite winter treat to give your chickens?

[AntiqueB]

I’m not sure if I can give my Girls Chicken as a treat. With the Oatmeal though can someone give me what kind of Oatmeal?

Any kind: quick, regular, cooked, uncooked. Just be sure to feed it as a treat, so not more than about a tablespoon per chicken per day. And avoid adding salt and sugar.

I cook regular oats for them with half milk/half water, cinnamon, and a bit of vanilla extract. Other people add mealworms or grubs, sunflower seeds, fruit. . . The options are pretty much anything a chicken can eat that isn't toxic. Let it cool before serving, of course. Their mouths can get burned.

 

[K0k0shka]

It's so odd that people cook eggs for chickens

Eggs are an expensive treat, especially in the off season when my chickens don't lay anything and I have to buy expensive avian flu eggs. So if I'm going to do it, I'll want the biggest bang for my buck and will feed them out of my hand, so they KNOW who brings out the good stuff They'll have to come over, cuddle, dance, do a headstand and work for it. So if it's raw, I'd just be covered in snot, and that's gross.

 

[Love Donkeys]

They also love raw eggs, bugs, mice, lizards, dead bodies and dog poop. I just don't see the point of cooking for a scavenger. It's like cooking for a vulture

Our chickens love the Donkey manure!

 

[Love Donkeys]

Uh possums and stuff

Oh, that's OK. My mind was starting to go to dark places.

 

[Seaslug]

BYC Project Manager can you please take out the "for added warmth" part after "cracked corn" in the options? Let's not keep spreading old wives' tales. Cracked corn (and digestion in general) doesn't add any warmth in chickens. It just raises the risk of obesity and related problems, especially when people overdo it in the winter, believing the warmth myth.

Hope it is okay if I ask about this ^, although I really should probably look it up myself.
So my childhood best friend's older brother had a thing where he would tell us that if we were ever in an open water situation that we should try to throw up, because it would lower the risk of hypothermia. The last thing you want stranded in open water was all of your blood going to your stomach to help with digestion.
Of course, being a dumb kid, I have remembered this for decades now, but I have no idea if there is any reason to continue to waste brain space on it. And every time I read about chickens eating scratch and using extra calories to burn as heat I wonder about what my friend's brother said... I think maybe Stormcrow recently mentioned something about excess protein being available for heat?

 

[K0k0shka]

Hope it is okay if I ask about this ^, although I really should probably look it up myself.
So my childhood best friend's older brother had a thing where he would tell us that if we were ever in an open water situation that we should try to throw up, because it would lower the risk of hypothermia. The last thing you want stranded in open water was all of your blood going to your stomach to help with digestion.
Of course, being a dumb kid, I have remembered this for decades now, but I have no idea if there is any reason to continue to waste brain space on it. And every time I read about chickens eating scratch and using extra calories to burn as heat I wonder about what my friend's brother said... I think maybe Stormcrow recently mentioned something about excess protein being available for heat?

Blood does get directed to the stomach for digestion, but that would achieve the opposite of what your friend said. When you want to guard against hypothermia, directing blood inward is actually exactly what you want - you want it away from the extremities, which lose heat more quickly. That's actually how bare-footed things like birds can walk on snow and not freeze their toes off (or lose too much heat from the feet) - their bodies direct blood away from the feet, and towards the core, which keeps the core warmer (limits loss of heat), and also helps the extremities not freeze, because they aren't full of watery fluid (blood) which can freeze in the chilled toes and damage the tissue.

The problem with the "corn for heat" statement is that it doesn't argue blood redirection - it argues that extra heat is generated, which is a different thing. Digestion itself doesn't generate heat to the extent that it would have any impact on the chicken whatsoever. And even if we were to argue for redirection of blood towards the innards for digestion - the above argument to guard against hypothermia - then in that case, redirecting blood for corn would be no different than redirecting it for the digestion of anything else they ate. It would achieve the same. So there's no need to stuff them with unhealthy empty calories to get that effect, you can feed them something better. But even then, given that in cold weather blood is already directed away from the feet in birds, I don't know if the additional minor redirection for digestion would make any significant additional difference.

 

[Midnight Maran Momma]

Ahhh... Just like Ma used to make. *wistful sigh*

Actually, I ended up trying this (warm oatmeal and black soldier fly larvae) with my flock on a particularly cold night (for here), and they LOVED it!! Thank you!

 

[UpstateChickenDaddy]

Actually, I ended up trying this (warm oatmeal and black soldier fly larvae) with my flock on a particularly cold night (for here), and they LOVED it!! Thank you!

Apart from snacks like watermelon that freeze so easily, so far they enjoy in winter the same things they enjoyed in warmer weather. Beyond their feed they always get some greens (spinach is what they prefer) mixed with some other veg (cukes, celery, etc.). They also get some fruits. Blueberries are a favorite, but they go crazy for cantaloupe. This morning (<32 degrees) I put the treats down, went to adjust the water and get the mealworms, turned around and they had eaten 90% of it.

I can’t get them to eat any of the cooked or fermented stuff. They are entirely disinterested and it just sits until I throw it out. I don’t know why my kids seem different than everyone else but they seem to be.

 

[AntiqueB]

Mine don't eat fermented feed, either, though they are fans of cooked food.

 

[UpstateChickenDaddy]

Mine don't eat fermented feed, either, though they are fans of cooked food.

What about BSF Larvae as opposed to mealworms? All the hype over BSF - mine don’t enjoy them but they go nuts over mealworms.