Spinach and Lettuce

[Farmer_White]

Hi everyone. Can you give the chickens spinach, and greens? it is winter here and they have foraged what grass we had, wanted to toss in some leafy greens for em.

• Keep a laying crumble that is always available.
• Toss 1 cup of chicken scratch in the morning. They do not seem interested.
• Toss a few pieces of bread to em in the morning.They appear healthy, happy, eggs are good but
  
• I want to give them old greens, dunno if it's ok, or if I should even be giving them bread. Any advice is greatly appreciated.

 

[toomuch]

My chicks love lettuce but don't eat spinach and yes it okay to give them old greens just not to old.

 

[Farmer_White]

My chicks love lettuce but don't eat spinach and yes it okay to give them old greens just not to old.

Thanks

 

[IamRainey]

My chickens love anything green. I think their favorite is nasturtium leaves.

 

[rebrascora]

Mine love spinach, lettuce not so much. It is believed that spinach and kale can inhibit the absorption of calcium and possibly result in thin shelled eggs but I have not ever had that problem with it and mine get a good 8-10 large leaves of perpetual spinach between 9 of them pretty much every day through the summer and autumn. Less in the winter just because it doesn't grow so well with the frost and snow.

Bread is not great for them much as they love it. A little is ok but don't get carried away and give them half a loaf or give them it daily.

 

[lazy gardener]

Rebra, can you please share the latin name of your perpetual spinach? I've planted one that's called Caucasian Mountain Spinach. I'm wondering if it's the same thing?

FW, I'd lay off the bread, since it's pretty much empty calories, and void of nutrients. I sprout grain for my flock during the winter. The cheapest grain to sprout is bagged feed grain. This year, I'm sprouting Barley. I'm also sprouting Millet and BOSS. An other cheap grain to sprout would be whole corn. Lentils make an other good option. It is super easy to sprout seeds. An over night soak, followed by daily rinsing yields a lovely fresh green that makes a very economical fresh green that I can have available to them every single day without any $$$ spent at the grocer.

 

[rebrascora]

@lazy gardener
I dug through my seed drawer and consulted my Complete Gardening book and I'm afraid that I have failed to find a latin name for it. The best alternative name is beet spinach, if that means anything to you...

 

[chickens really]

It's not a myth and true that Spinach and Kale is not good for layers..

 

[rebrascora]

Sorry, I didn't mean to suggest that it was a myth (bad wording on my part), just that I give mine perpetual spinach pretty much every day and don't experience problems of that nature.

 

[Ridgerunner]

Mine love spinach, lettuce not so much. It is believed that spinach and kale can inhibit the absorption of calcium and possibly result in thin shelled eggs but I have not ever had that problem with it and mine get a good 8-10 large leaves of perpetual spinach between 9 of them pretty much every day through the summer and autumn. Less in the winter just because it doesn't grow so well with the frost and snow.

Bread is not great for them much as they love it. A little is ok but don't get carried away and give them half a loaf or give them it daily.

The only thing I could find on that is that spinach contains another substance that reacts with calcium and ties it up in a form that the body can't absorb, so extremely little of the calcium in spinach is actually absorbed by the body. On the other hand about 50% of the calcium in kale is absorbed by the human body during digestion, which is pretty high. I don't know if this is the basis for that belief or not.

Mine get a lot of kale during the season, which is mid spring to mid-summer. I have not seen any effect on egg shells. I can't get spinach to grow here well enough to make it worth planting.