What Greens do chickens like?

[WaterfowlsPoultry]

My girls love tomatos... Leaves and green tomatos included

I've heard that green tomatos and the plants themselves can be toxic to chickens if they ingest enough, but so far they haven't had any issues. I think they're instinctually good at cutting themselves off before they get sick

I gave them a head of broccoli and they didn't care about it unless I pulled off bits and hand fed them. They left it alone otherwise. I wonder if they would've been more interested if it was cooked, I'll have to try that next time

Frozen strawberries and blueberries over the summer were a favorite

They loved picking at the cucumbers we had growing this summer, too. Even the prickly leaves! And green bean leaves too (same with tomatos, read they can be toxic, but again no issues there). They didn't care for the green beans themselves though

Banana is a big hit but we don't have them very often. And apples, I chopped one up real fine for them once and it was gone within a couple minutes

I think that's all, other than the grass and other stuff growing in the yard. I haven't tried offering carrots, sweet potato, corn, kale, cabbage, etc yet

ETA watermelon! I forgot about the watermelon!
View attachment 3971017

How wonderful! I might try watermelon soon..

 

[Squawkers]

Recent research in ecology, biology, and associated subjects has shown that the sense of taste has a large role to play in animals' selection of what to eat and how much of it to eat. Broadly speaking, the sweet taste detects carbs, and the umami (savoury) taste detects proteins. Calcium, phosphorus and sodium are detectable by many animals, and since they are nutrients that are essential in small quantities but are toxic in large quantities, the tastes for these are either consumptive and aversive, depending on circumstances; the taste is appealing if that nutrient is needed at that time and is in an appropriate concentration, and aversive if that nutrient is not needed or is in a too-concentrated form for that animal's metabolism to process. That is why, for example, we and our chickens may eat something with gusto one day and be sick of it the next.

If you want to read more on this, the key terms to research are 'nutritional geometry' and 'ecological stoichiometry'.

That’s really cool

 

[Chicken Fury]

Hi again, I’m just wondering what fruit and veggies chickens like to eat. Mine are being a bit picky. We’ve given them lettuce, silver beet, spinach, carrots, cucumber, apple, broccolini and sweet corn and they don’t seem to want any of it. They are sometimes interested in the cucumber and occasionally peck at the spinach, but apart from that they don’t seem interested. We have, or had, a lot of greenery in the garden, but they’ve eaten most of it so we’re trying to supply them with extra. What other greens can we try?

I'm a bit late I guess, but I've just joined and would like to help I buy frozen mixed veggies that has green beans in there and they love that, also peas. You can thaw them first, or if it's hot it's a cool treat

 

[Bawkbok]

There must be something wrong with our chickens - the only human foodstuffs they'll eat, thus far, is watermelon, (the only kind of melon they like), and scrambled eggs. No veggies, no other fruit, not even apples, no bread, and they will not touch boiled chicken. I haven't tried steak because there's never any left over.

 

[Squawkers]

I've noticed the get less picky as they get older.

 

[Jslay1981]

I have family that manages a local grocery store. We can get near expired bags full of random produce, $2
I have fed chickens, myself, and gathered seeds for next to nothing. Check local grocers for daily clearance

 

[AnnaMM]

I find my flock absolutely love the outer leaves of cauliflower. I often get those for free from my local supermarket. Or the insides of a pumpkin, also a big hit with my girls.

 

[micstrachan]

My lot have better diet instincts than I do.
Because they range on what is easiest described as allotments they've got a wide choice if they can get to the plants. What they ate last month they wont touch the next month. I grow courgettes. Last year they didn't touch them this year they ate a few.
I was picking some wild rocket when Henry, the tribe rooster comes over and says "I wouldn't touch that, it's close to bolting and way past it's best."
Same with chard; if it's young and tendet the whole tribe will demolish a plant in a few hours. A few weeks later they've moved on to something else.
Vitamin C is always a favourite, from blueberries to home grown grapes. Turn up with some shop bought grapes and they push a few around for a bit then go and look for something else.
The rule seems to be that if it's young and on the plant they eat most greens. It's the same with grass. Cut the grass and offer them the cuttings and they kick it around and then go and crop the youngest shoots of the very same grass I just offered them.
Ease of eating seems to play a role. It's a lot easier for a chicken to rip chunks off a plant while its in the ground growing then it is say for a whole leaf thrown on the ground. The plant stays still but trying to shred a loose leaf is quite diffcult if it's not attatched to the plant, unless they manage to stand on the leaf to keep it still.
I'm tempted to think that it isn't the taste of the plant that's important, it's the nutrients in it at particular growth stages.

Shad, a couple of mine are smart enough to purposely stomp on a leaf so they can pull it apart with their beak!

 

[Shadrach]

Shad, a couple of mine are smart enough to purposely stomp on a leaf do they can pull it apart with their beak!

I've often wondered why all chickens don't seem to be wired to do this.

 

[micstrachan]

I've often wondered why all chickens don't seem to be wired to do this.

It really is interesting. They show so much intelligence in some areas, but not in others. And I agree with you; they are not all wired the same in some ways you’d think they might be.