After having chickens for over 50 years, I can assure you that you can give them anything...if they aren't supposed to have it, they leave it on the ground and it turns to compost. I have had chickens die of old age, owl attacks, dog attacks but never from any food. They are not nearly as dumb as people think LOL!
Thank you! My Mom used to throw everything out to her chickens (except something extremely salty), she never had a problem. Animals are not stupid & 99% of the time won’t eat something that’s bad for them.
Those chickens you lost to old age weren’t actually lost to old age. Most likely some sort of organ failure. Unless of course those chickens that died of “old age” were 15ish years old. Then yeah maybe…
I can tell you something about apples. We had an orchard in our yard when I was a kid. Our chickens ate lots and lots of the fallen apples seeds and all. We never had an issue with them at all.
My therapist signed for me to keep a single house hen as an emotional support animal. ❤️ she's my "holding chicken". (Diapers; blankets; carseats, carrier and stroller.) Forages in the park.
Our chickens have their own garden. All the fun stuff, what really gets them excited is when I cut a head of broccoli and clip it to the fence so they can peck it to oblivion. Broccoli always gets the happy dance. They also love it when they get oatmeal with berries and meal worms.
The first food besides feed that I gave our young chicks was chopped broccoli. They loved it and started laying an egg a day each a month earlier than expected.
I had a garden for my dogs (and also my garden for birds and pollinators and for looking pretty for me.) I’m a big fan of multiple gardens. Yes! They need to provide for your specific needs, and for your family and friends too. Multiple gardens are the way to go.
I collect a few days worth of scrapes and put it all in a food processor. They love it and leave nothing behind. Its also a good way too feed their eggs shells back to them without them knowing about the shells.
That's a great idea! Gonna try it. I used to save scraps in the freezer for soup, but I don't cook much anymore, so I stopped doing it. Good reason to start again.
TIP: In the summer when I have extra cucumbers, tomatoes, berries and melons. I freeze them and put in Wal-Mart bags or containers. In Sept and Oct when most veggies are gone. I give it to them on hot days.
@@WhitepepperFarmshomestead Farms Are cooked or raw artichoke buds okay to give chickens once once in a great while? Well maybe not the raw ones. I will do some research.
I've had chickens for years. One tips that I give everybody is to skip the layer feed. Instead feed all of your chickens, grower feed. And have oyster shell available on the side. In a separate container. Chickens need a lot more protein than they get from layer feed. And they don't need the extra calcium in the layer feed when they are in molt or when they are too young and the roosters don't need it either. Increase protein makes their molts, less severe and quicker. Good drastically decreases the chance of feather picking and egg eating. I've been doing this for years and it works beautifully. I also feed kitchen scraps. They can eat darn near anything. Except sweets and oil. I don't give them any of that. But any fruit and vegetable and any meat they get.
My hens won’t eat citrus peels, onion peels or banana peels…everything else from my kitchen or garden is pretty much fair game. I ferment or sprout my feed which consists of mostly seeds and grains I raise unofficially organic. Millet, oats, popcorn, flax, sunflower, rye, buckwheat and wheat are either fermented or sprouted for feed. In a pinch I cook navy beans or pinto beans and add some macaroni. I rarely buy commercial feed. …maybe a bag or two a year. We typically have 25-30 hens and several turkeys. Chicken beaks are very hard so you really are just wasting time cutting stuff up! I’ve raised chickens for over 50 years. …never seen a chicken choke! 😂
The grower feed is a good point. I buy ~3t of feed at a time, a ton of layer, and 2t of grower. I see better performance on the grower than the layer, even in my waterfowl.
We live in the desert and in the summer we go on scorpion hunts with our chickens. Lifting wood piles, garden pots, etc, to find the bugs and scorpions underneath! We haven’t seen a scorpion in our house since getting chickens during the “lockdown”. 😉 we also feed them frozen watermelon during the summer to help keep them cool and they LOVE it!
Chickens are smart, and they know what to eat, and what not to eat. What they don't eat they scratch into the ground and it makes compost. Don't make this harder than it has to be.
Old wives tale that seemed to work was adding red pepper flakes in their feed helps them lay better. I used to put about a tablespoon in a feed bucket a couple of times a week and those hens laid like crazy. I got out of chickens a while back but now with the price of eggs, I just went and got a dozen pullets a few weeks ago and am enjoying the heck out of them so far. Much love from North Carolina.
@@jayhemfindsyouThey are spicy but they aren't poisonous. I put 2 reapers in my chili with no ill effects. Also birds aren't affected by capsasin, capsasin only affects mammals, pepper plants actually produce capsasin so mammals won't eat them as they want birds to eat them.
@@frostrangerofthefrozenrelm Not poison, just so harsh they can cause breathing difficulty and cardiac arrest to the unsuspecting victim. My uncle was conned into eating one, was told it was a baby sweet pepper and had to go to the ER.
That is fair, I do share my peppers with friends but I make sure that the absolutely know what they're getting into and the proper precautions to take. I would never sneak an unsuspecting person one, that's asking for trouble, especially if they can't take the heat
My chickens had not started laying. A guy at a feed store told me to feed the Jalapenos. All I had were the sliced in juice. They loved them and started laying 2 days later, and no the eggs were not hot. lol Also when the quit laying thier first year (no molt). I gave them peppers and they havent stopped. They are now a year old. Out of 5 hens I get 4-5 eggs daily.
We started feeding our teenage chickens chopped broccoli and cabbage and they started laying a month early. Now they’re going on 3 years old, and those veggies give them a good increase in egg laying. They LOVE strawberry tops, but one day I made the mistake of walking into the run in my flip flops with red polish on my toenails.
I'm in Florida. Mine are great lizard and frog hunters. Nothing like hearing a lot of cackling, looking up and seeing a hen running around with a lizard dangling from her beak and the rest of the flock chasing her for a bite.
re: peppers/chiles (which BTW are a true berry, so they are a fruit not a vegetable) I grow chiles as a hobby. Several years ago some of my hens got into the garden and devoured my Chocolate Habanero - chiles, leaves and many of the stems. My ladies love chiles, what they don't care for at all is celery.
Peppers are definitely my true love when it comes to gardening, and I don’t know how I put them in the vegetable section! I should know better 😂. This channel was originally a channel about growing peppers. Last year we had 200+ plants! Scaled it back this year though because we still have 80+ lbs in the deep freezer. Glad to see another Chile lover!
Mine won’t eat peppers but in the winter to help with their body temperature I add cayenne pepper powder into their water. They love it. So when my temps drop under 30 I add to the water.
I have head people say not to feed tomato to chickens and I completely disagree with it. Couple of years ago we experimented with the spoon tomatoes. By late august those plants had vined out all over the place and our turkey and chickens were getting into them. They were eating so many of those tomatoes that there poop was actually red. It never seemed to hurt them though and they continued laying healthy eggs. Also the next season we had spoon tomatoes sprouting all over our yard from where they pooped all those seeds out lol.
Tomatoes are fine, but in moderation. They do love tomatoes though, including the plant, which several hens ate down a half-grown tomato plant in a couple of days.
It is the plant, not the fruit (any nightshade family plant) that can be toxic. Nightshade family includes tomato plants, pepper plants, eggplant, potato plants. So for those people growing their own garden, it is something to be aware of. Also, some plants like Butter cup are also toxic, but if chickens are free ranging, they usually avoid the plants that will hurt them.
When I have a cabbage, I cut off the top half for me and give them thr stem end in one piece. It keeps them amused for a day or two before it disappears. I find that giving them a big chunk of something lets them peck off whatever size bite they want. Their favorite is half of a winter squash.
@@BergenBounty I have a rubber feed pan I put it in, but they eventually move it. Also, I think questionable foods are a problem for chickens that are penned up because they are bored and desperate for greens and tiny critters, but ranging chickens are more selective. I have no evidence for that - just seems like it.
@@bthyme mine are free-range too. I love the rubber pad idea. I put my cabbage on the ground but I show it was getting moved around a lot and I saw other people tied up that says wondering what your success was thanks for answering me back
@@BergenBounty I screw an eye screw (like $2 at local hardware store) into the stem and suspend it with a rope. They play cabbage tetherball, and it stays clean too!
My chickens always free-ranged, and they would eat anything that didn't eat them first. To include lizards, lg toads, scorpions, wasps, and all types of wild seeds and vegetation.
My God, the way this man can talk about a chicken. You know? I live in the concrete jungle of Dallas, TX where the only chickens I'm aloud are those in the freezer. I raised 7 chickens in my teens and loved the work and rewards of keeping my birds. I envy those who have the right place and land to have any number of chickens.
If you're a home brewer, give them your spent grain after brew day. My chicks go freakin bonkers over that! I also give them the pulp from the juicer and they love that too!
I live surrounded by local brewerys. The pig farmers go crazy for spent brewery grain. It's a great little side business for brewers to be able to get something from their spent waste product.
Brother, I just want to say thank you for all the great down to earth information you provide. My family and I are working on our small backyard farm currently. Will be up to a 100 chickens by June. Wish me luck.
Thank you, I really appreciate that!! That’s so exciting! I wish you the best of luck! If you see me around TH-cam in June.. let me know how it works for you!!
I have a mealworm farm, my chicks are growing so very fast! They get them and kitchen scraps twice a day, and they have starter and grit 24/7, (which, they eat, but not much)., I am also learning to start a Soldier fly larvae farm so, I can get my girls off of store bought food altogether! - also, they have a run, but get to roam around in our large back yard.
@@sharonadcock5041 For me the hardest part is finding someone to build the bin, without having to take out a second mortgage. ~Basically, you need to build a bin, that will allow the BFL to climb out (there are lots of good videos on them), and then you begin filling it with food and cardboard rubbish- also I plan to seed mine, so that I know there will be action - mine, will be outside, in the desert, so I am still not sure if they are 'around', do to lack of humidity most of the time.
You made my day, to know that some folk demonstrate excellent care of their chickens, not to mention their quality of life. Sadly, there are millions of birds, that are not so fortunate.
Edible Acres has cool videos on using chickens as part of a composting system, they add in soaked seeds to the compost piles that sprout and the chickens scratch the piles down and get the sprouts which are more nutritional than straight seeds, plus all the free worms they can find, not to mention the food scraps themselves. (I did a small version of this system and it worked amazingly)
Fruits come from the flowering part of a plant and contain seeds. In contrast, vegetables are the edible parts of a plant, such as the leaves, stem, roots, and bulbs.
Brandon, Thanks for the informative video. Regarding avocados, I've read that the persin is in the skins and pit, not the flesh. Been feeding our girls avocado flesh for 9 months without incident. If some of the skins occasionally get mixed in, they don't touch them and I remove them from their run. During the summer, we refrigerate our watermelon and put some out during hot periods. Regarding peppers, our girls will eat the fruit of green bell peppers, not big fans of the hot peppers or ripe bell peppers. For grain-based "carbs" like bread and pasta, we don't eat 'em and don't expect the girls to do so. We've shied away from giving them bird carcasses or even eggs... years ago we had problems with pecking issues and we didn't want to lead them down the primrose path to cannibalism. Haven't tried black soldier fly larvae yet, but our girls really like the mealworms as an occasional treat. Sort of like "Cheetos for chickens".
I live in south florida and my yard floods all summer, I go through with a pool net and scoop up thousands of tadpoles and plop them in the chicken run and they LOVE EM
I wait for night time after a rain and collect night crawlers worms. I can get alot in a short time. One and a half hour and filled up a five gallon bucket! Plenty of protein. Free😄
Brandon, great video ! Reviewing the do's/ don'ts is so helpful, as common sense is not always common sense ! I am 71, my sister is 77 and we have our first flock of 6! They're amazing and we love them, want to ensure they're super healthy. Thanks for all your education🐤
Just FYI, I had heard this before about apples and pears. Then I asked my neighbor who raised close to 100 chickens and had a roadside stand to sell her eggs. Her husband was the produce guys in the local grocery store and he would come home and drop a full box of apples and pears and the chickens would eat them all the time. When I mentioned this concern for toxicity of seeds she told me the birds know this and won’t eat them. So from then on I have fed my birds both apples and pears while and have never had an issue. Hope this helps to not have to remove the seeds.
My chickens will eat peppers, I feed them leftover chili all the time so I suppose they prefer cooked peppers over raw ones. Also cucumbers are a fruit and are related to watermelons. Corn and beans are also technically fruits. The only true vegetables are the ones that don't contain seeds such as leafy greens, root vegetables and onions.
We had 1 rooster that was flogging me very harshly & then started blooding the dozen hens he had, because he was so rough mounting them, the coop had blood splatters everywhere. So, we processed him & yeah, i baked him & the hens ate it up! Revenge. Lol
I don't worry about it as long as mt chickens are well fed/nourished and/or have a variety in their outdoor access or have total free range time. Because in my experience, they didn't eat the things they weren't supposed, the few that I knew of and had in my kitchen scraps, like raw potatoes ( any peelings etc. ). I found out after I'd always been just throwing all to them, and then realized they didn't eat them anyways.
I love them too! It just normally extends my filming time by a good 45 minutes 😂. They were out in full force when I filmed this one! I could see about 12 of them circling the base. They fly so low over our house sometimes you can just feel it in your chest!
We had an overweight truck that was loaded with celery. Took a while row of boxes off the top. Took them to one if the workers mothers to feed to her hogs they wouldn't eat them at all.
Zucchini is also great in the summer time, but not too much as it creates very loose stools. We also freeze cubes or blocks of buttermilk in the hot months and they lose their minds over it! It is a really good probiotic as well. And I agree with the others regarding apple seeds. Not really an issue as someone else mentioned, if it's not good for them, they leave it alone.
They can eat apple seeds in the natural form to their hearts content, so can people. Feed all your apple cores to your chickens and dont worry about the freaking cyanide, this is probably the most over blown 'risk' ever. You can eat the almonds inside of apricots also, the stuff will not hurt you or your chickens one bit.
I would like to take a moment and appreciate how he started the video by reassuring that what we are doing is a good thing. Thank you, man. youre the best.
My chickens go CRAZY for tomatoes, watermelon, and papaya skins,corn and sometimes i dont want to give them any because they like REALLY GO CRAZY like define crazy lol
you didn't mention cutting celery into chunks but this is very good, the strands in the celery can cause intestinal binding if not shortened. Guinea Pigs and Rabbits sometimes fall victim to this.
Thanks for the info about cooking beans first! We have raised chickens for years and I didn't know that raw or dried beans were toxic to them. I guess we just got lucky? What a wonderful and informative video, so glad you made this and that I saw it. We love our birds and want them to be happy and healthy.
I believe this "rice" thing is a Western Urban Myth. You don't want to give chickens polished rice. The best is unpolished rice. Here in Asia we give unpolished rice to chickens, even to Malaysian Serama. 🌾🐓
Yes it's a silly urban myth. The rice will be digested long before it's had an opportunity to absorb more than a tiny bit of water. If dry rice was a problem then so would be other grains and seeds. He should have done his research before perpetuating such nonsense.
I hadn't heard the term unpolished rice before so I had to look it up. Whole grain rice. Red, black, and brown. Those are some of the best rices. Thanks for sharing that. Logically the myth never made sense. Rice left in water doesn't just expand, why would it do so in a bird's stomach.
I sprout beans and their left over grains. It means no left over grains from their scratch feed (i give it to them in coop cups attached to the mesh on their pen) it also releases the nutrients in the grains to a much higher level and takes just a couple of days to sprout👍🏻
Merriam-Webster: Fruit is the ripened ovary of a seed plant and it's contents. Vegetable is a herbaceous plant grown for the edible part. So, fruit is the flesh of the seed and vegetables are any edible part of the plant. Fruits are vegetable.
Mine are excellent mice catchers. They literally peck their brains out and leave the tattered bodies behind, which I give to the cats. The chickens also like a touch of cat kibble in winter when bugs are dormant. I live in Michigan so getting bugs is a zero until it's warmer. Mine are free range and I put their pellets in their house at night and lock then in. By the time I get up and let them out, they have eaten that and then free range.
Great informative video for a first time chicken owner! Of course many things are common sense but it's really good to know they can have things like banana peels! Thanks for sharing!
Cocoa is high in oxalates as well. It's worth paying attention to possible symptoms of high oxalate levels in your body. But if you're like me and have an addiction to leafy greens and chocolate (eaten separately) and have no health issues then you don't need to avoid them.
Well you forgot to add, fat chickens don't lay as many eggs as well as getting them back to normal weight is much harder so avoiding sugar things is always a good idea. Also most unchooked beans can kill humans if you don't throw up so they are not good for anything unchooked.
My chickens LOVE Bell Peppers in a veggie smoothie. They also go crazy for broccoli (calcium source), Tomatoes, Corn, Sesame Seeds. They go crazy for Spaghetti, but i don't believe flour is good for the chicken gut imo. So i give it to them as a rare treat because they think it's worms.
Chickens do not choke that easily on grapes, nor do they ingest apple seeds in sufficient quantity for it to affect them. When eating cherries, they leave the pits.. at least last year they did. Also, peanuts.. tricky as I understand. Always in moderation and cooked peanuts, not raw. Mine do not eat carrots, I think they had a meeting when they were young and unanimously decided that they will not eat carrots, not raw, not boiled, not in summer, not in winter.
As long as your not crushing it up. Your chickens know what's safe and not safe to eat. You could leave a pill of beans in their feeding dish and they just won't eat them.
@@SamStone1964 I am not sure every chicken can swallow a mouse... But yeah, they prefer pecking on anything they can peck, not need to swallow anything whole just because they would not necessarily choke.
@@mangouni I should have specified a new born baby mouse or pinky. I've seen them swallow those but not an adult mouse. They play rugby with those until they eventually give up and leave it for me to dispose of.
@@SamStone1964 oh, ok :) I was thinking baby mouse would probably be small enough. I will not see this as the cat is obsessed with catching all mice we have.
I know veterinarians who always give the coffee grounds to their chickens. So fifteen years ago I started pitching my coffee grounds out to them , too! They love them.
Those little beaks ate through my pvc black tubing that ran through their pen!!!. You may have very well SAVED the lives of many home raised chickens with your info. Thanks!!!
Here’s a guide line for you to tell fruits from vegetables. Fruits have seeds inside or outside in the case of strawberries and pineapples. Easy right?
So funny. My chickens tear up all the peppers I give them. I grow extra pepper plants just for them. I also feed them literally everything on your naughty list. They are healthy with hard shelled eggs. Never had a problem. 🤷🏼♀️
My chickens eat the naughty stuff too if they don’t want it they ignore it. I have one hen that’s over 15 & she even lays eggs once in a while. She’s a fighter so we didn’t get anymore of her breed cause of the serious fights.
Chickens love grapes, I quarter them too. I also feed them the carcass of the chickens I have eaten for extra protein, they pick it absolutely clean! They also love beef trimmings.
As a general rule anything with seeds are looked at as fruits. And crushed red hot peppers in their food help them lay eggs. You can also findly crushed dry egg shells in the feed. It helps replace the calcium. If you can't get wormer for chickens. My granddad would take a approximately a raw green hull of walnut directly from the tree and put it in about 5 gallon of water cover it for 72 hours. Mix about a cup of this water in you gallon water feeder and allow the chickens, ducks to drink it. You can do the same with most of your "farm" animals. The water will change color and this is the ingredients that removes any worms etc. Only do this every 6 months usually once a year will work.
@@AlexBabcock-hw9iz yeah I got doing some research; caffeine is toxic to chickens, so lots of teas are no good! Any herb used too much can have huge effects. So best to not throw in the tea leaves I guess, and use herbs cautiously.
Yes, tomatoes and avocados are fruits. So are pumpkins and any other kind of squash. I believe cucumbers are, too, since they are a kind of melon but I could be wrong on cucumbers.
My chickens love chicken ! It's their favorite. They jump up and rip the bag open. They could give a shit less how you feel about cannibalism. That's what I love about them, meat is meat when you've descended from dinosaurs .
What about herbs I grow rosemary, basil, thyme,etc. for the sole purpose for feeding to my girls. They love them and very beneficial and healthy in many ways.
I wondered why my chickens had explosive diarrhea. I was boiling up the scraps after doing a roast. I found out is was the parsnip which is also related to celery. Both give them an upset tummy.
This was SO helpful! You answered the detailed questions I had about potatoes, apple seeds, and safe preparation of beans. Also loved the tip about cucumbers cooling them down; melons are expensive where I live but cucumbers are affordable! Thanks very much for this video. I don’t have chickens but the place I work has some that aren’t well cared for and I want to improve their situation. Food is an easy place to start.
Technically that creator was correct. They shouldn't have nightshade plants, but the fruit they produce are okay! If I remember correctly, it's the solanine in the actual plant of the nightshade that's harmful and the fruits "Tomatoes, peppers" are okay for them to eat!
I do that with my chickens cut up the Grapes...don't want them to chock...my chickens are a bit fussy they won't eat strawberry blueberries peppers ..if i slice potato and carrots unless I've sliced them very thin. Didn't know about potatoes will cook in future ...they absolutely love rice
You’re welcome! I wouldn’t feel them to baby chicks, when we have baby chicks we feed them a medicated chick feed! A week from today we will be posting a video about everything needed to care for baby chicks and we will definitely be talking about that!
After having chickens for over 50 years, I can assure you that you can give them anything...if they aren't supposed to have it, they leave it on the ground and it turns to compost. I have had chickens die of old age, owl attacks, dog attacks but never from any food. They are not nearly as dumb as people think LOL!
Exactly
Thank you! My Mom used to throw everything out to her chickens (except something extremely salty), she never had a problem. Animals are not stupid & 99% of the time won’t eat something that’s bad for them.
👍
True
Those chickens you lost to old age weren’t actually lost to old age. Most likely some sort of organ failure. Unless of course those chickens that died of “old age” were 15ish years old. Then yeah maybe…
that's not kitchen scraps.. that's a veggie/fruit platter 🤣
They definitely got spoiled that day 😂😂😂
hez murrikano. wealthy humanoid. he finks its okay to feed chooks with fresh fruits while half of di world licheralleh starving.
Charcuterie
I can tell you something about apples. We had an orchard in our yard when I was a kid. Our chickens ate lots and lots of the fallen apples seeds and all. We never had an issue with them at all.
The seeds have cyanide which probably kills viruses and other nasties
for sure, they eat about everything
@@scottulbrich5376 chickens are pigs with feathers
The seeds (apple) contain B-17 which is a cancer prevention! I eat them! (Apple a day keeps the dr. Away... And take apricot pit B-17 caps.
They will eat everything... and they will be fine. We feed them every kind of scrap possible including avocado 🥑, they can't even eat the seeds.
Chickens are therapeutic! Cheaper than a therapist! They are silly and fun to watch!😂😉🥰
My therapist signed for me to keep a single house hen as an emotional support animal. ❤️ she's my "holding chicken". (Diapers; blankets; carseats, carrier and stroller.) Forages in the park.
Our chickens have their own garden. All the fun stuff, what really gets them excited is when I cut a head of broccoli and clip it to the fence so they can peck it to oblivion. Broccoli always gets the happy dance. They also love it when they get oatmeal with berries and meal worms.
I love this! That’s so awesome!
The first food besides feed that I gave our young chicks was chopped broccoli. They loved it and started laying an egg a day each a month earlier than expected.
They don’t have teeth, yet we’ve seen videos of them swallowing a whole mouse.
Ill try that. Finally, a use for broccoli!
I had a garden for my dogs (and also my garden for birds and pollinators and for looking pretty for me.)
I’m a big fan of multiple gardens. Yes! They need to provide for your specific needs, and for your family and friends too. Multiple gardens are the way to go.
I collect a few days worth of scrapes and put it all in a food processor. They love it and leave nothing behind. Its also a good way too feed their eggs shells back to them without them knowing about the shells.
That's a great idea! Gonna try it. I used to save scraps in the freezer for soup, but I don't cook much anymore, so I stopped doing it. Good reason to start again.
Intelligence is knowing tomatoes are, in fact, fruit. Wisdom is knowing they don't belong in a fruit salad.
I love this. I love this so much 😂
🤣🤣🤣👍
I've heard some botanists say tomatoes are really a berry. We are both correct if you consider berries a fruit.
Best comment today ❤
Idk, some garden fresh tomatoes could go right next to apples and grapes, and what is fresh salsa if not spicy fruit salad?
TIP:
In the summer when I have extra cucumbers, tomatoes, berries and melons. I freeze them and put in Wal-Mart bags or containers. In Sept and Oct when most veggies are gone. I give it to them on hot days.
I love this! We do the same thing and I wish I had thought about it and talked about it! But you did, so that helps haha!
I appreciate it!
@@WhitepepperFarmshomestead Farms Are cooked or raw artichoke buds okay to give chickens once once in a great while? Well maybe not the raw ones. I will do some research.
I've had chickens for years. One tips that I give everybody is to skip the layer feed. Instead feed all of your chickens, grower feed. And have oyster shell available on the side. In a separate container. Chickens need a lot more protein than they get from layer feed. And they don't need the extra calcium in the layer feed when they are in molt or when they are too young and the roosters don't need it either. Increase protein makes their molts, less severe and quicker. Good drastically decreases the chance of feather picking and egg eating. I've been doing this for years and it works beautifully.
I also feed kitchen scraps. They can eat darn near anything. Except sweets and oil. I don't give them any of that. But any fruit and vegetable and any meat they get.
8
My hens won’t eat citrus peels, onion peels or banana peels…everything else from my kitchen or garden is pretty much fair game. I ferment or sprout my feed which consists of mostly seeds and grains I raise unofficially organic. Millet, oats, popcorn, flax, sunflower, rye, buckwheat and wheat are either fermented or sprouted for feed. In a pinch I cook navy beans or pinto beans and add some macaroni. I rarely buy commercial feed. …maybe a bag or two a year. We typically have 25-30 hens and several turkeys. Chicken beaks are very hard so you really are just wasting time cutting stuff up! I’ve raised chickens for over 50 years. …never seen a chicken choke! 😂
@@karen1866 I know they don't eat that stuff. But they make it into really nice compost.
@@nogames8982 my chickens eat everything he has on that tray
The grower feed is a good point. I buy ~3t of feed at a time, a ton of layer, and 2t of grower. I see better performance on the grower than the layer, even in my waterfowl.
We live in the desert and in the summer we go on scorpion hunts with our chickens. Lifting wood piles, garden pots, etc, to find the bugs and scorpions underneath! We haven’t seen a scorpion in our house since getting chickens during the “lockdown”. 😉 we also feed them frozen watermelon during the summer to help keep them cool and they LOVE it!
When I don't have a garden, I buy a head of cabbage every week and hang it in their lot for them to peck at. They love it!
We do this! They seriously love pecking away at a cabbage!
Mine prefer spring greens to cabbage so I put it in one of those hanging feeders to keep them busy for a while.
I also found the same my girls love it ❤
Chickens are smart, and they know what to eat, and what not to eat. What they don't eat they scratch into the ground and it makes compost. Don't make this harder than it has to be.
I am brand new. This comment helps and so did the video.
Old wives tale that seemed to work was adding red pepper flakes in their feed helps them lay better. I used to put about a tablespoon in a feed bucket a couple of times a week and those hens laid like crazy. I got out of chickens a while back but now with the price of eggs, I just went and got a dozen pullets a few weeks ago and am enjoying the heck out of them so far. Much love from North Carolina.
Our chickens ate CAROLINA REAPER peppers right off our plant, seeds and all and somehow didn't die. I think 1 of those peppers can kill a human haha
@@jayhemfindsyouThey are spicy but they aren't poisonous. I put 2 reapers in my chili with no ill effects. Also birds aren't affected by capsasin, capsasin only affects mammals, pepper plants actually produce capsasin so mammals won't eat them as they want birds to eat them.
@@frostrangerofthefrozenrelm Not poison, just so harsh they can cause breathing difficulty and cardiac arrest to the unsuspecting victim. My uncle was conned into eating one, was told it was a baby sweet pepper and had to go to the ER.
@@frostrangerofthefrozenrelm And that's very interesting about the bird thing.
That is fair, I do share my peppers with friends but I make sure that the absolutely know what they're getting into and the proper precautions to take. I would never sneak an unsuspecting person one, that's asking for trouble, especially if they can't take the heat
My chickens had not started laying. A guy at a feed store told me to feed the Jalapenos. All I had were the sliced in juice. They loved them and started laying 2 days later, and no the eggs were not hot. lol Also when the quit laying thier first year (no molt). I gave them peppers and they havent stopped. They are now a year old. Out of 5 hens I get 4-5 eggs daily.
Interesting. Also cooked beans will get them to lay in winter.
What kind of cooked beans?
We started feeding our teenage chickens chopped broccoli and cabbage and they started laying a month early. Now they’re going on 3 years old, and those veggies give them a good increase in egg laying. They LOVE strawberry tops, but one day I made the mistake of walking into the run in my flip flops with red polish on my toenails.
You have not seen a free range chicken swallow a field mouse, if you worried about a grape 😊
That’s fair 😂! Our chickens do a great job at mice control here! I think the dad in me is just terrified of grapes haha!
I'm in Florida. Mine are great lizard and frog hunters. Nothing like hearing a lot of cackling, looking up and seeing a hen running around with a lizard dangling from her beak and the rest of the flock chasing her for a bite.
I was just thinking that! My oldest hen swallowed a whole mouse. I was a bit worried and it turned out she was just fine! Lol
@justinta c oncern would be if there is mouse bait around, and the moise has eaten any, it could kill the chicken e6346
Omg didn’t know they would do that! That’s awesome, gross but gonna up my planned number of chickens just for that reason alone.
re: peppers/chiles (which BTW are a true berry, so they are a fruit not a vegetable) I grow chiles as a hobby. Several years ago some of my hens got into the garden and devoured my Chocolate Habanero - chiles, leaves and many of the stems. My ladies love chiles, what they don't care for at all is celery.
Peppers are definitely my true love when it comes to gardening, and I don’t know how I put them in the vegetable section! I should know better 😂. This channel was originally a channel about growing peppers. Last year we had 200+ plants! Scaled it back this year though because we still have 80+ lbs in the deep freezer. Glad to see another Chile lover!
@@WhitepepperFarmshomestead In the culinary world, it's considered a vegetable, but yes, technically it is not. But it is confusing because of that.
Birds Eye chillies are called that cos the birds eat them and crap out the seeds. Nuff said.
My chickens favorite food is ground beef. Raw or cooked. Perfect for broody mamas & baby chicks. I noticed they grow faster & more robust on the beef.
Mine prefer minced pork to beef lol.
I have an excessive amount of eggs around, always. I hard boil them, mince them up, and feed them to all my poultry. They go nuts for it.
Never removed any seeds or pits and the chickens were always fine. They also had access to the apple, pear and cherry orchard and never got poisoned
Mine won’t eat peppers but in the winter to help with their body temperature I add cayenne pepper powder into their water. They love it. So when my temps drop under 30 I add to the water.
That’s definitely a good way to do it!
How much per gallon of water do you add?
You can give them crushed cayenne peppers to birds mine eat them
I have head people say not to feed tomato to chickens and I completely disagree with it. Couple of years ago we experimented with the spoon tomatoes. By late august those plants had vined out all over the place and our turkey and chickens were getting into them. They were eating so many of those tomatoes that there poop was actually red. It never seemed to hurt them though and they continued laying healthy eggs. Also the next season we had spoon tomatoes sprouting all over our yard from where they pooped all those seeds out lol.
Tomatoes are great for them! Technically the plant itself isn’t, but tomatoes are!
Tomatoes are fine, but in moderation. They do love tomatoes though, including the plant, which several hens ate down a half-grown tomato plant in a couple of days.
It is the plant, not the fruit (any nightshade family plant) that can be toxic. Nightshade family includes tomato plants, pepper plants, eggplant, potato plants. So for those people growing their own garden, it is something to be aware of. Also, some plants like Butter cup are also toxic, but if chickens are free ranging, they usually avoid the plants that will hurt them.
As far as Peppers are concern, My birds do not care for them. But I add dried Pepper flakes as a dewormer.
I love you're opening. We are all working hard and our first step is knowledge. That's why we are here
Absolutely it is! Thank you for watching and commenting, I appreciate it!
When I have a cabbage, I cut off the top half for me and give them thr stem end in one piece. It keeps them amused for a day or two before it disappears. I find that giving them a big chunk of something lets them peck off whatever size bite they want. Their favorite is half of a winter squash.
They love that! Ours do the same 😂
Do you tie it up or put it on the ground?
@@BergenBounty I have a rubber feed pan I put it in, but they eventually move it. Also, I think questionable foods are a problem for chickens that are penned up because they are bored and desperate for greens and tiny critters, but ranging chickens are more selective. I have no evidence for that - just seems like it.
@@bthyme mine are free-range too. I love the rubber pad idea. I put my cabbage on the ground but I show it was getting moved around a lot and I saw other people tied up that says wondering what your success was thanks for answering me back
@@BergenBounty I screw an eye screw (like $2 at local hardware store) into the stem and suspend it with a rope. They play cabbage tetherball, and it stays clean too!
My chickens always free-ranged, and they would eat anything that didn't eat them first. To include lizards, lg toads, scorpions, wasps, and all types of wild seeds and vegetation.
Just turn them loose in your garden/orchard/flowerbeds and what is missing but by the next day is what they love.
My God, the way this man can talk about a chicken. You know? I live in the concrete jungle of Dallas, TX where the only chickens I'm aloud are those in the freezer. I raised 7 chickens in my teens and loved the work and rewards of keeping my birds. I envy those who have the right place and land to have any number of chickens.
If you're a home brewer, give them your spent grain after brew day. My chicks go freakin bonkers over that! I also give them the pulp from the juicer and they love that too!
I’ve wanted to get into that, and I’ve heard the birds love it!
I live surrounded by local brewerys.
The pig farmers go crazy for spent brewery grain. It's a great little side business for brewers to be able to get something from their spent waste product.
Brewer as in beer or coffee???
@@tammyzurlinden6328 beer!
Brother, I just want to say thank you for all the great down to earth information you provide. My family and I are working on our small backyard farm currently. Will be up to a 100 chickens by June. Wish me luck.
Thank you, I really appreciate that!!
That’s so exciting! I wish you the best of luck! If you see me around TH-cam in June.. let me know how it works for you!!
I have a mealworm farm, my chicks are growing so very fast!
They get them and kitchen scraps twice a day, and they have starter and grit 24/7, (which, they eat, but not much)., I am also learning to start a Soldier fly larvae farm so, I can get my girls off of store bought food altogether! - also, they have a run, but get to roam around in our large back yard.
I love this!
How do u start soldier fly larvae?
@@sharonadcock5041 For me the hardest part is finding someone to build the bin, without having to take out a second mortgage.
~Basically, you need to build a bin, that will allow the BFL to climb out (there are lots of good videos on them), and then you begin filling it with food and cardboard rubbish- also I plan to seed mine, so that I know there will be action - mine, will be outside, in the desert, so I am still not sure if they are 'around', do to lack of humidity most of the time.
You made my day, to know that some folk demonstrate excellent care of their chickens, not to mention their quality of life. Sadly, there are millions of birds, that are not so fortunate.
I’m happy I was able to make your day!!
Edible Acres has cool videos on using chickens as part of a composting system, they add in soaked seeds to the compost piles that sprout and the chickens scratch the piles down and get the sprouts which are more nutritional than straight seeds, plus all the free worms they can find, not to mention the food scraps themselves. (I did a small version of this system and it worked amazingly)
Fruits come from the flowering part of a plant and contain seeds. In contrast, vegetables are the edible parts of a plant, such as the leaves, stem, roots, and bulbs.
Brandon, Thanks for the informative video. Regarding avocados, I've read that the persin is in the skins and pit, not the flesh. Been feeding our girls avocado flesh for 9 months without incident. If some of the skins occasionally get mixed in, they don't touch them and I remove them from their run. During the summer, we refrigerate our watermelon and put some out during hot periods. Regarding peppers, our girls will eat the fruit of green bell peppers, not big fans of the hot peppers or ripe bell peppers. For grain-based "carbs" like bread and pasta, we don't eat 'em and don't expect the girls to do so. We've shied away from giving them bird carcasses or even eggs... years ago we had problems with pecking issues and we didn't want to lead them down the primrose path to cannibalism. Haven't tried black soldier fly larvae yet, but our girls really like the mealworms as an occasional treat. Sort of like "Cheetos for chickens".
How impressive it is very clear that you do love your chickens and want to take care properly.
This video is EXTREMELY useful to me as a first time chicken mama. Thanks so much!
You’re welcome! And thank you for watching!!
I live in south florida and my yard floods all summer, I go through with a pool net and scoop up thousands of tadpoles and plop them in the chicken run and they LOVE EM
I bet they go crazy over those!!
@@WhitepepperFarmshomestead ohhh yes they do 👍🏻
Just be careful in a hundred thousand years your chickens will turn into herons and be wading after those tadpoles.
First time I've come across this channel. This guy is super-positive! Great content, man!
I just saw this! Thank you, I appreciate that!
@@WhitepepperFarmshomestead absolutely. Keep up the good work!
Interesting to see what different chickens go for. My chickens will not eat broccoli and celery. They will eat peppers though.
Right?! It’s so crazy to see the different likes and personalities of different chickens. I love it!
Same here, now I feel better. My chickens are super picky
I wait for night time after a rain and collect night crawlers worms. I can get alot in a short time. One and a half hour and filled up a five gallon bucket! Plenty of protein. Free😄
Excellent 🎉 free works so well these day's!
I love your intro speech for your listeners-thank you for being so positive and encouraging ❤❤❤❤
Well prepared video which includes a display of foods, photos from a store and research. Well done.
Hey thanks, I appreciate that! There was definitely quite some work that went into it so this comment definitely makes me feel good. You’re awesome!
My chickens love red, orange and yellow bell peppers. They mostly get the center of seeds but with some flesh on it. They love them!!
Brandon, great video ! Reviewing the do's/ don'ts is so helpful, as common sense is not always common sense ! I am 71, my sister is 77 and we have our first flock of 6! They're amazing and we love them, want to ensure they're super healthy. Thanks for all your education🐤
I am 76 and raised chickens years ago and other things, so now want 5 back yard hens for eggs, so building the area for them fun fun fun
Just FYI, I had heard this before about apples and pears. Then I asked my neighbor who raised close to 100 chickens and had a roadside stand to sell her eggs. Her husband was the produce guys in the local grocery store and he would come home and drop a full box of apples and pears and the chickens would eat them all the time. When I mentioned this concern for toxicity of seeds she told me the birds know this and won’t eat them. So from then on I have fed my birds both apples and pears while and have never had an issue. Hope this helps to not have to remove the seeds.
My chickens will eat peppers, I feed them leftover chili all the time so I suppose they prefer cooked peppers over raw ones. Also cucumbers are a fruit and are related to watermelons. Corn and beans are also technically fruits. The only true vegetables are the ones that don't contain seeds such as leafy greens, root vegetables and onions.
We had 1 rooster that was flogging me very harshly & then started blooding the dozen hens he had, because he was so rough mounting them, the coop had blood splatters everywhere. So, we processed him & yeah, i baked him & the hens ate it up! Revenge. Lol
Lmao the circle of life with a sprinkle of revenge
hehehe did not expect that XD
😂 I’ve been thinking of doing that to my rooster. I’m having the same problem.
When I die, I want to come back as a chicken at your house. 😉😁
They don’t get fed like that everyday 😂, that was a special occasion!
@@WhitepepperFarmshomestead 😂
I don't worry about it as long as mt chickens are well fed/nourished and/or have a variety in their outdoor access or have total free range time. Because in my experience, they didn't eat the things they weren't supposed, the few that I knew of and had in my kitchen scraps, like raw potatoes ( any peelings etc. ). I found out after I'd always been just throwing all to them, and then realized they didn't eat them anyways.
I love the sound of the jets. To me it's the sound of freedom. My chickens don't like celery.
I love them too! It just normally extends my filming time by a good 45 minutes 😂. They were out in full force when I filmed this one! I could see about 12 of them circling the base. They fly so low over our house sometimes you can just feel it in your chest!
Those jets are impressive!!!!
They really are!
We had an overweight truck that was loaded with celery. Took a while row of boxes off the top. Took them to one if the workers mothers to feed to her hogs they wouldn't eat them at all.
If you're steering clear of oxalic acid then don't feed spinach leaves. They are almost as high as rhubarb in oxalates.
Something fun I give to my chickens are minnows! I catch them out of my stocked pond and they go crazy for them
FINALLY I've found out what to do with the shad that die in my live well
Yessss!!!!
I use red pepper flakes, which are amazing for helping fight parasites along with ground pumpkin seeds.
Tomatoes are fruits in the same way as zucchini. Biologically, they are fruits, but nutritionally they have more in common with vegetables.
See arthritis nightshade vegatables
@@wirelesscaller7518 I'm almost 60 and have had a life long addiction to tomatoes. And I eat other nightshades. So far no signs of arthritis.
Zucchini is also great in the summer time, but not too much as it creates very loose stools. We also freeze cubes or blocks of buttermilk in the hot months and they lose their minds over it! It is a really good probiotic as well. And I agree with the others regarding apple seeds. Not really an issue as someone else mentioned, if it's not good for them, they leave it alone.
They can eat apple seeds in the natural form to their hearts content, so can people. Feed all your apple cores to your chickens and dont worry about the freaking cyanide, this is probably the most over blown 'risk' ever. You can eat the almonds inside of apricots also, the stuff will not hurt you or your chickens one bit.
I would like to take a moment and appreciate how he started the video by reassuring that what we are doing is a good thing. Thank you, man. youre the best.
Hey thanks, I appreciate that!
My chickens go CRAZY for tomatoes, watermelon, and papaya skins,corn and sometimes i dont want to give them any because they like REALLY GO CRAZY like define crazy lol
Ours do the same thing 😂 we have to keep an eye on how much we put in there for sure 😂
We have a huge spring in our back yard that we get our water for our house from and it’s full of watercress. The chickens love it!!!
you didn't mention cutting celery into chunks but this is very good, the strands in the celery can cause intestinal binding if not shortened. Guinea Pigs and Rabbits sometimes fall victim to this.
Thanks for the info about cooking beans first! We have raised chickens for years and I didn't know that raw or dried beans were toxic to them. I guess we just got lucky? What a wonderful and informative video, so glad you made this and that I saw it. We love our birds and want them to be happy and healthy.
They're not toxic, but they can expand and impact the crop.
I believe this "rice" thing is a Western Urban Myth. You don't want to give chickens polished rice. The best is unpolished rice. Here in Asia we give unpolished rice to chickens, even to Malaysian Serama. 🌾🐓
my chickens eat cooked rice all the time.
Yes it's a silly urban myth. The rice will be digested long before it's had an opportunity to absorb more than a tiny bit of water. If dry rice was a problem then so would be other grains and seeds. He should have done his research before perpetuating such nonsense.
I hadn't heard the term unpolished rice before so I had to look it up. Whole grain rice. Red, black, and brown. Those are some of the best rices. Thanks for sharing that. Logically the myth never made sense. Rice left in water doesn't just expand, why would it do so in a bird's stomach.
I sprout beans and their left over grains. It means no left over grains from their scratch feed (i give it to them in coop cups attached to the mesh on their pen) it also releases the nutrients in the grains to a much higher level and takes just a couple of days to sprout👍🏻
I love this, thank you for sharing!
My girls LOVE red chili flake peppers!!! They go crazy for them
Maybe I will try drying and flaking them first 😂
I AllWAYS ask for extra red peppers when we order pizza and use in red beans and feed to our hens
Great Video. I've owned chickens for more than 10 years and still question myself sometimes.
We prefer red bell peppers, so this is what we offer to ours, and it’s a big FAV!
Ours won’t touch them 😭
Merriam-Webster: Fruit is the ripened ovary of a seed plant and it's contents. Vegetable is a herbaceous plant grown for the edible part. So, fruit is the flesh of the seed and vegetables are any edible part of the plant. Fruits are vegetable.
Mine are excellent mice catchers. They literally peck their brains out and leave the tattered bodies behind, which I give to the cats. The chickens also like a touch of cat kibble in winter when bugs are dormant. I live in Michigan so getting bugs is a zero until it's warmer. Mine are free range and I put their pellets in their house at night and lock then in. By the time I get up and let them out, they have eaten that and then free range.
My chickens love the tomatoes with flax seed sprinkled in and a little garlic.
Great informative video for a first time chicken owner! Of course many things are common sense but it's really good to know they can have things like banana peels! Thanks for sharing!
You’re welcome! Thanks for watching!
I don't give tomato, because they are a nightshade plant. But I give apples and peaches with seeds and stones. I don't have an seedless appletree ....
Spinach is also high in oxalates. Best to be avoided by people and chickens.
Cocoa is high in oxalates as well. It's worth paying attention to possible symptoms of high oxalate levels in your body. But if you're like me and have an addiction to leafy greens and chocolate (eaten separately) and have no health issues then you don't need to avoid them.
Thanks!
Well you forgot to add, fat chickens don't lay as many eggs as well as getting them back to normal weight is much harder so avoiding sugar things is always a good idea.
Also most unchooked beans can kill humans if you don't throw up so they are not good for anything unchooked.
I eat uncooked green beans all the time. Only relevant to “hard” beans like black or white etc
Fruit is any produce with seeds inside, "fruit" like squash that has seeds but isnt sweet can sometimes be reffered to "fruiting vegetables"
Put road kill in a sealable 5 gal bucket with a hole in the bottom. They love the maggots and flys
I can verify that they love maggots. Shouldn't there be a hole on the side for the flies to get in?
My chickens LOVE Bell Peppers in a veggie smoothie.
They also go crazy for broccoli (calcium source), Tomatoes, Corn, Sesame Seeds.
They go crazy for Spaghetti, but i don't believe flour is good for the chicken gut imo. So i give it to them as a rare treat because they think it's worms.
Chickens do not choke that easily on grapes, nor do they ingest apple seeds in sufficient quantity for it to affect them. When eating cherries, they leave the pits.. at least last year they did.
Also, peanuts.. tricky as I understand. Always in moderation and cooked peanuts, not raw.
Mine do not eat carrots, I think they had a meeting when they were young and unanimously decided that they will not eat carrots, not raw, not boiled, not in summer, not in winter.
As long as your not crushing it up. Your chickens know what's safe and not safe to eat.
You could leave a pill of beans in their feeding dish and they just won't eat them.
They can swallow a mouse without choking on it. If the grape was too big they'd likely peck at it instead of swallowing whole.
@@SamStone1964 I am not sure every chicken can swallow a mouse... But yeah, they prefer pecking on anything they can peck, not need to swallow anything whole just because they would not necessarily choke.
@@mangouni I should have specified a new born baby mouse or pinky. I've seen them swallow those but not an adult mouse. They play rugby with those until they eventually give up and leave it for me to dispose of.
@@SamStone1964 oh, ok :) I was thinking baby mouse would probably be small enough. I will not see this as the cat is obsessed with catching all mice we have.
I know veterinarians who always give the coffee grounds to their chickens. So fifteen years ago I started pitching my coffee grounds out to them , too! They love them.
Those little beaks ate through my pvc black tubing that ran through their pen!!!. You may have very well SAVED the lives of many home raised chickens with your info. Thanks!!!
Did they really?! That’s wild!
I hope you meant saved and not slaved, but thank you 😂😂😂!!!
@@WhitepepperFarmshomestead darn that auto correct! It gets me EVERYTIME! YES it should have said SAVED!!
@@WhitepepperFarmshomestead I corrected it in an edit!!! Lol
Whew! 😂😂😂
Here’s a guide line for you to tell fruits from vegetables. Fruits have seeds inside or outside in the case of strawberries and pineapples. Easy right?
I almost never give my chickens cooked rice or macaroni. But I always soak it in water for hours and add water to get it all soaked
That would definitely do the trick!
Our chickens love peppers jalapeno,serrano,ect. But I do cut them up and mix it with herbs, lettuce, veggies,fruit,ect
So funny. My chickens tear up all the peppers I give them. I grow extra pepper plants just for them. I also feed them literally everything on your naughty list. They are healthy with hard shelled eggs. Never had a problem. 🤷🏼♀️
My chickens loves raw potato skins.
My chickens eat the naughty stuff too if they don’t want it they ignore it. I have one hen that’s over 15 & she even lays eggs once in a while. She’s a fighter so we didn’t get anymore of her breed cause of the serious fights.
Chickens love grapes, I quarter them too. I also feed them the carcass of the chickens I have eaten for extra protein, they pick it absolutely clean! They also love beef trimmings.
I grow extra zucchini and corn to feed my chickens
We do the same 😂😂
As a general rule anything with seeds are looked at as fruits. And crushed red hot peppers in their food help them lay eggs. You can also findly crushed dry egg shells in the feed. It helps replace the calcium. If you can't get wormer for chickens. My granddad would take a approximately a raw green hull of walnut directly from the tree and put it in about 5 gallon of water cover it for 72 hours. Mix about a cup of this water in you gallon water feeder and allow the chickens, ducks to drink it. You can do the same with most of your "farm" animals. The water will change color and this is the ingredients that removes any worms etc. Only do this every 6 months usually once a year will work.
So mealworms and black fly larvae. Sounds like reptiles are a good side pet to go with your work chickens since they eat a lot of the same things. 😊
Oh absolutely! We used to have quite a few reptiles 😂. Beardies, geckos, all tegus, a
Boas, pythons, all kinds of things!
it's almost like birds and lizards are evolutionary related. 😉
Yes I feed the local wild lizards mealworms too.
Fruits are any produce that contains seeds inside that includes avocados, tomato, cucumbers, all types of squash.
What is your opinion on tea leaves? (Loose leaf, no tea bags) mint, chamomile, green/black .
I heard somewhere not exactly sure where that mint was really bad for chickens.
@@AlexBabcock-hw9iz yeah I got doing some research; caffeine is toxic to chickens, so lots of teas are no good! Any herb used too much can have huge effects. So best to not throw in the tea leaves I guess, and use herbs cautiously.
Yes, tomatoes and avocados are fruits. So are pumpkins and any other kind of squash. I believe cucumbers are, too, since they are a kind of melon but I could be wrong on cucumbers.
My chickens love chicken ! It's their favorite. They jump up and rip the bag open. They could give a shit less how you feel about cannibalism. That's what I love about them, meat is meat when you've descended from dinosaurs .
What about herbs
I grow rosemary, basil, thyme,etc. for the sole purpose for feeding to my girls.
They love them and very beneficial and healthy in many ways.
are tomatoes a vegetable? if it's. fruit what is ketchup?
I think "smoothie" is the common answer.
I wondered why my chickens had explosive diarrhea. I was boiling up the scraps after doing a roast. I found out is was the parsnip which is also related to celery. Both give them an upset tummy.
This was SO helpful! You answered the detailed questions I had about potatoes, apple seeds, and safe preparation of beans. Also loved the tip about cucumbers cooling them down; melons are expensive where I live but cucumbers are affordable! Thanks very much for this video. I don’t have chickens but the place I work has some that aren’t well cared for and I want to improve their situation. Food is an easy place to start.
Thank you, I appreciate it!!
Another creator said nightshades arent good to feed chickens. Maybe thats why they dont like the peppers🤷?
Technically that creator was correct. They shouldn't have nightshade plants, but the fruit they produce are okay! If I remember correctly, it's the solanine in the actual plant of the nightshade that's harmful and the fruits "Tomatoes, peppers" are okay for them to eat!
@@WhitepepperFarmshomestead gotcha, thanks!
My chickens like bell pepper seeds, so I give them the inside of the bell peppers.
Lucky! I wish ours would eat them 😭
I do that with my chickens cut up the Grapes...don't want them to chock...my chickens are a bit fussy they won't eat strawberry blueberries peppers ..if i slice potato and carrots unless I've sliced them very thin.
Didn't know about potatoes will cook in future ...they absolutely love rice
Thanks for your videos. Can you feed Kitchen scraps to baby Chicks? What do you recommend when they are chicks. Ty
You’re welcome!
I wouldn’t feel them to baby chicks, when we have baby chicks we feed them a medicated chick feed! A week from today we will be posting a video about everything needed to care for baby chicks and we will definitely be talking about that!
@@WhitepepperFarmshomestead thanks! Thats what I am feeding them now. Will be waiting for the next video 😊
It should be relatively easy for you to find! Most places carry it especially this time of year!