People who have chickens, including those who write books about them, routinely emphasize that their antics are amusing. As Kimberly Willis and Rob Ludlow note in Raising Chickens for Dummies: “Watching a flock of chickens can be as entertaining as watching teenagers at the mall.”
For one thing, chickens, being omnivores, will eat just about anything within pecking range, including “seeds, herbs and leaves, grubs, insects and even small mammals such as mice,” according to Keeping Chickens, by Jeremy Hobson and Celia Lewis. But individual tastes vary. So gauging how a flock reacts to various snacks is part of the fun.
“Chickens like many things,” says backyardchickens.com, including “cooked spaghetti, clean vegetable peels, fruit, cereal, meal worms, bugs, and snails. Avoid strong tasting foods like onions and garlic; some sources say this makes their eggs taste funny.”
As newcomers to the world of backyard poultry, my wife and I have only begun to experiment with treats for our trio, as supplements to their regular diet. So our findings are very premature, and definitely incomplete.
Stella, Snow and Nala will eat Rice Chex, but not with too much enthusiasm. Lettuce and grated carrots are more popular, but dandelion greens (sans flowers) and mealworms are an even bigger favorite. Top honors to date go to bits of pear or apple, either of which will send the girls into a noshing frenzy as they scurry around the pen, stumbling and bumping into one another in their search for every wayward bit of fruit.
We’ll expand the culinary offerings over time. There will be no mice or other small mammals on future menus, though. The management has to draw the line somewhere.
For one thing, chickens, being omnivores, will eat just about anything within pecking range, including “seeds, herbs and leaves, grubs, insects and even small mammals such as mice,” according to Keeping Chickens, by Jeremy Hobson and Celia Lewis. But individual tastes vary. So gauging how a flock reacts to various snacks is part of the fun.
“Chickens like many things,” says backyardchickens.com, including “cooked spaghetti, clean vegetable peels, fruit, cereal, meal worms, bugs, and snails. Avoid strong tasting foods like onions and garlic; some sources say this makes their eggs taste funny.”
As newcomers to the world of backyard poultry, my wife and I have only begun to experiment with treats for our trio, as supplements to their regular diet. So our findings are very premature, and definitely incomplete.
Stella, Snow and Nala will eat Rice Chex, but not with too much enthusiasm. Lettuce and grated carrots are more popular, but dandelion greens (sans flowers) and mealworms are an even bigger favorite. Top honors to date go to bits of pear or apple, either of which will send the girls into a noshing frenzy as they scurry around the pen, stumbling and bumping into one another in their search for every wayward bit of fruit.
We’ll expand the culinary offerings over time. There will be no mice or other small mammals on future menus, though. The management has to draw the line somewhere.
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