What else can you feed chickens? 

We are all neighbours - we just live too far away to share veges over the fence but we can share thoughts and smiles 🙂

@@chickensinmygarden amen.

When I first (finally) got chickens nearly 20 years ago I wanted to know Everything about them. I'm still learning! 😀

I know your winters are pretty cold. We are supposedly in Autumn now but we're still in shorts and t-shirts and my 8-week-old chicks occasionally go nights without heat. I'm sure you and your chickens are looking forward to Spring 🙂

@@chickensinmygarden we certainly are, it’s actually getting about 75 Fahrenheit this weekend finally, we are looking forward to working in the garden today..I will probably put a few finished touches on their coup and set up there run with my wife

Thank you. Don't give up. It took me years to get chickens of my own but eventually my dream came true.

Thank you. I love having fresh vegetables and homegrown taste delicious even if sometimes they might not look perfect. And the chicken poo really helps them grow well.

Thank you for saying so, I'm glad it was helpful.

Thank you 😊

I'm glad you do. Thanks for watching.

I always advocate feeding mainly commercially prepared chicken feed as the bulk of their diet, but sometimes alternatives are necessary. And they won't do any harm in small amounts or over a short term

@@chickensinmygarden Thank you! I agree. I had been led to believe that potatoes and tomatoes (members of the nightshade family) were poisonous to chickens. One other thing I'd like to know about. Sometimes my cats don't eat all their food (they are fed raw meat, like beef) and I've been giving to my chickens. The meat is cut into small pieces, and there is never a lot of it, but the chicks love it. Is this okay?

Sure! Chickens eat all kinds of bugs, mice, anything like that. Small bits of beef are like tasty worms

Great. I'm sure you can think of other things too.

Hello and thank you for your compliment. I think Adelaide is the nicest city in Australia. I bet Tea Tree Gully is even nicer!

I'm glad you found it so. Thank you for commenting 🙂

Thanks for that information 🙂 I always like to believe that, if they have the opportunity of choice, chickens will choose what is good for them 🙂

Thanks for watching 🙂

Thank you 🙂

Thanks for saying so 🙂

Thank you. We are lucky we have a garden. And chickens are such great stress busters! My thoughts are with people in areas hit hard - these are difficult times but as you say we will get through.🙂

Thank you. It's getting on for moulting season here so some of them look a bit tatty and I'm down to about 3 eggs a day but I love them anyway. Minced meat, sprouted seeds, keffir! Yes! There are lots of great ideas that I didn't mention. Thanks🙂

Lovely to hear from you. Thank you for your kind words. I hope your chickens are being a comfort to you in these troubling times 🙂🐥🐓

@@chickensinmygarden hello again,xxxxoh they really are,I am 62 now and have some health problems, fibromyalgia, arthritis and in my feet and few other annoying health issues, but I am a mum of 5 grown up children and have 7 grand children, all in different areas,none living home now.all beautiful and enjoying their lives too. At last we can see them now,I have a small back garden and front garden and we do living a terraced house 34years now.but its a nice area,,near the hills of exmoor also close to the sea,,my garden id Moor of a wildlife and for my girls,but I have managed 😀 some tomatoes, so pleased.very favourite veg for me is cabbage 😋 and Brussels sprouts oh yum,I don't get them until Christmas then love them most days until out of season,like to roast a lso stir fry. I purchase them all growing on their stalks as the girls love to peck over the left over s.best wishes to you and your lovely girls .look forward to next time,x 🐔 🐥 🐣 🐤 🐓 🐔 xxx

We try to eat out of our garden so that means lots of what's in season then we don't get it again until next season, unless it can be stored, bottled or frozen. The same with eggs - summer is the time for scrambled eggs and quiches and egg-rich cakes, and winter is the time for scones and shortbread.

Thank you. I appreciate your saying so.

I have heard of them but I don't think they are available in New Zealand. Have you tried them?

Great! Thank you 🙂

You are very welcome. Have a great day 🙂

Ah, you won't have three chickens for long - I bet you will want more 😊 Good luck! I'm sure you will have lots of fun with them.

Chickens can eat pumpkin raw or cooked. That was raw. They really love it cooked.

You're welcome. 🙂

Our winters here are nothing compared to what you get. Occasionally we get a frost that makes a coating of ice on top of the chickens' water but it never freezes solid. And we don't get snow. You need to make sure the chickens have liquid water, and you have to watch out for frostbite - breeds with big combs are more vulnerable to frostbite so choosing a hardy breed to start with can help. Make sure the chicken house still has good ventilation - cold damp air is much more dangerous than dry air. It is almost never necessary to add heating to the chicken house unless the temperature is well below freezing - their own body temperature will keep it warm. Some foods are considered more 'warming' - e.g. corn and fats.

Chickens in my garden Hi, Thank you for your quick reply. I will watch out for frostbite. We do get well below zero temperatures. I’m doing lots of research and will use a small heat pump to keep their water liquid. Thanks again, I love your videos. Take care 😊

How exciting! If the pullets are at 'point of lay' that means they should start laying within a few weeks. They can have layer pellets. If the 'pullets' are actually female chicks about 6 weeks old, they should be on chick crumble or pullet/grower feed. Somewhere between 6 and 20 weeks is the time to change them to layer pellets. You will just need to make a call what to start them on depending on their age. It can be helpful to ask the seller what they have been feeding. Good luck 🙂

They do, chickens love blackfly larvae. And they are good for chickens too. It's just not that easy to farm blackfly - because the adults fly! So I farm mealworms but I harvest the blackfly larvae when they turn up in my compost 🙂

Thanks. I hoped it might be useful.

Ah yes, they definitely do make more eggs on a better diet. I bet they are loving their holiday with you. Will you ever be able to send them back?

Thank you. It takes me a long time to make each video.

Hi there. The nutritional requirements of chickens have been well researched, and absolutely a diet of just wheatgrass would not be adequate. You know that, just from knowing that chickens are monogastric omnivores (like people) not herbivores like cows. The simplest way to provide your chickens with a balanced diet is to feed them primarily a commercial layer feed. You can add up to 10% of additional treats without problems. I have some suggestions here ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-R5CtJa2pDAA.html Chickens do enjoy wheatgrass and it's good for them to have access to growing wheatgrass that they can peck what they want. But no, chickens can't thrive just by eating only wheatgrass.

I think they do - or at least they love the treats I bring them! Have a great day 🙂

Thank you for watching 🙂

I expect they would survive, but not thrive. Even with the leaves as well, they will not be getting enough protein or fat. Rice has only about 3% protein and 0 fat. But perhaps they are also eating bugs that they find - those would help a lot

@@chickensinmygarden thanks for responding. Since my chickens are in a large cage, they might be getting bugs rarely in it. I rarely provide commercial feeds to them like 2x a week, which makes the majority of their diet white cooked rice with green leaves. Because I mostly give the commercial feeds to their chicks for them to grow faster and effectively. While the adult chickens are the ones that I feed mainly rice. In my experience, this helped me cut costs in their food. But I was worried with what you said about not thriving. What do you mean by not thriving?

Thriving is being really healthy and happy. If your hens are laying ok, not looking sick and not dying, then they must be pretty healthy. Laying is usually an indicator of health - a sick chicken lays less eggs. But maybe you could think about possible high protein chicken feed - growing mealworms or soldier fly larvae is very cheap if you can get the live ones to start with. Or there might be waste food from restaurants, etc. This chicken keeper finds all sorts of food for her chickens bitchinchickens.com/2018/12/31/tips-from-the-queen-of-freecycle/

@@chickensinmygarden if that's the case then I think my chickens are quite healthy. Since they don't look like sick and they even lay eggs every month even if majority of their diet is rice. Ever since I gave them some green leafy vegetables, they rarely get sick that I don't even need to use any commercial medicines and vitamin supplements for them. I think one of the factors is that the breed of the chickens I have are known to be resilient in any environment here in my country which is a type of Philippine Native Chicken that is crossed with Heritage Chickens that came from other countries, since some chicken farmers I met stated that even if you leave them alone, they can survive on their own due to their native genes and are accustomed in the wild. But your suggestion to grow mealworms for a major source of protein is also a good food for them and I will try it for my chickens in order for them to be more genetically healthy. I learned in the field of science which is epigenetics, that the diet of every organisms (which also applies to chickens) can also play a role in the overall health of their offsprings and their succeeding generations, which can ensure that there would be good genetic traits for my chicken's descendants. Thank you for responding, I quite appreciate it. As most individuals in youtube are unresponsive. It's very helpful and informative that you upload videos about chickens for many people to learn from. Keep up the good work!

Excellent. It is good that you question everything and you carefully assess information against your own experience and observation of your chickens. You are the expert about your own flock. Because you care for them I'm sure you and they will be successful 🙂

Oh my goodness- you asked this so long ago that I'm sure you no longer need an answer. I'm very sorry to have been so slow. I hope that by now they have all hatched into adorable wee chicks.

I'm sorry to hear that. Chickens will also consume that white expanded polystyrene foam but it's not good for them and I'm sure that fibreglass shavings is not good for them either. I doubt if it has any digestible nutrients, it may contain formaldehyde, and it could fill up their crop and become impacted. Please find them something nutritious to eat, weeds and bugs will be good for them and free. Or else decide that you can't manage to keep chickens healthily and you start eating your chickens. Actually, unless you happen to have a very cheap source of chicken food, any eggs you get from your backyard flock will probably work out to cost more than store-bought eggs.

Are you insane?, your feeding animals fiber glass shavings, thats not food, thats plastic and they will be dead in a few days, they cannot live on that, if its so good you eat it.

I thought other people might be wondering about this.

Honestly you deserve more subscribers than you have all the hard work and effort you put in your videos 👍👍❤️

Thank you. It's kind of you to say so.

Hi there. First of all let me tell you that if your chickens are happy at home they will not fly away. They will always come back to safety and food. When you clip chickens' wings, you only clip one wing - the idea is to make them unbalanced so they can't fly easily. But it doesn't stop them flying and they will still be able to hop up onto their perch. Plus each year chickens moult and get a whole new set of feathers, including wing feathers. So if you wanted to keep their wings clipped, you need to do it every year. I suggest you just let them out into your yard for a few minutes close to their bedtime, watching over them to make sure they don't get lost if they go around something and can't see the way home. Slowly extend the time they are out until you are confident. All of those are heavy breeds. Once they start laying you will have no trouble keeping them inside a 6ft fence - check out my latest video about fences 🙂

I have noticed with my own flocks that the 'teenagers' seem to fly the most. Once they come into lay, they only fly with a lot more provocation.

Yeah, got to get those priorities right - Chickens first 🙂

Aw man. My mother says humans first. 😢

They do need a balanced diet that includes the right amount of protein, fat, vitamins and minerals. A diet of only human leftovers is likely to be too high in sugar and salt. But if you carefully chose the vegetables and meaty bits those could make nutritious extras. If they really are fat chickens that's not actually healthy for them 😒

No, but perhaps when I retire (from my day job) 🙂

Green bits of potatoes, including potato leaves and stems, are poisonous to chickens and people. Peppers are of the same botanical family and although I don't know for sure I expect the capsicum leaves would be bad for them. But the peppers themselves, the fruit of the capsicum plant that we eat, is fine, in fact full of vitamins 🙂

You are right about the chemical (amygdalin) that is converted to cyanide. But the amount is so tiny that chickens would need to be eating handfuls of apple seeds to experience any adverse effects. And I agree - chickens who are given the option of choosing from a variety of possible foods will usually make good choices 🙂

Absolutely. They love them. Don't panic if their poop goes red 😃

Yes, it's a Meyer lemon. We do get a few frosts but only a few degrees and once the Meyers get established they cope with them ok.

Yes they certainly can. The seeds get ground up in the chicken's gizzard

Thank you so much for you for your prompt reply.Great video .keep it up.

What do they eat?

What's a Sproat?

Hmm. I don't know. The crawfish flesh should be OK, either raw or cooked, but the shell might give them problems unless you ground it up small first

Oxalis is on the 'possibly toxic' list for chickens. The leaves contain oxalates, and can cause diarrhoea and kidney failure. But many chickens have eaten a few oxalis leaves without immediate or obvious effect. I would not make chickens eat oxalis (by giving them lots or giving them nothing else to eat) but I wouldn't worry if there was oxalis growing amongst richly diverse vegetation where they range.

I expect so. Try them. Chickens are good at choosing what's good for them if you give them a choice

@@chickensinmygarden can u do a video on it?

Maybe one day. I will add it to my list of videos to do

@@chickensinmygarden Yeah look into it, its one of the best seeds high amount of omega 3.

Are they expensive where you live?

I must have the wrong worms in my worm farm - or fussy chickens! I have red worms and tiger worms and the chickens won't touch them, although they do love the pale worms from the garden

Chickens in my garden I gave it on the first day. They are absolutely crazy about these worms. The smaller chicks are always allowed to eat directly at the worm farm. Every day some wait for me to take them to the worm farm, a bathtub. 😂 Especially at the beginning, the more types of food chicks get, the more types will eat later.

Heavens! Best not do that in the UK then. It's perfectly fine in New Zealand. 🙂

That sounds terrible! Yes lye is caustic soda (sodium hydroxide) and it's very nasty to touch especially if it is damp or wet - it burns like acid. Are you sure he didn't mean "rye"? Lye would be just plain cruelty.

Thank you. Chickens make a wonderful addition to a garden 🙂