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Chickens and Turkeys Love Snacks

Feed and Supplements:

Feed Chickens Bugs

  • There’s no denying it, one of the the best things you can feed to chickens is bugs!

  • When chickens free range they catch all sorts of insects. This wonderful aspect of chicken keeping can even cut down on nasty insects such as fleas and ticks that naturally roam your yard.

Bugs That Chickens Love to Eat:

  • Ants

  • Beetles

  • Caterpillars

  • Centipedes

  • Cockroaches

  • Crickets

  • Dried Crickets

  • Dried Insect Trail Mix

  • Grasshoppers

  • Grubs

  • Dried Grubs

  • Junebugs

  • Mealworms

  • Moths

  • Slugs

  • Termites

  • Ticks

  • Note: Due to the fact that we strongly recommend using this fly trap in the chicken coop, we frequently get asked if chickens can eat flies. The short answer is that they shouldn’t. This article from Hobby Farms will give you the reasons why!

Feed Chickens Weeds and Flowers

  • One of the most satisfying things to feed your chickens is the weeds that pop up in your yard and garden!

  • This not only helps to get rid of weeds, but feeds your chickens at the same time. Feeding weeds to your chickens is a great way to feed chickens for free, but to find even more check our our post: 5 Ways to Feed Chickens for Free

Chickens Adore Eating These Weeds:

  • Bee Balm

  • Chickweed

  • Clover

  • Dandelion

  • Grass Clippings

  • Lambsquarters

  • Marigold

  • Mugwort

  • Nettles

  • Oxalis

  • Plantain

  • Purslane

  • Wild Violet

  • Check out some other perennials you may be able to grow for chickens to eat!
     

Feed Chickens Kitchen Scraps

  • Food waste from the kitchen is an unfortunate fact of life, but it doesn’t have to be a problem when you have chickens!

  • Place a small container on your kitchen counter titled ‘for the chickens’ and put all your kitchen scraps in there. Your birds will be thrilled to receive everything that you don’t want!

  • While chickens make good composters of unwanted food, make sure you  never give them any food that is moldy or rotten, as it can make them sick.

  • Food that’s a little mushy or unappetizing to people is fine, but food that’s gone bad is not. Many of the foods on this list should be fed sparingly, such as bread and pasta.

  • To find out what other chicken treats should be fed minimally to your birds, check out our post: What Not to Feed Chickens

What Can Chickens Eat from the Kitchen:

  • Beef

  • Bread (in moderation, whole grain is best)

  • Bulgar Wheat and Wheat Berries

  • Cereal (sugar free)

  • Cheese of all sorts

  • Cooked Rice

  • Cooked Pasta

  • Cooked Eggs

  • Cottage Cheese

  • Crushed Eggshells

  • Fish

  • Fruit

  • Grits

  • Milk (even sour milk!)

  • Most Nuts (unsalted, crushed are easier to eat) No Acorns!

  • Oats and Oatmeal

  • Pork

  • Poultry

  • Quinoa

  • Seafood

  • Seeds (unsalted)

  • Sprouts

  • Popped Popcorn (no salt or butter)

  • Whey

  • Whole Grains

  • Vegetables- cooked and raw

  • Yogurt (steer clear of yogurt with added sugar)

Animals

  • This section might give you the willies, and that’s understandable, but we want to be as comprehensive as possible with this list.

  • The reality is, chickens are omnivores and naturally hunt small animals. When let out to free range, your chickens will find these critters all on their own, and they’re a tasty, nutritious snack.

  • One thing to keep in mind in regards to rodents… if the mice or rats that your chickens catch have been poisoned, your chickens will be poisoned as well by eating them.

  • We suggest refraining from using poison to get rid of rodents, and we even have a whole post all about alternative methods to keep your coop pest free!

  • Here are Some Animals Chickens Love to Chow Down:

  • Feeder Fish

  • Frogs

  • Lizards

  • Mice

  • Snakes
     

Feed Chickens from the Garden

If you have a vegetable or herb garden, or even an orchard, your chickens can reap the benefits!

  • Now, we’re not suggesting that you grow a garden just for your chickens (although you can!) but feeding garden scraps to your chickens will not only be much appreciated, it’s super healthy for your birds as well!

What Can Chickens Eat From the Garden:

  • Apples (seeds removed)

  • Bananas

  • Basil

  • Beets and Beet Greens

  • Blackberries

  • Blueberries

  • Broccoli

  • Brussels Sprouts

  • Cabbage

  • Carrots and Carrot Tops

  • Cauliflower

  • Cherries

  • Chili Peppers

  • Cilantro

  • Collard Greens

  • Corn and Corncobs

  • Cucumbers

  • Eggplant

  • Garlic

  • Grapes (frozen or fresh)

  • Kale

  • Lettuce and other greens

  • Melon

  • Oregano

  • Parsley

  • Peaches

  • Pears

  • Peas

  • Peppers

  • Pomegranate

  • Pumpkins and Pumpkin Seeds

  • Raspberries

  • Squash

  • Sunflower seeds

  • Strawberries – including the hull

  • Sweet Potatoes

  • Thyme

  • Tomatoes

  • Turnips (cooked)

  • Zucchini

As you can see, the list of foods that chickens can eat is pretty epic! Most chickens are not picky eaters and will be thrilled if you offer them anything on this list.

Although these omnivorous birds can eat the vast majority of the foods that we eat, there are some definite foods that chickens shouldn’t eat.

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A great video on feeding chickens

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