Chickens....????

Hi all. after some helpful tips on here after I got my chickens I now have another question for you all and I'd like some info on it please.

I have been told that the potato peelings I want to feed my chickens I need to boil them first and if I don't it can make them poorly. . . Is that right??? Do I need to boil them first before feeding them and will raw unboiled potato peelings make them poorly?? Oh and is that also the case for veg peelings?

I'd love some imput from you guys.

Cheers for reading. Babyboy515.

 

My dad gives his chickens all sorts of veg peelings, and they never suffer from it. I think he is careful about the amount of tatty peelings though, and I think he boils them first.

Spuds contain a lot of starch, which in humans can cause stomach cramps and all sorts of belly aches, maybe that's the reasoning behind it, but I don't know if it applies to chickens.

 

Thing is I've been giving my chickens spud peelings not boiled because I didn't know any different :( My chickens seem fine and happy and normal. I'm not getting regular eggs though :( could this be the reason why? I give them grass, and bread and they have pellets grit and corn. I am doing right or wrong?? Help.
Thanks.

 

There are loads of reasons why chickens occasional stop laying. Its not all down to diet. Sometimes they slow down throughout the colder months. If anything upsets them (bullying within the flock - it happens), the sight of a fox on the prowl or a dog barking at them, they will stop laying. Also if you've just got them, they may still be settling in. A stressed chicken is not a productive chicken (except of course in the nasty battery farms where they are routinely fed hormones in their feed).

If you feed them well, and make sure they have somewhere to hide where they feel secure if any bigger animals upset them, then you're onto a winner.

 

Make sure they are not green peelings, you may be inadvertantly be feeding your chooks a noxious substance. Have a look at this Snopes link:

http://www.snopes.com/food/ingredient/potato.asp

 

That's a good point. Green bits of spuds are quite poisonous. Not enough (in small quantities) to be too nasty, but certainly bad belly material.

 

Overdoing the amount of "treats" they get may reduce egg laying. If they have layers pellets/mash available ad lib, they really don't need lots of extra food, apart from a handful of corn in the evening perhaps. If it's a cold morning, you can add warm water to the pellets to make a warm, sloppy mash. Buy a cabbage, attach to a piece of string and hang just out of chicken head height. They'll enjoy jumping to get to it and the greens are good for them.

Chickens will eat anything but pellets first, if it is available to them. A bit like children and sweets.

 

I'd normally agree with you Aaron about a treat free diet but ours stopped laying a couple of months back so I put them on a strict regime for a a week or so and there was no change. Then one of them got sick (I won't go into details here but sadly she had to be put down today), so we started giving them cooked porridge,pasta and tinned sweetcorn. Lo and behold, one of them has now laying an egg every day! Explain that.

Chris

 

Thanks all for the advice. First thing in the morning they get a genious scoop of pellets and I add corn and grit with pellets in their feeder. They seem to prefer to eat the pellets etc off the ground rather than eat out the feeder. I don't recall ever giving them green bits of spud. Does the potato peelings need to be boiled though? I didn't get any eggs yesterday and I haven't had an egg so far today. The have a lovely big sleeping area with an old dog bed which they love and they have a ramp that leads up to a higher area for them too. No foxes but our nighbour has a dog that lives outside all the time and it barks alot we have a dog too but he isn't out in the back garden much and he leaves the chickens well alone.

Thanks again for all the advice.

 

How long have you had them? I.e have they had time to settle in to their new environment?

Also, this might sound like a daft question, but are you certain they are not laying? Rats steal chicken eggs for their lunch, but its not as you might think in that you don't see busted shells. Rats working in pairs to steal an egg. It sounds silly but its true. One rat will wrap itself round an egg, and then its buddy will grab its tail and drag them away. Unless you actually see rats nearby there'll be no evidence of the burglary.

 

I get the odd egg every now and then. I haven't seen any evidence of rats and I hope to god there isn't any rats near by. The coop is pretty secure.
I have had the white one around 3 weeks and she isn't old enough for laying. She's due soon I'm told. and the brown one's we've had around 2 weeks.
Thanks all so much for all your comments I'm so grateful.

 

If you've had them for two weeks, they may start to settle and start laying. Ours has just started to slow down, and ducks have stopped for now. Regarding the potato peelings - ours get basically what peelings there are from vege, outer leaves of vege etc. from dinner prep, boiled and with some mixed corn in it, along with the oyster shell grit. There is plenty for them to eat 'green' wise, out in the back garden for them. I've never known why, but I've always boiled the vege scraps, just because the woman who introduced us to keeping them - that is what she did.
I find that after a move, or when one chicken got attacked by a neighbours dog - it took about two weeks for them to settle and get back into routine. But......they do tend to slow down at various times in the year as well. Make sure they are getting as much daylight as possible, as this also helps in egg production.

 

OMG that sounds hilarious!!! :lollol: sounds like you;d see it in a cartoon or something!

re;chickens. i'm a relative newbie to it all, only having got chooks this year. this forum has been brilliant for the advice (thanks peeps :gnthb: ). I only give my chooks spuds peelings occasionally, and then not many. they like them but i've heard it gives them the runs. as for boiling them for them, begger that! Life's too short

 

Hilarious but true Rats are surprisingly intelligent creatures and will readily work as a team if they think it will increase their chances of success.

 

Buy an old cabbage, either tie from the roof of the run or stake it and let the chickens pick it apart.

We chuck all peelings into a saucepan (usually on a Sunday if we've done a roast), simmer gently then when cool mix with some pellets and/or corn and add a bit of poultry spice (not a herb, but a tonic) and give it to them to eat. They love it, especially as the peelings are soft and mushy. If you have a bit of organo in the garden, add that too - it's good for them.