A Family Guide To Keeping Chickens (28 page)

Chickens usually avoid poisonous plants but you shouldn’t rely on this, especially if your chickens live mainly in a run.

Free-range chickens with plenty of grass may take less interest in other vegetation. Ours have occasionally tucked into a plant, but will actually turn up their beaks when offered thinnings from the vegetable plot. Stealing is probably more fun.

Confined chickens are more likely to have a go at any greenery that comes within reach, and may be less able to discriminate between good and bad. Make sure that anything growing close to the run is safe for chickens to eat.

When your chickens are free-ranging in the garden, keep an eye on what they are nibbling. Remove them from anything you are not sure about and then check up on it.

Unfortunately there’s limited conclusive evidence about how toxic some plants are to chickens. While some are definitely poisonous, others would probably have to be eaten in large quantities to do any damage.

This list isn’t exhaustive, but your chickens probably shouldn’t eat these:

Autumn crocus

Beans

Bracken

Bryony

Buttercup

Castor beans

Clematis

Conkers

Corn cockle

Daffodil (especially bulbs)

Delphinium

Foxglove

Hemlock

Henbane

Holly berries

Honeysuckle

Hyacinth

Hydrangea

Iris

Ivy

Jasmine

Laburnum seeds

Laurel

Lilies

Lily of the valley

Lupins

Mistletoe

Monkshood

Nicotiana

Nightshade

Oleander

Potato sprouts

Privet

Ragwort

Rapeseed

Rhododendron

Rhubarb leaves

St John’s wort

Sweet peas

Tomato leaves

Tulips

Vetch

Wisteria

Yew

Avoid using chemical pesticides or herbicides in areas where chickens are ranging.

Key Points

•
Feeding kitchen waste to chickens is illegal, and can lead to an unbalanced diet

•
Check expiry dates when buying feed

•
Pellets are easy to handle and provide a complete diet

•
Dry mash keeps chickens occupied longer but can be messy

•
Mash can be fed moistened but goes off quickly

•
Chickens need insoluble (flint) grit to process their food

•
Soluble grit provides extra calcium for strong eggshells

•
Hang up some vegetables in the chicken run

•
Only feed grain in the afternoon

•
Unpasteurized apple cider vinegar has many health benefits – add 20 ml per litre of water in a plastic drinker

•
Don’t feed avocado, citrus fruit, dry pulses, uncooked potatoes or green beans, chocolate or anything salty

•
Too many treats can lead to health problems

•
It’s vital that chickens always have plenty of fresh water

•
Feed generously to start with so that no chickens go without

•
Make any changes to diet very gradually

•
Don’t feed layers’ mixes to pullets until they are mature enough to produce eggs

•
Chickens usually avoid toxic plants – but you shouldn’t rely on this

•
Don’t use pesticides or herbicides where chickens are ranging

What did you discover about feeding chickens in
Chapter 6
?

Question One

What is the best food for chickens?

(a) Ready-made chicken feed

(b) Leftovers from the dinner table

(c) Breadcrumbs

Question Two

Why do chickens need to eat little stones or grit?

(a) It keeps their beaks sharp

(b) To help break up their food

(c) To make their egg-yolks yellow

Question Three

When would you feed chickens grain?

(a) In the morning

(b) In the afternoon

(c) All through the day

Question Four

Which of these items is bad for chickens?

(a) Mealworms

(b) Chocolate

(c) Apple cider vinegar

Question Five

Which of these statements is wrong?

(a) Chickens take longer to eat dry mash

(b) Chickens like to eat grass or green vegetables

(c) Chickens eat more in hot weather

Answers

One (a); Two (b); Three (b); Four (b); Five (c)

Make sure you know how to feed chickens properly – in the next chapter we are going chicken shopping!

‘Chicken feed’: As you have just read, chicken feed comes in little pieces. This saying is used when talking about a very small amount of money or something that is hardly worth bothering about.

Did you hear about the hens that went on strike?

They were fed up with working for chicken feed!

What do you get if you feed gunpowder to a chicken?

An eggsplosion!

Where will you buy your chicken feed? Is there a store nearby or will you have to order it to be delivered?

Find out which brands are most easily available and have a look at the manufacturers’ websites to see what will suit the chickens you are thinking of buying. Write down the items you will need – pellets, mash or crumbs; grain; flint grit; soluble grit; apple cider vinegar; supplements (remember that at first you should give your new chickens the feed they have been used to and make any changes gradually).