Kitchen Scraps for chickens

Let me start by saying chickens are amazing! I love having them for so many reasons, but today we are talking compost. Compost in my house is a very serious business, we have many containers for kitchen scraps with various destinations, all with good reason. Chickens love kitchen scraps, but they won't/can't eat them all. Leaving uneaten scraps in my run is only asking for bad news in the form of little vermin who love to scrounge for leftovers. We are very strict about this. So what DOES go to the chickens? Anything they will devour in under an hour. I keep a bucket under my sink and what goes in includes some of their favorites like:

apple cores

lettuces

rice

strawberry hulls

seeds from fruits and squashes

breads

oatmeal

cooked veggies

Broth remnant discards

We AVOID offering:

Skins and peels of all kinds including things like banana and orange peels, skins of cucumbers and squashes

Tea/Coffee grinds

Raw Egg Shells (I keep them in a container in my fridge until I have a batch, then I cook, grind and feed them back to the hens for added calcium)

Harder scraps are not desired by my hens. Keeping a close eye on your flock and understanding what they will gobble up and what will get left behind can help make your decision on which kitchen scraps to offer to your chickens. 

Just because they don't go to the chickens does not mean they go in the trash, check out my other posts about compost and scraps to find out the destination of what we avoid giving to the chickens.

Directions for baking egg shells:

Preheat oven to 200F

Lay egg shells on a baking sheet and place in oven for 2-3 hours. Remove and let cool. Blend in blender or carefully crush (baking makes them sharp on soft hands, use caution!) and feed back to chickens :) 

What kind of scraps do you feed your hens?