Reading the catalogue for Meyer's Hatchery--it advises not to give fruit to layers because it will cause them to stop laying and they will not start again for several weeks. Is this true? Why? Do tomatoes count as fruit--or is it only certain fruit?
Don’t feed fruit to layers?
Hi Catscan,
I am no expert! I have had my chickens for about a year, they have been laying for about 6 months. I give them fruit all the time. They are laying kind of slow right now because it is winter but they haven't stopped. I give them all the fruit and veggies kitchen scraps and anything the kids don't finish. The only thing I don't give them is raw potato or peels.
I am interested to hear what the old pros say because it's news to me!
Laura
Never heard of that in my life. My chickens get almost anything that grows with lots of fruit in the summer, especially tomatoes. I never noticed any diference in the laying. Maybe that"s geared twards commercial egg productions where they count every egg. I'd rather have happy chickens.
Same here. I give mine fruit all year around. I do not give them any raw potatoes or peelings unless it was cooked.
Ditto. I agree with all of you.
Okay, I have to ask...why no potato peelings or potatos unless they are cooked. I give mine fruit, veggies, and any other thing they will eat.
The only time I notice they don't lay is if we have a storm like last nite. We had sustained winds upwards of 30 miles per hour. They only laid 6 eggs today. Yesterday they laid 21. I have about 30 hens.
Raw potato can be toxic and while they normally wouldn't eat them, if the food source is limited and it's in their pen they may. Mine never touch the peelings in the compost, even though they are in there all the time. I also avoid garlic and onions as they can flavor the eggs.
cold and storms definately has an effect on egg numbers!
Thank you.
I have never heard of potato peelings being toxic and mine do eat them any time they can get them. They also ate the leaves off a volunteer tomato plant that grew up next to their pen. Didn't hurt them at all, although those are of the nightshade family also just like potato plants. But, since I have only had my own chicks for four years, but did grow up with a father who had them for most of my life, and he also fed them potato peelings, and never lost any to them, I don't know.About the only thing mine won't eat are orange rinds.
I also have fed my chicks onion peelings and bottoms and have never tasted it in their eggs. And I have a very good sense of taste. So, maybe I am wrong and some people can taste onion and garlic better than I can.
I haven't even given them potato peels, I just read in my chicken book that it can make them feel under the weather, I don't know if it will kill them.
I toss all the garlic and onion scraps out there. It isn't a lot in proportion to the rest of the stuff they eat. I know it can flavor the eggs but I figured there are 10 hens and only a few onion butts so no big. I do think I tasted a 'flavored egg' one of my orpingtons caught a frog and swallowed the darn thing whole!! Not long after that I had a fried egg that tasted like FISH OIL, it wasn't a nice flavor.
Laura
Ohhhhhh, that's why my eggs sometimes taste of fish. My hens must be catching peepers in the spring and eating them. We have a ton of them here. Thanks.
I didn't know that about the peels. I don't give mine
peels, but they do get some fruit. Their favorite is
grapes. I have seen no effect on laying. I only have
the one hen and roo now, and yesterday we had
40-50 mile an hour winds. She has started laying an
egg a day, but- no egg yesterday. Now I know why.
Truest,
We had high winds yesterday too. Blew out the transformer so we were powerless. My 10 hens gave me one egg yesterday! This morning I had 9 eggs! Guess they don't like the wind blowing up their skirts ;-)
Laura
Well, Laura, neither do we like the wind blowing up our skirts. And, it was a cold wind, too. :o)
Nicer day, one big egg! Happy Blanca. No, I don't
like a cold wind blowing up my skirt, either!
I wonder how the chickens can hold back the eggs when it's cold? I know mine are pretty stingy when it's bad out. DO they do lamaze? Pretty funny to think about. It's hysterical to watch my short legged beagle in the snow, every time she squats down to pee or poop, her butt hits the snow and she jumps up. I can just picture the chickens. Makes you gratefull to be a human with indoor plumbing.
It's not potato peelings that are toxic, it's the sprouts. Most store bought potatoes don't have sprouts. I bought some from a potato farm a while back. The ones we didn't eat yet have about 3/8" sprouts. This is because they are stored where it is warm. I think some from super market are treated to not sprout. Not sure.
We found out it's not the cold as much as the light. We put a light on a timer in our coop. The hens have been steady since. It's on from 6 AM until 9 PM. My son says they need 14 hours of light to lay full.
Bernie
We also have a light on in our coop for at least 14 hours a day. We have been getting a steady 23 to 24 eggs a day. But, it wasn't the cold. It was the wind. When you have 30 mile sustained wind, I don't think any hen is going to lay.
You are right about the sprouts being toxic. Potatoes are a variety of nightshade, as are tomatoes. The entire plant with the exception of the tubers for potatoes and fruit for tomatoes are toxic. Of course that doesn't answer why we had chickens eating the leaves of the tomato plant that was growing just outside the coop. It didn't seem to hurt them, either. BTW, we let our chicks free-range in the evening in good weather, so it's not as if they don't have enough to eat or a variety of food. It just seemed to be something they wanted to do.
Jylgaskin, I know what you mean about your beagle. We also have one and dh had to shovel a path and a spot in the yard for her to go out. Funny!!! :o)
The peels of potatoes are toxic when they get too much light and turn greenish. It doesn't kill them but they say it's not good for them either. I know mine eat tomatoes and tomato plants with no ill effect.
I have a light in my coop on a timer. Still don't get many eggs when it's really cold or stormy. I went from 6 to 8 eggs a day to 2 when the storm hit. Today, Yesterday and today, it started to warm up and I got 6. Light hasn't changed, just the temp and wind.
They are happy chickens tonight, they got stale doughnuts. You could almost hear them purr.
Yep, I know just what you mean. And, I am glad it warmed up a bit. Now if we don't get that big storm they are predicting, I will be happy too.
I looked in all my references including Damerow's Storey's Guide to Raising Chickens and can't find any warning about fruit. Rossier's Living with Chickens actually endorses giving chickens over-ripe fruit with table scraps. Taken together with all your experiences, I think I will feed my chickens any fruit they like, at least in moderation. Still I would like to know what the background is for Meyers advising against it.
too funny reading about wind and skirts, you guys had me LOL, hope dont wake wife up. good luck with eggs and wind, my german shorthairs are taller than beagles and they dont like snow either. think its a spoiled dog thing.
Of course it's a spoiled dog thing. Did you think otherwise? Our animals are like our kids except they don't drink alcohol, do drugs or bring home babies (maybe). So, they're cheaper to keep.
well one of our "girls" brought home babies but it was planned. during hunting season they arent that cheap, but its worth every penny.
I guess you're right. We raised hunting beagles for over 20 years, so I do know about the expense. It used to cost us over $1,000.00 a year in vet bills just for the beagles alone and we were a very small operation. But, as you say, it was worth it. BTW, this was about 30yrs ago, so who knows how much it would cost now.
$30,000.00 ?
Could be...our lone beagle cost us about $160.00 in vet bills just for shots, heartworm meds and flea stuff. And, that is cheap compared to some other vets.
We always give our chickens fruit scraps; we've never had a problem. They devour them, especially watermelon, cantaloupe....they don't care much for oranges, ha, ha.
We have a friend that was free ranging his chickens where there were a lot of wild onions. He sells eggs as well, at stores and farmers markets, etc. His sales went down drastically for a while and come to find out people were saying that his eggs tasted like onions. He ranges them somewhere else now.
I guess that could happen if you gave them a lot of onions or garlic. Since we don't use an awful lot of onions or garlic, ours don't get a lot of either. Maybe once or twice a week they might get a few onion skins and a root portion, but that's about all.
As far as fruit goes, one thing I can say is that the chicks love grapes. They stripped my new grapevine of not even ripe grapes when we let them out to free range in the evening last summer. The brats!!! We will have to make sure they can't reach the grapes if we want to keep them for ourselves. Of course that will mean having to put a trellis up for the grapes as they are now growing on a fence and they can get to them.
We also have wild cherries and other wild fruit around here and when they free range, they can get into them. So since I haven't had any downturn on laying from them, I would have to say that I don't know why Meyer would say that.
Hmmmm....
In that fall I give the girls crab apples that fall of the feral apple trees in the yard. They love it. They seem to be pretty good and choosing not to eat deadly things. Mine did eat a vole whole. Eww.... it was very unnerving!( and impressive)
Chickens love mice! I have watched mine chase them down and catch them, then the fight starts. They chase the one with the mouse skwalking and cackling untill she get's a chance to down it.
Notice how there are never mice in the chicken house. Mine even stomped a poor rat to death. It was too big to eat so they just flattned it.
My chickens love grapes, too. About the potato peels,
now I know why my Dad wouldn't eat them. smile.
Our chickens will eat the baby bull frogs if they find
them! They must be smart, because they leave toads
alone..
Truest, I think you are right about chickens being smart. Just because they are bird-brains doesn't mean they are stupid. They actually seem to know what to eat and what is not good for them. I have seen them eat edible mushrooms in the yard.
And you have to realize, their system is different from ours, too.
They surely must be smart if they know the difference
in good and bad mushrooms. I have also seen my hen
gobble a scorpion- she went after it like it was candy!
go figure...
Oh, scorpions are gourmet goodies to a chicken. We don't have them here, but now don't have too many crickets or grasshoppers either. So, it must be yummy to them. :o)
I am thrilled they like scorpions! We have an abundance
of striped bark scorpions, and they happen to be one
of the most painful if stung.
Granny, have you ever raised guineas? Do you think a
number of chickens would do as well at bug control as
they would? I was thinking about raising a flock in the
spring, but hopefully I will have a number of free range
chickens by then, too.
No, Truest, I haven't had guineas, but plan on getting some in the spring. I will probably get day-olds from Ideal or Meyer. I only want about 10, so those are the hatcheries that will send a smaller amount than McMurray. Had I been thinking, I would have ordered some from McMurray when I ordered my chicks. We have ticks here big time, so since guineas seem to think ticks are a gourmet snack, I will have to try them. I am hoping to train them to come home and roose in the henhouse in the evening so we don't lose them to the owls.
Unfortunately, Granny, Meyers says they won't send guineas as a small order--just chicks. I'm not sure about Ideal. Maybe the guinea chicks are more delicate?
Thanks, catscan. Even if Ideal doesn't, I have a possible source locally for eggs I need be. I found this guy on eBay when I was browsing there, and discovered he is only about 20 miles from me. But I will check with Ideal first before getting eggs. And I do think guineas might be more fragile than chicks. At least, that is the impression I get from everything I read about them.
Catscan, I just called Ideal and they told me they would send 10 guineas (or maybe 12 is their minimum order) so I will be ordering from them when I am ready to do so. I'll be getting them in April when my other chicks would be due to hatch.
Thanks to both of you on the info about guineas.
I have read that they need 6 weeks in the pen before
being released, if they are to come back in at night.
I also saw a pic of a pen, where they had built the
yard part to have a 6" wide rail at the top, used as a
sort of landing pad when they fly in and out. I plan to
try something like this with our pen. I know some
people have to net the top of their pens to keep out
predators. I haven't read anything about them using the
door, but, if it was the only way in and they were determined,
I would think they would use it?