When you keep chickens at home, it’s usually not just for the eggs. It’s also for their usefulness in eco-friendly management of kitchen waste. But you still need to balance an environmentally responsible approach with the birds’ welfare.
A balanced diet
Although raising chickens is a good idea in itself for reducing food waste, it’s crucial not to treat them as little more than table trashcans. While it’s true that chickens can eat a wide variety of foods, giving them any leftover without distinction can seriously harm their health and ultimately compromise their biological balance.
Indeed, chickens are omnivorous birds. But their ideal diet rests on a strict balance: about 70% grains and 30% proteins (plant and animal), complemented by greens, grit for digestion, and water. A healthy, freely available food supply is essential to meet their daily energy needs, ensure laying, and limit stress or aggressive behaviors within the coop.
Leftovers to include in their diet
Many kitchen scraps can thus make excellent additions to their daily menu. These include the greens, stems, and peels of most fruits and vegetables, misshapen produce, as well as cooked leftovers of starches (pasta, rice, potatoes), legumes, and eggs.
Some leftovers, while greatly enjoyed by chickens, should remain occasional because they’re too fatty, too salty, or too sweet. This includes cheese rinds, cooked fish and shellfish (which can also alter the taste of eggs), and bread. The latter, in fact, provides little real nutritional value and merely promotes obesity in chickens while causing digestive issues.
Strictly toxic foods
Warning: certain common human foods must be strictly avoided to prevent serious poisoning. The blacklist includes processed foods, coffee, alcohol, dairy products, citrus fruits, avocado, chocolate, alliums (onions and leeks), moldy foods, as well as raw meat and raw fish.
To keep leftovers as simple occasional treats, you should cut them into small pieces or transform them into thick pastes, particularly useful in winter to support their metabolism. As for vegetables, they can, for example, be hung up for pecking. Finally, to maintain hygiene and avoid attracting pests, any uneaten food must be removed at the end of the day.
Also read
- Setting up a chicken coop: regulations you should know before you start
