Grow Your Own Magazine

stanhol · #1 (**permalink**) 26-08-2008, 06:59 PM

This is probably a really stupid question, but! I have read on a few sites that leftovers, peelings etc should be cooked first. Can someone tell me why that is? I have a veg patch and was thinking once my brassics have produced that i would give the remanders to the girls when they arrive, should i prepare these in anyway or throw it in fresh?

Many thanks,
Sandra

Twinkle · #2 (**permalink**) 26-08-2008, 07:08 PM

I think the cooking only applies to peelings, especially potatoes...
I certainly never cook brassicas - just hang them up in the run for them to play with.

MaureenHall · #3 (**permalink**) 26-08-2008, 07:33 PM

I agree with Twinkle, give them the greens as they are - complete with slugs and caterpillars. Potatoes should be cooked (mine won't touch them if they aren't anyway). Chop up apples etc and don't give them lettuce - it gives them the trots and apparently is poisonous to them

Twinkle · #4 (**permalink**) 26-08-2008, 08:49 PM

is it ??
blimey !! Didn't know that.....

I knew that avocado is a definite no-no, but didn't realise lettuce was too

Twinkle · #5 (**permalink**) 26-08-2008, 08:51 PM

oops - sorry, double post

Hashette · #6 (**permalink**) 26-08-2008, 10:39 PM

Blimey, just when I think I've read everything I can get my hands on. Wondering what else I don't know!

*scans back of postage stamp on which all my hen knowledge is written*

Snadger · #7 (**permalink**) 26-08-2008, 11:42 PM

Mine won't eat cauliflower, don't like crinkly cabbage either. (Fussy so and so's!)

I think out of all the greens I've tried them with there two favourites are swede tops and dandelions!

I sse layers pellets as their main food just now with a couple of handfuls of mixed corn to lure them away from the gate and give them something to scratch for.

Once it starts getting a bit colder I have an arsenal of 'warm me ups' ready including warm mash with added cooked veg, poultry spice and possibly upping there corn ration!

MaureenHall · #8 (**permalink**) 27-08-2008, 07:32 AM

Mine would kill for any cabbage, cauliflower leaves, chard etc, but they always leave the midribs. Also spaghetti, pasta tubes, fruit, the list goes on. Think they're just greedy little madams now but soooooooooooooooo loving

I never give any treats till 2 or 3 hours before bedtime, make sure they eat plenty of their layers pellets first so that they get all the nutrients they need. Bit like kids really innit

JackieAt · #9 (**permalink**) 27-08-2008, 07:50 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MaureenHall

I agree with Twinkle, give them the greens as they are - complete with slugs and caterpillars. Potatoes should be cooked (mine won't touch them if they aren't anyway). Chop up apples etc and don't give them lettuce - it gives them the trots and apparently is poisonous to them

Please can someone confirm about lettuce, my chooks love it and it doesnt seem to have done them any harm, but my daughter has now forbidden me to give it to them

Jardiniere · #10 (**permalink**) 27-08-2008, 09:21 PM

yeah please ...i give mine all the bolted lettuce and the chicory that ive grown that is too bitter for us.....

MaureenHall · #11 (**permalink**) 27-08-2008, 11:11 PM

My chooks love it too, but I got a severe telling off (well sort of) on one of the threads on here when I said that they had lettuce every day. Yes, they do get a bit of a runny bum, so I do limit it. They have the occasional bolted lettuce and sometimes a few of the outer leaves, but I've cut down on the frequency I give it, just in case. I was also told that it can kill rabbits and guinea pigs, but a friend's dad bought a huge fresh lettuce every day for his rabbit and it lived for years and years. Perhaps someone can tell us what the chemical is in the lettuce that's so poisonous

Twinkle · #12 (**permalink**) 28-08-2008, 12:12 AM

I know that spinach is a bad thing for chooks, as is rhubarb leaves (had to fence off my rhubarb) due to the something in it, but TBH mine get the odd bit of bolted lettuce and are fine...
Like humans - varied is the key...I guess...

MaureenHall · #13 (**permalink**) 28-08-2008, 04:12 AM

Didn't know about the spinach either, mine had loads when the plants all bolted! Rhubarb leaves is a definite no-no for anything (except plant food) because it contains oxalic acid - poison!

andi&di · #14 (**permalink**) 28-08-2008, 09:10 AM

OOoh dear!~I never knew about the spinach either!

Ours tend to get a little of whatever & as yet no harm has come to them!Do you know why they shouldn't have ti?

Flummery · #15 (**permalink**) 28-08-2008, 09:28 AM

I've always had a suspicion lettuce was poisonous. I really don't like it myself!

Hilary B · #16 (**permalink**) 28-08-2008, 09:35 AM

Lettuce contains a soporific (it is used as an ingredient of herbal sleeping tablets), and it may be that this is bad for poultry in excess. Spinach does contain SOME oxalic acid (so does the bit of rhubarb we eat, but the concentration in the leaves is the dangerous version), and 'chard' may also contain some.

andi&di · #17 (**permalink**) 28-08-2008, 09:46 AM

So me giving the chooks spinach & chard because I wanted to cut down on their lettuce intake wasn't such a great idea?!

Never mind they seem to have a pile of holy cabbages waiting for them from a kindly neighbour!!...& once they're done we got a few of our own!

Starchild · #18 (**permalink**) 28-08-2008, 10:55 AM

I dunno about Holland, but in the UK it is actually illegal to feed chickens kitchen scraps.

(cross-meat contamination blah-de-blah-de-blah)

MaureenHall · #19 (**permalink**) 28-08-2008, 01:31 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Starchild

I dunno about Holland, but in the UK it is actually illegal to feed chickens kitchen scraps.

(cross-meat contamination blah-de-blah-de-blah)

Yes, apparently it is illegal, so as I said on a previous thread, I now cook pasta for the chooks and have the excess with my bol sauce, likewise, I cook potatoes for the chooks and pinch a bit to go on my cottage pie.

Starchild · #20 (**permalink**) 28-08-2008, 05:15 PM

Aah Maureen I assume that the kitchen in which the food is prepped is done to HACPP food safety standard?

Quote:

"...providing premises are able to demonstrate that they have HACCP procedures (Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points) in place to ensure that there is no possibility of the material intended to be fed to livestock being contaminated by meat or most other products of animal origin... operators are advised to ensure that their local authority is content that their separation procedures are adequate"

So Maureen, have you been inspected?

MaureenHall · #21 (**permalink**) 28-08-2008, 07:10 PM

"So Maureen, have you been inspected?"

Well I had a good look in the mirror this morning and inspected myself to make sure it was me and that I wasn't looking like a scary monster

Starchild · #22 (**permalink**) 28-08-2008, 07:50 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MaureenHall

"So Maureen, have you been inspected?"

Well I had a good look in the mirror this morning and inspected myself to make sure it was me and that I wasn't looking like a scary monster

Aaah well that's ok then.

Flummery · #23 (**permalink**) 29-08-2008, 11:23 AM

I was looking like a scary monster this morning - I totally forgot to brush my hair (not that it looks 'done' when I have!) Is this the beginning of the end? I'll be asking my husband who he is when he gets home.

Jardiniere · #24 (**permalink**) 29-08-2008, 10:27 PM

surely the feeding of kitchen scraps is only if you are going to sell the eggs or the chickens for meat...cant you do what you like in your own garden?
I'm going to cut down on the amount of lettuce and chard that i give my hens - the chard is almost finished as are the bolted lettuce. New salad stuff coming up but we weill eat that ...lettuce contains a soporific.......had some for tea zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz zzzzzzzzzzzzzz