The Accidental Smallholder Forum

Livestock => Poultry & Waterfowl => Topic started by: harry on November 09, 2009, 04:10:39 pm

Title: apples and carrots
Post by: harry on November 09, 2009, 04:10:39 pm
i got a sack of apples and a sack of carrots at  the roadside £1.60 a sack for my penned hens as the grass is a bit scarce, i put them in a large adjustable feeder and adjusted it so the apples would roll down.  firstly i chucked a few on the ground and they went for the apples 100% but not interested in the carrots yet, nothing left of the 6 apples i put on the ground after 2 hours. good source of veg matter this time of year, if you havent got a feeder you can hang the net sack up out of range of rats. will try a sack of cabbage when i go to the auction this week. i previously cut a pumpkin and a marrow in half a couple of weeks ago they loved that as well, they are cheap now if you buy 20 pumpkins, about 50p each, planning to grow them next year. theres lots of veg about cheap for horses etc at the moment, hang them in a net just in reach, keeps them busy.
Title: Re: apples and carrots
Post by: little blue on November 09, 2009, 08:40:50 pm
Our chooks won't eat carrot in any shape or form
If pumpkin lands orange side up, they're not keen on that either - must be an aversion to the colour!
Title: Re: apples and carrots
Post by: doganjo on November 09, 2009, 11:25:55 pm
Mine won't eat carrot either - except if it's grated!
Title: Re: apples and carrots
Post by: harry on November 12, 2009, 05:12:49 pm
i got 2 boxes of cabbages at the auction thats 24 for £4... tied them up for pecking, nothing touched them, so i cut them in half and they went for them, chickens and geese stripped them. HOW QUEER
Title: Re: apples and carrots
Post by: doganjo on November 12, 2009, 07:35:06 pm
I turfed in a cabbage, some green leaf salad, and some crispy leaf salad yesterday.  There's half a cabbage left and ALL of the green leaf - very weird!
Title: Re: apples and carrots
Post by: little blue on November 12, 2009, 07:37:36 pm
Perhaps they think leafy salad is out of season now?!
Title: Re: apples and carrots
Post by: JulieS on November 12, 2009, 07:38:29 pm
Mine love fruit, but anything vegetable or salad looking they prefer cooked. 
Title: Re: apples and carrots
Post by: ellisr on November 12, 2009, 07:59:42 pm
I give mine all the leafy bits that comes from the veg garden and they love them, the geese like to follow me when I'm weeding and polish off all the weeds I pull out. My chickens will eat all veg but they do like the carrots julienne'd (posh chooks) but I don't mind as I have a machine I pop them through and it is quick and easy.
I found that beetroot colours the yolks in the eggs so couldn't sell my eggs for a while but they did make pretty cakes :D
Title: Re: apples and carrots
Post by: shrekfeet on November 17, 2009, 12:02:27 pm
I grow perpetual spinach - basically a beet which you harvest to leaf of. They grow all winter and the chickens love the leaves. I just cut off all the big leaves for the chicks and keep the smaller stuff for myself
Title: Re: apples and carrots
Post by: harry on November 25, 2009, 04:08:15 pm
well the cabbages have been hanging up from fenceing wire now for 3 weeks, the hens have finally got the idea and are pecking them to bits, so will hang more though the winter
Title: Re: apples and carrots
Post by: r+lchick on November 26, 2009, 08:50:05 am
Hate to admit it but I buy brocolli especially for my chooks and hang it up so they don't get bored.  What we do for our animals.  Ros  :cat: :chook:
Title: Re: apples and carrots
Post by: doganjo on November 26, 2009, 08:45:27 pm
So do I!  I am often seen hovering round the nearly out of date veg rack.  :-[   I'm sure folk must think I'm destitute
Title: Re: apples and carrots
Post by: little blue on November 27, 2009, 07:52:58 pm
Me too!
I told the girl on the checkout i had animals  the other day (With as basket overflowing with cheap bananas) she said.. "what monkeys?!"
Never occured to me, I was just thinking how much the pigs and goats would enjoy them...
Title: Re: apples and carrots
Post by: harry on November 28, 2009, 09:52:05 pm
the auction i go to a large box of fyfes  bannanas are £2, 12 large cabbages £1.50  big sack of apples £1.50 must help with the eggs this time of year with little green growing.
Title: Re: apples and carrots
Post by: doganjo on November 28, 2009, 10:17:53 pm
My boys and girls usually get a bag of veg bits and bobs from my friend a few streets away, but they had a treat today as my daughter's neighbour has an apple tree that has dropped some fruit over onto her side of the wall.  They're too bruised for hoomans to eat so the chooks and dooks got them. ;)