Chickens can eat almost anything that you serve on your family’s table. By sharing your table scraps, you reduce the amount of waste headed for the landfill and you provide a more nutritious and varied diet for your flock. Feeding your flock table scraps also reduces the amount of store-bought feed they need, which is a nice cost savings.

In general, vegetable and meat trimmings you have from your meal preparation may be saved for feeding. Often before your family sits down to eat, you have already collected carrot tops, wilted lettuce leaves and a few fatty pieces of cooked meat you trimmed off your roast. You may also collect scraps from your family’s plates after your meal is complete for the same purpose. It helps to have a small dish next to the sink to collect this food for your flock.

We suggest putting table scraps in galvanized or plastic feeding bins, which are easy to clean after each feeding. Do not put table scraps into a closed feeder, because they will get clogged and are much more difficult to clean.

While most of the food you eat is also okay for your flock, there are some items you should avoid sharing because they may make your chickens sick. Avoid feeding the following items to your chickens:

• Do not feed chickens spoiled, rotten or moldy food
• Do not feed chickens pungent foods like onions or garlic whose flavors transfer to eggs or meat
• Do not feed chickens raw chicken meat or skin, which can lead to picking or cannibalism
• Do not feed chickens any food that contains avocados because their skins are toxic to chickens
• Do not feed chickens un-cooked potato peels, because they are difficult to digest
• Do not feed chickens heavily salted foods which can lead to dehydration
• Do not feed chickens overly fatty or fried foods because they offer few nutrients
• Do not feed chickens artificial sweeteners, which are thought to cause cancer
• Do not feed chickens alcohol or caffeine

In general, if you stick to fresh food and follow the guidelines above, your chickens will love the variety of good eats you are offering them.

The best way to serve table scraps to your flock is with a reel feeder. You do not want to put table scraps in other types of ground feeders or in hanging feeders because food will inevitably get stuck and spoil. Reel feeders offer several specific benefits when feeding table scraps to your flock: Spinning reel mechanism discourages roosting on top of the feeder Open top design allows you to add foods of all shapes and sizes Design allows easy cleaning Come in 18″ or 24″ lengths

Reel Top Feeders