Chicken Treats

Chickens love your kitchen waste! Cucumber peels and seed, spinach stems and watermelon rinds resemble dinner at a 5-star restaurant to your feathered friends. Chickens that are permanently cooped really enjoy the extra roughage they would normally get while foraging. Make sure you take note to the chart at the bottom that lists foods to avoid. Do not rely on your chickens to know what not to eat. Let’s face it. If you threw a handful of BBs on the ground, they’d try to eat them! They really are turnip brains, very entertaining turnip brains, to be sure, but still turnip brains.

This list was culled from a variety of places including BackyardChickens.com, Storey's Guide to Raising Chickens by Gail Damerow and Homemade Living: Keeping Chickens by Ashley English. As I keep learning more, I’ll add to the list. I still don’t have anything conclusive about onions and garlic, so they’re not on the list. However, I did read about a man who sprinkles garlic powder on his chickens’ feed to stop the smell. Now his yard smells like a pizzeria. I wonder what his eggs taste like?!

Remember, these foods are treats and should not be a substitute for chicken feed. Chickens, especially laying chickens, need a significant amount of protein in their diet and unless your kitchen scraps include large amounts of meat and cheese, your chickens will still need access to prepared feed. 

Food	Preparation	Comments
Apples	Raw, sauced or cooked	Apple seeds contain cyanide but not enough to hurt your chickens. Applesauce and baked apples are also good treats, but stick to the unsweetened varieties.
Asparagus	Raw or cooked	Asparagus is safe as a chicken treat but not generally a favorite.
Bananas	No peel
Beans	Well-cooked ONLY	Never serve uncooked dry beans to your chickens!
Beets	Raw or cooked, and the greens, too!	Cut up beets for easier eating. The greens can be tossed out whole.
Berries	Raw	Chickens love all kinds of berries, especially strawberries. Do not forget to toss those strawberry tops to them, too, during strawberry jam making.
Breads	Cooked	This is a great way to use up leftover stale bread. Cut off moldy parts and don't overdue it! Too much starch leads to fat chickens and fat chickens don't lay many eggs and can have serious health problems.
Broccoli	Raw or cooked	Broccoli heads and leaves are particularly yummy to most chickens. When you're done harvesting the broccoli from the garden, toss the stem and all in the coop. you'll soon have a very clean stem for the compost pile.
Brussels Sprouts	Raw or cooked	Serve up the heads and leaves but forget the butter and salt!
Cabbage	Raw or cooked	Hanging a whole head in the coop gives the phrase "Playing with your food" a whole new meaning.
Carrots	Raw or cooked	Toss those carrot tops in, too!
Cat food	Wet or dry	Cat food helps chickens get through molting season easier, but use in moderation! A small handful every couple of days during molting only is plenty!
Cauliflower	Raw or cooked	See broccoli.
Cereal	Plain	Plain cereals only! Leave the sugared stuff at the store. You don’t need it and neither do your chickens!
Cheese	Cut up	Cheese, including cottage cheese, is a great source of calcium and protein, but feed in moderation.
Chicken	Cooked	I have a friend who shares her chicken nuggets with her hens. There's just something so wrong with that picture!
Corn	Raw, cooked, canned, frozen, or on the cob.	Watch the salt with the canned varieties and feed in moderation. Farmers feed chickens corn to fatten them up quickly. Fat chickens are not healthy chickens.
Crickets	Alive	Chickens love bugs! Pick up a few at the pet store and enjoy the show!
Cucumbers	Raw	Seeds, skin and flesh are edible.
Eggs	Cooked	Encouraging your chickens to eat raw eggs is a very, very bad idea. Once they get a taste, it's very difficult to keep them from eating the eggs in the coop. Stick to cooked eggs that don't look like eggs! Better yet, think of serving your chickens eggs in the same way you'd picture serving them the cooked chicken meat. It's just weird.
Fish/Seafood	Cooked	Commercial fish and seafood must be cooked and fed in moderation. If your chickens happen to steal a goldfish out of your pond, do not break out the grill. Let them have it and then invest in a little bird netting to cover the pond.
Flowers	Fresh and untreated	Watch out for pesticides on the flowers and check for toxic varieties like oleanders and poinsettias. If you grow toxic flowers in your garden, keep your chickens far away!
Grains	Raw or cooked	A handful of wheat berries and oat groats from your cooking stash is fine, but a bag of scratch grains has a bigger variety of grains and a smaller price tag. Cooked grains like oatmeal and cracked wheat are a welcome treat, especially in winter, but stay away from the sugar bowl!
Grapes	Raw and seedless	Stick to the seedless varieties to avoid toxin in the seeds. And just for fun, roll a grape down the driveway or down a ramp and see what your chickens do. I have a friend who calls that hobby Chicken Bowling.
Grits	Cooked	Only serve up cooked grits for your chickens and forget the butter and seasoning!
Leafy Greens	Raw or cooked	Lettuce, kale, spinach and other leafy greens are at the top of the list for my chickens. Fresh greens are best, and even a little wilted is okay, but throw away the greens that are turning to liquid in the compost pile.
Mealworms	Alive	Another treat for chickens that can't get to any bugs on their own. Check the pet store for a fresh supply.
Meat	Cooked	Meat scraps are good sources of protein, just watch the fat and always serve them cooked well done.
Melons	Raw	Seeds, flesh and rinds are great treats for your chickens. Watermelon rinds will even help keep them cool in the summer.
Oatmeal	Raw or cooked	When serving up cooked oatmeal, skip the sugar and spices. Plain is always better.
Pasta	Cooked	Pasta, especially spaghetti, is fun to serve to your chickens. There's not much nutrition here so serve in moderation.
Peas	Raw or cooked	Dried peas must be cooked first. Fresh, frozen or canned can be served up as is, just watch out for the salt! Leaves, hulls and tendrils from your exhausted pea plants are also good treats.
Pomegranates	Raw	The seeds are especially yummy.
Popcorn	Cooked	Serve up popcorn fully popped and without butter or salt. We love popcorn just a little too much in this house. Our girls will never see this treat!
Potatoes	Cooked	Potatoes and sweet potatoes must be cooked first, including the skins.
Pumpkins	Raw or cooked	Seeds, flesh and rinds are great treats for your chickens.
Rice	Cooked	Serve all rices cooked, but forget the salt, fats and seasonings and remember that white rice has little nutrition.
Sprouts	Raw or cooked	Toss your leftover sprouts that you won't use up soon enough out to your chickens. They'll love them!
Summer Squash	Raw or cooked	Yellow squash and zucchini are healthy treats for your chickens.
Sunflower Seeds	Raw	Shells on or off doesn't matter to your chickens, just skip the salted varieties.
Tomatoes	Raw or cooked	During tomato canning season, our girls feasted on a serious supply of tomato skins.
Turnips	Cooked	The turnips themselves might not be a huge favorite with your chickens, but the tops will be devoured quickly.
Yogurt	Plain	Stick to plain yogurt as an occasional calcium- and protein-rich snack. Mix in scratch grains in winter to help keep your chickens warm.

Foods to Avoid:

Food	Comments
Salt	Chickens have small bodies and a high metabolism. Even a little salt can become toxic quickly.
Citrus	Oranges, lemons, limes and grapefruit are highly toxic to chickens.
Dried beans	Dried or undercooked beans have chemicals in them that are toxic to chickens. Always cook beans thoroughly.
Raw potato peels	Raw potatoes, especially ones with green spots, contain a chemical that is toxic to chickens that disappears with cooking.
Avacado pits and peels	Toxic to chickens.
Raw eggs	Raw eggs will not hurt your chickens; however, letting your chickens eat raw eggs could start a very bad egg eating habit in your flock. Cooked eggs are perfectly fine.
Candy, Chocolate and Sugar	Keep these sweet treats away from your chickens.

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