chicken question

[FEEBZ1]

My hubby has just asked me to find out whether its okay to give chicken meat scraps (pork) as we always chuck out cooked up peelings he lovingly boils for them. Is meat a complete no no?
Cheers
Fee

[red]

personally - I wouldn't. My reasoning being that if the meat was fit for human consumption.. then we would eat it. if it was 'past it' then i would not want my chickens to have it either. (particularly given that I am going to eat their eggs)

on top of that, its against the law to give kitchen scraps to livestock, including chickens, in this country, and the rest of the EU.

DEFRA guide


so er ...those peelings are a no no too.

I am stunned how many times you come across the advice to give scraps to hens on websites, newspapers, blogs etc. Its not helpful to the new chicken owner.

Hope this helps

[FEEBZ1]

[quote="FEEBZ1"]My hubby has just asked me to find out whether its okay to give chicken meat scraps (pork) as we always chuck out cooked up peelings he lovingly boils for them. Is meat a complete no no?
Cheers
Fee[/quote]

Thank you, for your reply, we have had chickens for a few years now, (ex-battery hens) didnt know about the peelings!!
Fee

[Wotta Wally]

*chuckle*

There was a huge uproar about this on the Practical Poulty website when this declaration came out! Seems like madness but I think that the conclusion was that it really only applied to people if they were selling their eggs.

I have read elsewhere you shouldn't feed meat scraps to chickens but then elsewhere, it was being recommended that you feed them leftover cat food to give them a protein boost! Who's right?

[red]

*chuckle*

There was a huge uproar about this on the Practical Poulty website when this declaration came out! Seems like madness but I think that the conclusion was that it really only applied to people if they were selling their eggs.

I have read elsewhere you shouldn't feed meat scraps to chickens but then elsewhere, it was being recommended that you feed them leftover cat food to give them a protein boost! Who's right?

There is nothing in the guide about it being ok so long as you are not selling the eggs. The guide merely states that you cannot feed catering waste to farm animals, that catering waste includes food that arised in a domestic kitchen and that

'Farmed animals' includes any pet animals that belong to a farmed species, such as
pet pigs, goats and poultry.

So I believe it applies to all chickens, whether you collect eggs or not, and whether you sell eggs or not.
Frankly if you were selling or giving away eggs, it would seem even more risky to give them scraps.. all it would take would be for one person to be ill, even from something completely unrelated to your eggs, an investigation would start.. and all the neighbours would mention seeing you feeding scraps...

I bet there was an uproar when it came out on that forum WW - theres an uproar wherever it is mentioned, and always there are people saying defiantly that its a load of rubbish, and they are going to carry on anyway. and i wish they wouldn't... or at least be quiet about it.. cos I see it as only a matter of time before there is heavy paperwork just to keep a few hens if everyone keeps flouting the rules ..

obviously it would be nice if the government were strict with say.. a research lab handling F&M

as for giving them cat food? can't say I like the idea.. there is always layers pellets...

[farmerdrea]

Chickens are omnivourous. I am so glad they haven't done anything to the rules regarding what we can and cannot feed poultry in NZ!! I've been rearing poultry for over 20 years, and we have always fed kitchen scraps, including all kinds of meat. My birds are some of the healthiest you will ever see, and you should see them jump on the scraps! They are free rangers, and also go after live rats (we have a rat problem this summer) with gusto (I have one older hen who will wait outside the rat's hole and attack as the rat comes out!). Chickens: the original hunter/gatherers?

Andrea
NZ

[MsWildFlower]

Wow! Like you Andrea I'm glad that the rule of not feeding scraps doesn't apply here either. My girls get an icecream container full of kitchen scraps daily as well as a rationing of chicken pellets. I used to work with a lady who used to ask us to bring in kitchen scraps to give to her pigs!

I've just read the brochure and it makes sense I guess in regards to meat product scraps but why vegetable scraps as well?

[red]

well its overkill.. but the point is that if your potatoes might have been peeled in the same environment as ..lets say the knife that cut the sausage that had swine fever in it... then it gets outside.. bla bla bla

course.. if you peel your own veg outside.. with a special never-been-in-the-kitchen knife.. then you should be fine...
i too grew up giving hens kitchen scraps, but the rules have changed..

[MsWildFlower]

well its overkill.. but the point is that if your potatoes might have been peeled in the same environment as ..lets say the knife that cut the sausage that had swine fever in it... then it gets outside.. bla bla bla

course.. if you peel your own veg outside.. with a special never-been-in-the-kitchen knife.. then you should be fine...
i too grew up giving hens kitchen scraps, but the rules have changed..

So if you are a vegetarian it should be ok (I am)

[Jean]

But if your chickens roam around the garden (as mine are about to) and the compost heaps are also in the garden (as are mine) what do you do? Put up a "No entry to chickens" sign?
(I'm obviously talking peelings here, not meat)

There must be an artist here who could design this sign...?

[red]

But if your chickens roam around the garden (as mine are about to) and the compost heaps are also in the garden (as are mine) what do you do? Put up a "No entry to chickens" sign?
(I'm obviously talking peelings here, not meat)

There must be an artist here who could design this sign...?

this question has come up before, but I cant find the thread.. annoyingly..

as i remember it.. Ina said her neighbours animals were eating her compost heap.. and shirlz asked DEFRA or equiv about it.. they said you should keep the animals off or something.

I'm not defending the rule.. I'm pointing out this is the rule.

[FEEBZ1]

[quote="Jean"]But if your chickens roam around the garden (as mine are about to) and the compost heaps are also in the garden (as are mine) what do you do? Put up a "No entry to chickens" sign?
(I'm obviously talking peelings here, not meat)

There must be an artist here who could design this sign...?[/quote]

Brilliant!, yes it does seem daft doesnt it!!

[Annpan]

well its overkill.. but the point is that if your potatoes might have been peeled in the same environment as ..lets say the knife that cut the sausage that had swine fever in it... then it gets outside.. bla bla bla

course.. if you peel your own veg outside.. with a special never-been-in-the-kitchen knife.. then you should be fine...
i too grew up giving hens kitchen scraps, but the rules have changed..

So if you are a vegetarian it should be ok (I am)

No... the defra rules cover vegetarian kitchens too...

As Red says though... some of us can peel our veg outside, with a special 'never been in the kitchen' knife.

[FEEBZ1]

Yes, I think i will have to invest in a "knife never to be used in the kitchen"
and peel the veggies outside!
Fee

[Jean]

When we first arrived in France we were shown around a new yoghurt making unit on a farm very close to us. When I say shown around they had organised a viewing window because of course new rules meant noone could actually go in there (well, apart from the well covered, clean and scrubbed up yoghurt makers that is). She gave us all the info including the fact that the French were very strict about only allowing plastic utensils inside the unit.......which meant that it came as a shock when I pointed to a wooden spoon drying on the sink rack. To add to her total panic/shock/disarray (we might I suppose have been government spies!) she then went in and removed it...without the well covered/clean/scrubbed bit first!

My chickens are in my garden (or will be next week). My compost heap (four of them) are in my garden. QED