Feeding chickens

[Starchild]

I'm not sure if this has been done before or not.

It is illegal to feed chickens kitchen scraps.
Yup it's true, no leftovers for the chooks, you'll be breaking the law. Same goes for any other animal or bird classed as "livestock". Geese, ducks, pigs, etc.

Not that this law is enforcable in backyard poultry but still!
If you call a vet to the chicken and the vet knows that it has been fed anything that has gone through your kitchen then they are duty bound to report it.

[mandyballantyne]

Ehhh,

Has the world gone mad What did they get before pellets were invented!

I can understand commercial flocks not getting scraps, but not our chooks.

Oh well off to secretly leave a few scraps about need to think of some way of hiding them in case I get reported

Mandy

[shirlthegirl43]

Stuff that for a load of nonsense. If my cooking is good enough for the family it is good enough for the chooks. Part of the reason we want to get hens is to recycle the table scraps (obviously meat aside). If that means the eggs will only be good for our consumption then so be it. Blowed if I will be told by any city suit what I can and cannot feed my children or chickens.

Rant over!

[Starchild]

(obviously meat aside). Rant over!

Chickens are actually omnivore and will eat meat, cannaballistic at times too.

But yup the rules are completely stupid.

Can livestock be fed waste foods not containing meat and fish which comes from premises where meat and fish are handled?
The Regulations prohibit the feeding of meat, fish and most other products of animal origin to ruminants, pigs or poultry. They also make it an offence to allow them to have access to such material. They also prohibit any catering waste being fed, whether processed or not. This also includes catering waste from vegetarian restaurants and kitchens.

If material such as vegetables, pastry, crisps or sweets is to be fed to livestock, it should originate from premises where no meat or most other products of animal origin are handled and may not come from any kitchen or restaurant. However, there are some circumstances where, providing premises e.g. bakers, supermarkets, crisps manufacturers, confectioners (but not from kitchens and restaurants) are able to demonstrate that they have Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points (HACCP) procedures 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, it may be acceptable for the material to originate on the same premises (but not from vegetarian catering facilities). In such cases, operators are advised to ensure that their local authority is content that their separation procedures are adequate.

And if you call DEFRA (or deafears as they are known here) they will say, yup it does include chickens in your backgarden.

Defra, UK - Animal health and welfare - Animal by-products - Catering waste & waste food of animal origin

[Hilary B]

Chickens are actually omnivore and will eat meat, cannaballistic at times too.

But yup the rules are completely stupid.



And if you call DEFRA (or deafears as they are known here) they will say, yup it does include chickens in your backgarden.

Defra, UK - Animal health and welfare - Animal by-products - Catering waste & waste food of animal origin

How utterly ludicrous! When we kept chickens (not recently) they got the scraps the dogs couldn't be given.
I really don't know what their idea of logic is in respect of this (and in particular not allowing scraps from vegetarian restaurants). They talk about recycling, and then won't allow us to do it!
Places where refuse collection includes 'compostables' won't allow ANYthing that has been in a kitchen, even the leaves or stem trimmed off your homegrown cabbages (if you could prove you did the trimming before bringing the trimmed cabbage into the kitchen, would they accept that???) We compost our veggie trimmings anyway, in our own garden.

[Starchild]

it's something to do with foot and mouth (which chickens can't get) Bird Flu (which does not come form animals or veggies) and BSE (which is moo cows!) and "animal DNA ingestion and transferance" i.e. not supposed to feed species DNA to pigs or chickens. Stupid or what. Cross contamination and all that. I think they may be taking it a little extreme as most pigs are fed on pudding mix, which are dairy products. Which is obviously animal produced!

[Claire72]

I don't feed my kitchen scraps to the chickens, I feed them to the wild birds which visit the front garden. Unfortunately, the chickens have a tendency to steal food from the wild birds

[MaureenHall]

Today I cooked some potatoes and peas "for the chickens", and the "leftovers" I used as a side dish and a topping on my cottage pie. Tomorrow I might cook them some spaghetti, and have the leftovers myself in a spag bol. This is just bureaucracy gone stupid!

[frias]

Claire72 and MaureenHall I love your replies! The deeds of my house say I can't keep chickens so feeding scraps is the least of my worries. However I will now feed the wild birds with fresh cooked food and eat leftovers myself too.

[lozza_9]

If my chickens could read they would have a fit :-)

They love the scraps I give them, just been watching them fight over a tom and the lucky chicken had to hide behide the straw bale to eat it in peace :-)

Loz

[kirsty b]

Had enormous fun yesterday watching mine belting around all over the place trying to eat spaghetti. Wouldn't like to deprive them of that.
I'll have to try it you way Maureen, cook them the meal and eat the leftovers instead!! Great idea, wouldn't like to get on the wrong side of the law!!

[di]

i'm with Maureen too!!i'm the only one in house that likes porridge so only ever cooked it if was gonna share with the chooks;guess i need to start cooking for the chooks & hope they dont eat it all!!just hope i dont drop the leftover mash & beans anywhere near the chooks 2moro on my way 2 the compost bin!:

[recyclerpaul]

I put all my kitchen waste (excluding meats of course ) In my large compost bin which has a huge colony of wood lice which the chickens adore to eat. so scraps to compost to wood lice to chickens no law broken end result happy chickens and tasty eggs with the compost nicely sifted by chicken feet!

[chris]

Bit of an old thread you replied to there recyclerpaul, but welcome to the forum all the same

[Newtothis]

The old threads have life in them yet!!