chickens & grass seed

[toniglitz]

Hi everyone, I have just adopted 6 ex battery hens, I have a bag of grass seed and I was wondering if I can feed the seeds to my chickens?
Regards tonglitz

[rustylady]

No, chickens need proper chicken food.

[chris]

You'll probably need to get ex-bat crumb too, rather than the pellet feed usually available - they'll have been fed on crumb whilst caged.

[elizajay]

Having scattered grass seed on the patches of lawn destroyed by the chooks. I constructed a careful net tent over the grass seed to protect it and the new grass and within minutes my Houdinis had burrowed into the tent and were scoffing the grass seed!

[Feral007]

They'll eat grass seed lol, mine eat anything that's not tied down! But they do need other feed as well. I feed mine a combined scratch mix and layer pellet.

The thing I've found is that my battie's eat a huuuuuuuuuuuuuuuge amount. They eat and eat and eat. Much more than the other chooks. It's like they can't stop. Mind you they are now sporting feathers and fluffy stuff and looking much more normal now.

[Norfolk drew]

Id be careful some seed is treated and could make your chooks ill id stick to layers pellets