What to feed chooks

[mememe72]

I have been left the task of looking after the school hens this week we have been left pellets and some meal worms as they love them and was told to feed them scraps the question I have is if i give them veg does it have to be cooked as the local shop said they will save me the reduced bagged veg they have so I dont have to spend so much. 
Any help greatfully received

[mememe72]

[manicscousers]

we cook all the veggie peelings, carrots, spuds etc, the lettuce and cabbage leaves go in as they are  ;D
lucky you, I've been buying all the reduced stuff for us, it'll be cheaper when the weeds grow and the slugs 'n' snails come out of hiding  ;D

[Philbasford]

Hows its going look after the girls?, yes the love meal worms, hope ur enjoying it :)ps just make sure they always have lots of water

[mememe72]

Well have been doing ok i think so far this week i have collected 20 or so eggs (never made so many cakes!!!)  They love the meal worms and have been feeding them on pasta, carrots, cabbage, cauliflower, sweetcorn, spring onions, weeds from garden and there food pellets and corn they seem to have enjoyed it all as there has been nothing left when i got up the next day. ;D

[Philbasford]

Am glad you have enjoyed it:). they sound like well fed lucky girls

[manicscousers]

just watch with the onions, I've been told it makes the eggs taste oniony  ;D

[Vortex]

Apparently they also need roughage - I was talking to a lady the other day who keeps hens, she provides the roughage by crushing the old eggshells and scattering them back around the hen coop for them to pick up as they need them.

Just as an aside do chickens eat slugs and snails. We watched the "Future Faming" prog on BBC2 last night and the 'permaculture' farm uses ducks to control their slug problem. We've considered keeping chickens but are away quite a lot. We're possibly considering ducks as they travel better. Anyone care to comment?

[manicscousers]

our ex batts would eat you if you laid down long enough  ;D
when we got them last year, one of the joys was throwing all the slugs and snails in , they fought over them  ;D
don't want to gross you out but you have to crush the snail shells  :-X

[dingerbell]

For a real giggle I sometimes pop some cooked spaghetti into the chooks cooked peelings and mash. It' hilarious watching them go crazy for the giant worms....chooks are so entertaining!! I actually have a couple of neighbours who regularly stand by the run for "chicken therapy"....and I get eggs too ;D

[manicscousers]

a few of ours today, every time we go near, they think they're getting something  ;D

[slyfox-mal]

hi id would be carefull putting broken eggs shells back in with the hens as they may get into the habit of eating eggs and once this starts its hard to stop  feed them proper poultry grit this is made from broken up oyster shells and sucklike all the best mal