When we have friends and family over to our house they love to spend time with the chickens, watching their antics, and most of all, feeding them. We frequently get asked the question, “What can chickens eat?” and the answers might surprise you!
There are lots of things that chickens enjoy eating, from the kitchen, from the garden, and from the earth. We’ve put together a list of our 100 favorite things chickens can eat so you can treat your ladies the right way! Many of these are great free chicken feed ideas! Perfect for cutting costs and saving on your feed bill!
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What Can Chickens Eat? 100 Things to Fill Those Beaks!
Chicken Feed and Supplements
We’ll start with the obvious, what can chickens eat? Chicken feed of course! This is a staple in most hens’ diets, and supplements and treats are just an added bonus.
Our favorites from this list are the Flock Block and sprouted bales of straw because they give the chickens days of entertainment while supplying them with a nutritious snack!
Feed and Supplements:
- Chicken Feed
- Oyster Shell
- Chicken Scratch
- Flock Block
- Treats for Chickens
- Poultry Grit
- Sprouted Bales of Straw
- Commercial Bird Feed (Tossed on the ground as a treat, not a meal)
- Sprouted grains / Fodder (Learn how to grow it here!)
Check out more of our favorite chicken treats!
Bugs
There’s no denying it, one of the the best things you can feed to chickens is bugs! When chickens free range they catch all sorts of insects. This wonderful aspect of chicken keeping can even cut down on nasty insects such as fleas and ticks that naturally roam your yard. If your flock doesn’t free range, you might want to consider catching or buying some of these bugs for your flock!
Bugs That Chickens Love to Eat:
- Ants
- Beetles
- Caterpillars
- Centipedes
- Cockroaches
- Crickets
- Grasshoppers
- Grubs
- Junebugs
- Mealworms
- Moths
- Slugs
- Termites
- Ticks
Note: Due to the fact that we strongly recommend using this fly trap in the chicken coop, we frequently get asked if chickens can eat flies. The short answer is that they shouldn’t. This article from Hobby Farms will give you the reasons why!
Weeds and Flowers
One of the most satisfying things to feed your chickens is the weeds that pop up in your yard and garden! This not only gets rid of weeds, but feeds your chickens at the same time. Feeding weeds to your chickens is a great way to feed chickens for free, but to find even more check our our post: 5 Ways to Feed Chickens for Free
Chickens Adore Eating These Weeds:
- Bee Balm
- Chickweed
- Clover
- Dandelion
- Grass Clippings
- Lambsquarters
- Marigold
- Mugwort
- Nettles
- Oxalis
- Plantain
- Purslane
- Wild Violet
Check out some other perennials you may be able to grow for chickens to eat!
From the Kitchen
Food waste from the kitchen is an unfortunate fact of life, but it doesn’t have to be a problem when you have chickens! Place a small container on your kitchen counter titled ‘for the chickens’ and put all your kitchen scraps in there. Your birds will be thrilled to receive everything that you don’t want!
While chickens make good composters of unwanted food, make sure you never give them any food that is moldy or rotten, as it can make them sick. Food that’s a little mushy or unappetizing to people is fine, but food that’s gone bad is not. Many of these foods should be fed sparingly, such as bread and pasta. To find out what other chicken treats should be fed minimally to your birds, check out our post: What Not to Feed Chickens
What Can Chickens Eat from the Kitchen:
- Beef
- Bread (in moderation, whole grain is best)
- Bulgar Wheat and Wheat Berries
- Cereal (sugar free)
- Cheese of all sorts
- Cooked Rice
- Cooked Pasta
- Cooked Eggs
- Cottage Cheese
- Crushed Eggshells
- Fish
- Grits
- Milk (even sour milk!)
- Most Nuts (unsalted, crushed are easier to eat) No Acorns!
- Oats and Oatmeal
- Pork
- Poultry
- Quinoa
- Seafood
- Seeds (unsalted)
- Sprouts
- Popped Popcorn (no salt or butter)
- Whey
- Yogurt (steer clear of yogurt with added sugar)
Animals
This section might give you the willies, and that’s understandable, but we want to be as comprehensive as possible with this list. The reality is, chickens are omnivores and naturally hunt small animals. When let out to free range, your chickens will find these critters all on their own, and they’re a tasty, nutritious snack.
One thing to keep in mind in regards to rodents… if the mice or rats that your chickens catch have been poisoned, your chickens will be poisoned as well by eating them. We suggest refraining from using poison to get rid of rodents, and we even have a whole post all about alternative methods to keep your coop pest free!
Here are Some Animals Chickens Love to Chow Down:
- Feeder Fish
- Frogs
- Lizards
- Mice
From the Garden
If you have a vegetable or herb garden, or even an orchard, your chickens can reap the benefits! Now, we’re not suggesting that you grow a garden just for your chickens (although you can!) but feeding garden scraps to your chickens will not only be much appreciated, it’s super healthy for your birds as well!
What Can Chickens Eat From the Garden:
- Apples (seeds removed)
- Bananas
- Basil
- Beets and Beet Greens
- Blackberries
- Blueberries
- Broccoli
- Brussels Sprouts
- Cabbage
- Carrots and Carrot Tops
- Cauliflower
- Cherries
- Chili Peppers
- Cilantro
- Collard Greens
- Corn and Corncobs
- Cucumbers
- Eggplant
- Garlic
- Grapes (frozen or fresh)
- Kale
- Lettuce and other greens
- Melon
- Oregano
- Parsley
- Peaches
- Pears
- Peas
- Peppers
- Pomegranate
- Pumpkins and Pumpkin Seeds
- Raspberries
- Squash
- Sunflower seeds
- Strawberries – including the hull
- Sweet Potatoes
- Thyme
- Tomatoes
- Turnips (cooked)
- Zucchini
As you can see, the list of foods that chickens can eat is pretty epic! Most chickens are not picky eaters and will be thrilled if you offer them anything on this list.
Although these omnivorous birds can eat the vast majority of the foods that we eat, there are some definite foods that chickens shouldn’t eat. To find out what they are, make sure you read our post: What NOT to Feed Chickens.
Pheonah says
I love š and this information is great. I do free range system
annie says
thank you so much for compiling this information. i’m makeing a one-page poster out of it for my kids (bio, grand, & foster) to help them know what can and can’t be fed to the girls. The girls semi-free range in a 1/3 acre yard due to predators.
Shirley Rose says
Love learning ways to spoil my lovely black stars. Chicken watching beats tv any day!
Cheryl says
Thank you so for all your information about chicken and what to feed them . I love learning about my chickens and giving the girls new treats.
Jeana says
You must not live in the south because cicadas didnāt make your list of bugs. Those are my girls favorite treat!
Jessica says
Thereās several things that you recommend giving to chickens that are just wrong! Including beef, milk, cooked eggs and raisins to name a few. Raisins are toxic. Chickens should not be seen as trash compactors. In fact their crop can get infected and they can die from too much of many of the āfrom the kitchenā items you list. Plus listing animals is another recipe for chicken illness. I did, however, like your list of weeds. Just let chickens forage naturally and donāt load them up on people food. They just need feed, scratch and natural foraging.
Jenna says
These tips are great for my free ranging chickens. I want to spoil them with great treats like these but don’t want them to get sick. Thanks for the great info.
Andi says
Great article! Thank you for sharing āŗļø