Hey.... Lets keep Chickens..!

mardatha

Mine don't seem to eat veg much, just turnip greens, kale and weeds. Mine must be the only garden in Scotland that is a totally weed-free zone. How do you disguise veg so that hens eat it ? God I thought all this ended when my kids grew up LOL

Athome1

Mine absolutely adore worms, cabbage and curry!:p Not necessarily in that order either!:D

3v3

I've just had to clean some poohy bits off my white silkie's nether-regions and had the shock of my life. She's a pure, all over white feathered silkie but her skin colour is .... black! :rotfl:How could I have had her for a year and never known??? Actually, how could I have reached my age and not realised that chickens have different coloured skins? Feathers, obviously, but skins!

Oh well, she's now had a 'shampoo n set' and is sat on the nest as if it is a throne.

Makes me think though ... how come we never see "black" skinned chickens in the supermarket? And, if we did, would you buy one? Then again, what colour would the crispy skin be after being roasted, certainly not a crispy golden colour?

Gigervamp

Yep, silkies have black/blue skin and also 5 toes!
I read once that black skinned chickens were quite popular in days gone past, but they fell out of favour. I doubt if many people would want to eat a black skinned chicken now, except foodies maybe. There was a thread on Downsizer a while ago where someone had culled a surplus male silkie and cooked it. There were pics too. The poster said that there wasn't much meat on it though.

3v3

Gigervamp wrote: »

Yep, silkies have black/blue skin and also 5 toes!
I read once that black skinned chickens were quite popular in days gone past, but they fell out of favour. I doubt if many people would want to eat a black skinned chicken now, except foodies maybe. There was a thread on Downsizer a while ago where someone had culled a surplus male silkie and cooked it. There were pics too. The poster said that there wasn't much meat on it though.

I'll search for that thread, thank you

One of the guys at Uni said that black chickens (but he was referring to feathers - at least, I think he was?) are supposed to be very good for your health.

PS: actually, just googled it and, seems he might be right! Looks like I have a new health food fad in my flock http://www.emaxhealth.com/74/12982.html

So, that's the second thing I've learned today :beer:

ETA: another article and a picture of cooking a black skinned chicken! http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/17/dining/17blac.html

Gigervamp

Interesting article. Silkies, the new superfood!

ionahenor2

I think my girls may be a bit musical tonight. They had some leftover mushy peas.

I didn't know about black skinned chickens either. But there again I don't feel I know that much about chicken keeping as it seems to be a learning curve every day.

Glad to hear Hepzibah is a little better.

Mardatha how do you get your chickens to eat weeds. Mine like the seeds off buttercups and those sticky weeds which, through their pooh, have now spread everywhere.

3 favourite foods would be grapes, oats and slugs preferably the leopard ones. They are very picky about which worms they eat though.

Chickenopolis

3 favourite foods

(apart from anything on my dinner plate)

cheese, grapes and prawns. They dislike carrots, red earth worms and certain slugs.

westcoastscot

We're just getting back into chicken keeping here - used to have loads but we have a tiny garden here. We're having either pekins or silkies (I have the offer of a pair of pekins but cannot decide if I want a cockerel or not - the meat would be nice again though). Just waiting for the house to be finished.

Mardatha we used to make a mash of veggies for our chicks made from all the outside leaves, peelings etc, cooked up once/twice a week on an outside fire. They loved it!!! Also used to hang up some leaves for them to peck at, keep them busy

WCS

QueenieB

Re feeding (or chickens stealing!) food scraps- technically it's illegal to feed any sort of kitchen waste to hens. Either you can ignore that or take notice of it and follow the law, but either way you need to know. For most people it makes little difference unless they upset the neighbours, but for smallholders like me who get inspected by various clipboard-wielding busybodies it(ie getting caught!) can make a huge difference.