Chicken Scraps

I am new to having chickens. Mine are only 4 weeks old, but seem to be getting larger and larger by the day. Between them and my human sons, I am afraid they will eat me out of my home. The rock band (my 4 chickens) eat what seems to be a lot of chicken feed. I use Manna Pro® Medicated Complete Crumbles for Chicks purchased it here at www.EggCartons.com. I give them one cup twice a day, and it's gone within seconds of feeding time. 

I have been bringing them outside 3-4 times a week for 
field trips to the garden. I found that they love pincher bugs, (Earwigs).  (EW!) So, I open up the garden, lift up some wood and the chickens go crazy. They get so excited to catch the creepy, crawling insects. Henry-Rollins pulled a Karate Kid move the other day and caught a fly right of the sky with his beak. These birds are terribly funny to watch. After they started going after the bugs, I asked, what can "teenage chicks" eat other than chicken food? Turns out, a few things. And when they get older, they will eat almost anything! I did some research and found somethings that are good to feed them, and some not advisable. Please share your insight and chicken dining recipes here on our blog! 




Enjoy! ツ

Hen-dy, Creative Department

Good to eat:

Treat	Type	General Opinions
Apples	Raw and applesauce	Apple seeds contain cyanide, but not in sufficient quantities to kill.
Asparagus	Raw or cooked	Okay to feed, but not a favorite.
Bananas	Without the peel	High in potassium, a good treat.
Beans	Well-cooked only, never dry	Also, greenbeans.
Beets	Greens also
Berries	All kinds	A treat, especially strawberries.
Breads	All kinds - good use for stale bread or rolls	Feed starches in moderation.
Broccoli & Cauliflower	Put in hen treat ball	Tuck into a hen treat ball and they  will pick at it all day.
Cabbage & Brussels Sprouts	Whole head -	Hang a whole cabbage from their coop  ceiling in winter so they have something to play with and greens to eat.
Carrots	Raw and cooked	They like carrot foliage too.
Cereal	Cheerios, etc	Avoid highly sugared cereal
Cheese	Including cottage cheese	Feed in moderation, fatty but a good source of protein and calcium
Corn	On cob and canned, raw and cooked	.
Crickets (alive)	Can be bought at bait or pet-supply stores	Great treat – provides protein and it’s fun to watch the chickens catch them.
Cucumbers		Let mature for yummy seeds and flesh.
Eggplant	They prefer cooked
Flowers	Make sure they haven't been treated with pesticides, such as florist flowers might be	Marigolds, nasturtiums, pansies, etc.
Fruit	Pears, peaches, cherries, apples
Grains	Bulgar, flax, niger, wheatberries,etc	.
Grapes	Seedless only For chicks, cutting them in half makes it easier for them to swallow	Great fun - the cause of many entertaining "chicken keepaway" games.
Grits	Cooked
"Leftovers"	Only feed your chickens that which is still considered edible by humans, don't feed anything spoiled, moldy, oily, salty or unidentifiable
Lettuce / Kale	Any leafy greens, spinach collards, chickweed included	A big treat, depending on how much other greenery they have access to.
Mealworms	Available at pet supply stores or on the internet.	Favorite treat, probably the most foolproof treat on the books.
Melon	Cantelope, etc	Both seeds and flesh are good chicken treats.
Oatmeal	Raw or cooked	Cooked is nutritionally better.
Pasta / Macaroni	Cooked spaghetti, etc	A favorite treat, fun to watch them eat it, but not much nutrition.
Peas	Peas and pea tendrils and flowers
Peppers (bell)	Raw or cooked	Positive feedback on these.
Pomegranates	Raw	Seeds are a big treat.
Popcorn	Popped, no butter, no salt
Potatos / Sweet Potatos/Yams	Cooked only - avoid green parts of peels!	Starchy, not much nutrition
Pumpkins / Winter Squash	Raw or cooked	Both seeds and flesh are a nutritious treat.
Raisins	Right out of the box or in breads
Rice	Cooked only	Pilaf mixes are okay too, plain white rice has little nutrition.
Scratch	Scratch is cracked corn with grains (such as wheat, oats and rye) mixed in	Scratch is a treat for cold weather, not a complete feed. Toss it on the ground and let them scratch for it for something to do.
Sprouts	Wheat and oat sprouts are great	Good for greens in mid-winter.
Summer Squash	Yellow squash and zucchini	Yellow squash not a huge favorite, but okay to feed.
Sunflower Seeds	Sunflower seeds with the shell still on is fine to feed, as well as with the shell off	A good treat, helps hens lay eggs and grow healthy feathers.
Tomatos	Raw and cooked.
Turnips	Cooked	Not a huge favorite
Watermelon	Served cold, it can keep chickens cool and hydrated during hot summers	Seeds and flesh are both okay to feed.
Yogurt	Plain or flavored	A big favorite and good for their digestive systems. Plain is better.

Not good to eat:

Raw green potato peels	Toxic substance called Solanine.
Anything real salty	Can cause salt poisoning in small bodies such as chickens.
Citrus
Dried or undercooked Beans	Raw, or dry beans, contain a poison called hemaglutin which is toxic to birds.
Avocado Skin and Pit	Skin and pit have low levels of toxicity.
Raw eggs	You don’t want to introduce your chickens to the tastiness of eggs which may be waiting to be collected in the nestboxes.
Candy, Chocolate, Sugar	Their teeth will rot… No, it’s just bad for their systems, and chocolate can be poisonous to most pets.

Egg-Cellent uses for egg cartons and trays

Here are some great uses for egg cartons and trays!

Please share your unique uses for our egg trays and cartons! email@eggcartons.com. 

So, it's EggCartons.com. Paul (Owner) and his wife Pauline have chickens. Sherry (office managing extraordinaire) also has chickens....

I knew it was only a matter of time before I would be a proud chicken mother also.

I am human mother, with human children, and all out just plain old animal lover to no end. (Actually, the chickens would be the end, no more pets after these little ladies) So, we carefully incubated them in our CA-115 Incubator in the office. 22 days later, Hen-ry Rollins arrived, my first baby was born! I rushed my little boys (humans) into the office to meet with Sherry to show them our newest addition. The kids were oohing, ahhhing, cuddling, and loving Henry. Pat Hen-a-tar was next. While Henry was drying off, Pat was exhausted from hatching. It was truly an amazing experience from the beginning. We had 13 eggs hatch and 12 of them made it. I took 4 home to brood, and Sherry has the rest she will be brooding until it's time for them to go to their forever home...

I have to say, I have given birth to actual human children, and it was the hardest thing I have ever done. Watching the eggs, day in and day out, anxiously waiting, candling, talking to them, and hearing those first peeps was just overwhelming sense of happiness. My chickens are named Hen-ry Rollins, Pat Hen-a-tar, Stevie Chicks and Glenn D. Henn. They are all adjusting, and had their first time out my yard over the weekend. What a joy to have!  I highly recommend hatching your eggs in the CA-115 incubator with The Basic Hatching Package by Fall Harvest Products includes a Circulated Air Incubator, #FHP-CA115 & an Egg Turner, # FHP-ET115. If this is your first time hatching eggs this package is exactly what you need to get started. Ours was done with great success!

Enjoy! ツ

Hen-dy, Creative Department

Incubating the office eggs

Candling the eggs

Peep! Here I am!

Hi, I am Henry!

I am handsome all dried off!

Pat Hen-a-tar likes to stand on the food and drinks....

Rubber Chicken Summer Fun!

Name that Chicken!

Casper's look a like

I remember my mother and I stopping every Sunday to feed apples and carrots to a horse that lived on a farm just down the road from our house. My mother absolutely adored this beast! For a 6 year old, this horse seemed massive and very intimidating; all white, with one blue eye that was almost clear and one brown eye.  I was terrified to go near her at first and I think she knew it. She huffed and stomped her hooves when we came by. My mom explained to me that the horse could smell the fear I had inside me and when I was not afraid any longer, that the horse would most likely approach me gently to take the apple right out of my hand. She suggested we come up with the name for this horse, so she chose "Casper". (Even though she probably had a very nice name, her owner wasn't ever around when we walked by to ask what it was). I was Wendy, and this was Casper, my scary ghost-horse-friend. The weeks went on and after some time, Casper started coming to meet us at the fence before we even got close. She'd stand there and wait patiently, either for her treats or the company, I am sure a little of both. I finally got up the courage to put my hand up to her face and offer her a carrot… Then I saw the horse teeth! I screeched, dropped the carrot and she just huffed, no stomping of the hooves —I imagine her saying "Come on kid, we've come so far!" My mom chuckled, picked up the carrot and gently raised her hand to pat Casper's nose and offer the treat. Casper happily took the food without incident.
The next week, my brother Thomas came with us for our walk. He is 13 years older than me and loves having a kid sister. He took me up on his shoulders and we were on our way. As we approached Casper, I realized I was almost as tall as her being up on his shoulders. Tom asked if I was scared and wanted to get down. I proudly said "Nope"! There she was, this large, white, beautiful and not scary at all ghost-horse-friend. I noticed she had the most beautiful and longest eyelashes I had ever seen. Immediately, staring straight at her, I was calm as could be. My brother handed me an apple to feed her and I put it right to her mouth without hesitation. She carefully took it with with her giant teeth, pulled back and dropped it inside the fence. From there, she picked it up and chomped it down. My mother and brother were so proud of me, and I was too. Casper taught me that once I gave her a name, I had an immediate connection to her that grew over time.  

The lesson Casper taught me has stuck with me over the years. Although I feel it doesn't always have to be the typical, one word boring name. I feel that giving your pets fun names, gives them their own personality. I had cats growing up and remember all their names. Emily, Sam and Mittens when I lived at home. Then I flew the coop and found Sylvester, a very handsome tuxedo cat who hunted mice like a lion hunts zebra. Leo-nardio DeCatrio came next, a prissy, well groomed, fussy little orange tabby. Sylvester was attacked by something in our woods and sadly passed. During that time, we got a bullmastiff and named him Murphy-Doodle. 2 Years later I found a kitty that looked just like Sylvester! I took him home and named him Jackson Wobbleknockers. Next up, Andrew Fluffypants, a lionhead bunny that suffers from male pattern baldness. Why do I name my pets such silly/fun/outlandish names? I am in the creative field, things just fly out of my head, land where they land, and that's perfectly OK. At least my children have sound names. Robbie (after his father) and Owen (O-Wen) part of my name. 

Jackson, Leo, Murphy, Andrew and ??? Glenn D. Henn? No, its Sherry's chicken, Mary Poppins. We got along like *this*!

This little love almost came home with me from a chicken class, he was an orphan!
He's so fluffy!

Needless to say, I love animals like my mother had, and take very good care of my fluffy ones. What would make sense to get next, seeing that I work at www.EggCartons.com? Chickens, yes, chickens. Everyone I have spoken to that has these little cluckers says they wouldn't change a thing! There are so many benefits to having and keeping chickens. At this point, I need to do some fixing up to my own home before I can add anymore animals/pets to my own personal Wild Kingdom. I will be doing heavy preparations for when my chickens hatch out of their little shells in the incubator, (Which is 10% OFF until April 30th, 2012, use code MARCHIX) here in the office, and can't wait to meet those babies! I take of my animals as if I would my own children, and plan on loving my chickens just as much! Part of my preparation is coming up with some very creative, random celebrity chicken names. Here are some my friend and a freelance illustrator for eggcartons.com Sara Sullivan have come up with. Please feel to share your ideas/names or let us know which is your favorite of our list! 

Enjoy! ツ
Hen-dy Thibodeau, Creative Department

Lettuce Grow... with Goose Cartons?

Lettuce Grow


The end of the dreadful, long, cold New England winter is nearby—my favorite time of the year besides a hot summer night. It's completely acceptable to start thinking about planting seeds for your summer crops. The stores have started putting their winter gear away and whipping out the big guns, SEEDS. One of my favorite things to do is get dirty in the garden. Digging up soil, laying in my seedlings on a warm day with my little boys giggling in the background is just heavenly.

  

FHPBL-6G only $19.95 for a pack of 25. 

I took the boys on our seeding adventure last night. We decided we wanted to try cherry tomatoes, regular tomatoes, lettuce, peas, beans, and eggplant. Last year our tomato plants we started from seeds grew taller than my 5'1 tall self. I dumped my coffee grounds in everyday with the tomatoes, they seemed to soak up the acid and produced a sweet/tangy taste. We also planted broccoli, squash, and beans, which did great too considering we have sandy soil here.  We started our seeds last year in paper cartons… which can get messy. This year, I have been exposed to an array of so many egg cartons working at EggCartons.com, I decided the goose egg cartons are clear (great for plants to be in the sun and keeping them warm) and large enough to let the seedlings grow a little more before planting them in the ground.



Started out by purchasing our egg cartons. We went with FHPBL-6G only $19.95 for a pack of 25. You can use them over and over again, it's a really a great buy. They are clear and actually very pretty. You can also write on the top which seeds you are planting with a dry erase marker and then wipe it off when you take them out… Or stick your own label on one! We planted our lettuce seeds first, they are a more hardy plant and can be planted in the ground before summer really arrives. We have never done lettuce before, so we'll see what happens.

Lettuce Seeds, available at any garden store.

We placed our soil inside each cup filled almost to the top. Then watered the cups and placed our lettuce seeds 1/2" down. Clicked the carton shut and placed them in the window to get some sun… (When it finally decides to peek out of the sky!) In 7-10 days hopefully we will see our seedlings blossom. They will then continue in the carton until they are too large, about 6-8 weeks. If the ground is not frozen we will then transplant them in the earth. Otherwise, they will move to a larger pot until the time is right. 


Enjoy your seedlings with Goose Egg Cartons!


—Wendy T., Creative Dept.

Happiness!