- Daddy's here.
Daddy's here, and he is here to feed you some treats
that you actually can eat.
(country music)
So in this series of "Kevin's Chill Chicken Care",
we've talked about how to get started with them,
what breeds are good, and today we're gonna talk
about why you may not want to toss all
of your food scraps to your hens.
Whether it be because of a toxicity reason
or just because you don't necessarily want
to give them that much.
They're great, they're amazing,
their poop is a fantastic fertilizer
but you do have
to make sure you balance their diet out.
So we're gonna go over some things
that you really should avoid feeding
these beautiful hens.
The first off is a plant family
and that would be the nightshade family.
So that means your tomatoes, your potatoes,
and your eggplants, all of those, even for humans
can contain solanine like a green potato.
What's happening when you have
that green potato is...
Oh love!
She's doing a little skateboard trick.
What's happening when a potato turns green,
it's not actually the solanine
that's turning the potato green,
it is the chlorophyll, it is photosynthesizing.
So the actual tuber's turning green
but simultaneously solanine content is rising
in that potato.
And this can happen with your eggplants
and your tomatoes, et cetera.
And that can really mess
with the chicken's digestive system,
their nervous system, all of that kind of stuff.
So you could in theory, give them like some sort
of cooked potato, tomato, eggplant,
but it's sort of just like why?
There's not a great reason for it.
I think I'd rather just toss that in the compost.
So I avoid giving them any sort of tomato leaves,
potato leaves, potatoes and eggplants.
The next crop to avoid is one
that I actually don't have on the property,
but I've tried growing a few times,
if you're a friend of the channel, you'd know.
And that would be the avocado.
So my neighbor has some avocado
so we do have some fresh avocado
every year about this time
and it's tempting to take the skins
and pits and toss them
in the chicken coop like this.
But you really don't wanna do that.
The flesh may be okay for chickens,
but the skins, the pits,
all of that good stuff you don't want
to give them because it has a toxin called Persin.
So Persin, they're quite sensitive to this toxin.
It can harm their hearts,
it can harm respiration.
And you'll see signs of that toxin
having an impact after about 12 to 24 hours.
So to be safe, just keep avocado completely
out of the coop.
Our next crop are anything in the allium family,
you want to avoid them
because there are sulfur compounds in alliums
that can cause issues with the esophagus in hens.
It can cause ulcers in the esophagus.
And honestly, there's not too many reasons
why you'd have a ton of alliums left over.
Maybe when you're harvesting bobbing onions
then you can just toss those
in the compost or a Bokashi compost
or any other sort of non chicken
related composting system.
It can also cause anemia.
So that would mean like leaks, garlic, onions,
green onions, bobbing onions,
scallions, any of that stuff,
I would really avoid giving your hens.
Citrus is another one that, it's tempting.
Certainly here in San Diego,
it's tempting for me to give citrus peels
or extra citrus that I'm not using to my hens
and just toss it in here.
But there's a lot of citric acid
of course in citrus.
And while small amounts can be okay,
large amounts can actually prevent your hens
from creating enough calcium
to form healthy eggs and eggshells.
So you might find, (chuckles)
that you have pretty thin eggshells
if you feed too much citrus to your hens.
So this is a pretty serious one
and this would be cocoa or chocolate.
You do not wanna give it at all to your hens.
It can really affect their heart
and it can happen as quickly as 12 hours after.
She thought maybe I was gonna
give her some chocolate
I'm not going to Rufio.
You're fine.
Long story short, you can just literally
give your hens a heart attack
if they eat too much chocolate
within about 24 hours or so.
So completely avoid it.
Plus who's throwing away chocolate?
I mean, come on.
Okay, this next one's kind of weird.
I didn't know people were doing this
but giving your hen cannabis is probably
not the best idea.
I think some people are doing this
in exchange for different biomedical treatments
for their hens as an immune booster.
There's not really any credible study
that's showing that this has significant impact.
And eating those THC laden buds
can cause vomiting in your hens,
can cause skin irritation, et cetera.
So it's kind of one of those things
that I don't know why people are wanting
to go this direction, but it's not a good idea
and at least until studies come out
that prove it has way more effect
than some of the more standard treatments.
Save the best for last.
And by best, I mean the absolute worst.
You do not want to feed your hens...
Rufio is really waiting
and I'll give you a little bit.
You do not want to feed your hens dried beans.
The reason why is there's a compound,
called phytohaemagglutinin or PHA
that is in legumes
and it is extremely toxic to hens.
I'm talking that your hens need
to eat about 2, 3, 4 beans worth like way less
than what's in my hand right now.
And it could be fatal.
So onset of symptoms will happen
within the first hour and you'll see pancreas
and kidney damage.
You'll start to see potentially organ failure
and then lowered egg production.
And if they eat too many,
it actually can and will be fatal to your hen.
So do not feed your hens
any sort of dried legume.
So Lavender and the rest of our hens,
they get some scraps here at the homestead,
but they don't get any of those seven crops.
If you want to know how to get started
with hens from A to Z, check out our guide.
It is super comprehensive and it will take you
from absolute noob like I was about a year
and a half ago when I first started raising
these girls to a very loving and responsible.
Ooh, wow.
So if you're looking for a full get started guide
with hens that takes you from a total noob
like I was...
Rufio, chill.
I swear Rufio has gone from being the absolute
most weak hen to a threat to a menace.
And you know what?
You're not gonna get rewarded for that.
I'm gonna give you some snacks through the wall.
If you're looking for that guide,
check it out right here.
It'll take you from noob
to a loving chicken parent.
Good luck in the garden, my friends,
and keep on growing.
I gotcha.
- [Siri] Siri here, let me know if I can help.
- You can't help Siri.
Stop.