Treats for chickens are good for a number of reasons. If you’re wondering what sort of treats your backyard flock might like, here are several ideas that they will love to eat and play with too! 

This convenient list is broken down into treats you can forage and treats you can buy. Let us know what your favorite treats for chickens are so we don’t miss any!

11 Irresistible Chicken Treats Your Flock Will Love

Giving your chickens treats is a great way to supplement their feed, and is also a way to keep them entertained and healthy. While you can spend a lot of money on chicken treats, you certainly don’t have to.

You can find many of the items on this list in your own backyard or even your trash! If you’d like to save money on chicken feed by feeding your backyard chickens weeds and food scraps you might otherwise throw away, keep reading! 

We like feeding our chickens food scraps, but you do need to feed them mindfully. Before deciding to feed your chickens your food scraps, make sure to read what not to feed chickens in this article. 

Grow a Chicken Friendly Ground Cover Instead of Grass!

Do you know that instead of growing grass, you can sow chicken-friendly ground cover that you chickens will be happy to gobble? You can plant chicken ground cover in a tray, in your yard, chicken runs, orchard, vineyard alleyway, pasture – really endless opportunities if you get creative!

Check out Barenbrug Free Range Ground Cover Forage Seed and get sowing!

You can also grow herbs and other garden plants for your chickens. Chickens really like mint, basil, and parsley, as well as leafy greens like kale, spinach, and lettuce.

Weeds for Chickens – Dandelions are great treats for chickens! 

If you don’t want to grow a yard, just harvest some weeds for your chickens! Or, use electric netting to keep them in weedy areas at your home. 

Who knew there are so many treats for chickens growing right in your yard? Chickens will eat your entire dandelion, roots, stem, flower and all. Unfortunately, you have to pick them for the chickens first. I’m a big fan of leaving dandelions alone {much to my husband’s chagrin} as they are good for bees and pretty too, I think. 

So if you need to make your spouse happy or need some other reason to rid your yard of dandelions – here you go. Just make sure not to spray them first.

Clover 

Clover is another great chicken treat you might have growing in your yard. Pick a big handful and give it to your chickens. They will most certainly thank you! I would love to plant my front pasture in clover and quit mowing! Then the chickens could eat to their hearts’ content!

Chickweed 

Here’s another weed your chickens will love, the aptly named chickweed. Like clover and dandelions, just pick a big bowl full and give it to your chickens! Again, make sure these weeds haven’t been sprayed if you plan to give them to your chickens.

Watermelon & Rinds are treats your chickens will adore

You will be shocked to see how your chickens eat melons. And they love them all – watermelon, cantaloupe, any type really. It’s a lot of fun to give them the melon on the rind and watch them eat so much they leave only a thin layer behind.

One of our favorite things to do in the summer is give our chickens half a melon and then come back later to look at the bowl that’s left when they’re done. It’s so amazing.

Corn on the cob, or just the cob!

We harvest lots of corn in the late summer and always have an abundance of corn cobs leftover after freezing a bunch of corn. If you need a way to amuse yourself and your chickens, hang a corn cob on a string from a tree in your chicken yard and watch your chickens peck away.

We love giving our chickens not only the occasional cob that was harvested too late, but also the cobs after we’ve stripped the corn off for freezing. They pick them clean because they really do love corn.

Cabbage

Another fun food item you can hang for your chickens is cabbage. Not only is a hanging cabbage a great snack they will enjoy, but it’s also another fun way to keep your chickens entertained.

Here are nice feeders you can use to hang cabbage and other fruits and veg too!

Fall Pumpkins and Gourds

Don’t forget to feed your chickens your fall decor when it’s time to switch from fall to winter! In fact, I put the call out to my friends every year to have them drop off their unwanted pumpkins and gourds for my livestock to eat.

All of the animals love it and it keeps food stuff out of the landfills! What a great way to reduce waste and feed your chickens great snacks for free!

Chicken Treats You Can Buy

You certainly don’t have to buy chicken treats, but if you want to, here are a few types of ready made chicken treats you can buy to complete their complete feed.

Black Soldier Fly Larvae

Black soldier fly larvae are a yummy snack that chickens go crazy for! They provide protein for healthier feathers and calcium for stronger eggs, making them a great snack to help you hens through their annual molt.

I find them to be a little pricey, but they are a very healthy and sustainable snack. You can even raise them at home. They require minimal maintenance and can be fed organic waste, making them an eco-friendly option.

You can buy them on Amazon or find them in stores. Two of our favorite black solder fly larvae companies are Grubbly and GrubTerra.

Scratch Grain

Scratch grain is another great supplemental feed for chickens. The carbohydrates in scratch grains offer a quick energy boost to chickens, which can be particularly beneficial during cold winter months when they need extra calories to maintain body temperature. 

Read about what to feed chickens in winter to help them stay warm in this article.

Our favorite brand of scrat is Scratch and Peck’s Naturally Free 3-Grain Scratch. It’s soy and corn free and made using organic whole oats, whole wheat, whole barley from farms throughout the Pacific Northwest region. 

Flock Blocks

Flock Blocks are great for entertainment, enrichment, and as a way to give your chickens a balanced mix of grains, seeds, vitamins, and minerals to help fill any nutritional gaps in their diet.

Flock blocks are easy to hang in the chicken coop with these hanging treat holders. We like these treats because they’re designed to be long-lasting. Flock blocks are harder than loose treats, so chickens can’t eat them as quickly as loose grains.

If you liked this post on treats for chickens, you may like these posts too:

Beginner’s Guide to Raising Baby Chicks

How to Choose the Perfect Chicken Breed for Your Homestead

Why You Might Consider Raising Chickens for Eggs

How to Prepare for Mail Order Chicks

Even chickens love treats, so make sure to give them some! What type of treat do you enjoy giving your chickens?