7 Tasty and Entertaining Food Treats for Chickens

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!

7 Tasty and Entertaining Food Treats for Chickens

Giving your chickens treat 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!

Dandelions make great treats for chickens!

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.

Mealworms –

Mealworms are a yummy snack that chickens go crazy for! You can buy them at the store (I find them to be a little pricey) or you can even raise them yourself, if you’re up for a task like that. Sounds a little gross to me, but that’s what our kids are for, right?