Homemade Treats for Chickens
As any chicken keeper knows, our feathered friends love a good treat. While there are many commercial treats available, it's also easy to make your own. Not only will your chickens enjoy the homemade treats, but you'll also know exactly what's in them. Here are some easy recipes for homemade treats that your chickens are sure to love.
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Homemade Treats for Chickens
My chickens are spoiled. They get treats all the time. I see it as they poop out my food, so anything that we feed them goes back to us. Win-win.
Oatmeal Cookie Balls
The recipe for these treats is loosely based on an old recipe for oatmeal cookies. They are easy to whip up and will freeze well. Just remember to keep your hands (and mouth!) off because these are supposed to be for the chickens.
Find the oatmeal cookie recipe for chickens here.
Chicken Oatmeal
Everyone loves a warm bowl of oatmeal on a chilly day. Here is a basic oatmeal recipe and some ideas to adapt it to make it delicious and nutritious for your hens. I make this for our birds on those rare freezing days that we have.
How to make it:
- 1 cup of oats
- 1 3/4 cups of water
Add-in options:
- meal worms
- raisins
- scratch grain
- assorted berries
- sunflower seeds
- dried and fresh herbs
Suet Cakes
Suet cakes are a great boredom buster for the flock. Give them this fun snack to help. Bonus, it contains healthy fats like coconut oil to give them a calorie boost in winter.
Suet cake treats work great when frozen, so they are perfect for helping hot hens cool off in the middle of the summer.
You can find a lot of recipes online, one of these days I'll get around to making some to share here well.
Frozen Fruits & Vegetables
In the summer toss some frozen fruits or vegetables into your chicken run. They love it. It's a great way for them to cool down in the heat.
Frozen Corn
In a muffin tin mix some frozen or canned corn with water and freeze. Entertain your chickens while they have a cool treat. I recommended a silicone muffin pan that you can easily pop the pieces out of.
You don't have to feed your chickens treats. Our chickens are pets, so just like our cats and dogs great treats, we give our chickens treats.
