Even a chicken on a commercial feed needs fresh greens. The leaves you would throw out from a head of lettuce, grass clippings, and table scraps, and yes sour milk (if you have goats making more milk than you and use - feed it to the chickens!) and the whey from making soft cheese. They will even benefit from eating any eggs you don't get around to using, and the shells of the ones you do - oyster shell is also available from you feed store. If you feed them their own eggs, break and scramble them so the birds don't get the idea that their eggs are edible.
I've noticed that chickens especially enjoy corn on the cob, fresh greens....cabbage, chard, lettuce. Persimmons, cucumbers (I cut them in half...the long way), melons. This is fed along with the standard layers mash from the feed store. I find that the egg yolks are very bright orange and I understand that the omega 3's are very high when chickens are fed fresh produce.
I feed my chickens chopped Banana and yogurt live and they love it. They love cabbage and lettuce. Tomatoes. I think hung up corn of cobs are a def yes they go mad stretching and jumping for it
The choice of feed depends partly on whether you are feeding laying hens for egg production or chickens for the table. Chickens free to roam outdoors will forage for food in the garden or field. They will also enjoy table scraps, vegetable scarps and, oddly enough, are known to really enjoy sour milk. However, egg layers need a lot of energy to produce those eggs. Chicks too are attempting to put on four pounds in just eight weeks and that takes a lot of energy input in the form of good quality feed. Commercially produced feed are formulated to include all the nutrients a bird needs. Specialist feed supplier will provide feed tailored to the specific stage of a bird's life and the end purpose (eating or eggs). Like humans chickens need carbohydrate, fats, vitamins and minerals. Commercial egg producers now deliberatedly feed hens with products stuffed full of Omega 3 oils which boosts the Omega 3 content of the eggs we buy.
I feed my hens and my rooster the laying pellets, along with some cracked corn mixed in with the pellets. Also, my chickens are pretty spoiled, and I feed them various treats, like cornbread, Cheerio's, bread, ground beef, cake, etc. My rooster really likes marshmallows too.
I feed my chickens boiled spaghetti and they love it,I don't put any salt in it though not sure if that would be harmful or not. I also mix up a bowl of sweetcorn and peas.I give the bantam hens wild birdseed the bigger hens are not that keen but the little ones go mad for them .They also love kale which is easy and to grow.They love their little treats so much I get mobbed as soon I step one foot out my back door
Marmite on toast is really welcomed by mine, sprouts attatched to the mesh of the cage keeps them occupied, corn cob, sweet peas and cabbage are also given as treats. All this I give to mine as treats alongside their layers pellets and mixed corn
