What Treats can I Give My Chickens?

Our flock spoils us with fresh eggs daily and unlimited entertainment, so it is always a good idea to spoil them back with some tasty treats! There are many healthy vegetable, fruit, and protein options that make excellent treats for your chickens. Just remember that these treat options should be fed in moderation and not as a major part of your chicken’s diet.

1. Live Mealworms

Okay, hear me out, you may not necessarily love the idea of having these creepy crawlies in your house or garage but chickens go wild for these and they are so good for them! Mealworms are an excellent source of protein and tossing down live worms is a a great way to engage and stimulate your hens. If you have seen the bags of dried mealworms at your local farm store, you know how crazy expensive a big bag of dead bugs is. Luckily, the live ones are cheap and breeding them is easy!

Stop by your local pet store and look for mealworms in their reptile section. You will want the regular-sized worms and not the jumbo ones if you are intending to breed them (the jumbo ones are genetically modified and may not be able to breed). Be sure to put them in a plastic or metal container with some substrate (oatmeal makes a great substrate + they can eat it all they want). A large tupperware bowl with a few slits in the top works perfect; just be sure you do not use cardboard or anything similar because they can chew out and burrow in your carpet. Learned that one the hard way.

Now, just let them do their thing! I toss in a piece of bread and a grape or two every few weeks and they just keep on coming. We have tarantulas and a Leopard gecko at home too, so breeding our own mealworms has saved us a lot of money and all of the critters are happy!

2. Cabbage

Our ladies are obsessed with cabbage and it is the perfect way to keep them hydrated and entertained on a hot summer day! Thanks to it’s high water content, a refrigerated cabbage head can really help your flock out if they are under heat stress. Cabbage also has plenty of vitamins and minerals that can be beneficial to your chickens plus it is usually cheap to grab at the grocery store. Just be sure to wash your cabbage before serving to your chickens to be sure there are no chemicals/ preservatives.

One fun way to serve cabbage to your chickens is to hang it and let them peck! This is an easy little DIY that can keep your chickies entertained for awhile. Just grab a medium-large sized Screw Eye (screw with an eyelet at the end) and thread a string/ rope/ yarn through it then hang from your coop or even a Sheppard’s hook. If you aren’t feeling like a DIY project, my hens are just as happy to chase the whole cabbage head around on the ground.

Veggie Hanger for Chickens

3. Watermelon

My sweet Matilda girl snacking on some watermelon in the shade to cool off.

This is another seasonal treat that is perfect for relieving the stress of a hot Summer’s day. Watermelon is, of course, mostly water so it can help keep the chooks hydrating while providing some extra electrolytes and vitamins. You can also chill the melon in the fridge before serving to help cool your birds down. Every part of the watermelon is totally safe for your chickens, however, mine usually leave the rind behind for our compost. I like to cut the watermelon up into fourths and let the hens peck away at it, but you may want to cut into smaller slices for more birds. It isn’t necessary to cube the watermelon up unless you really want to.

4. Berries

Sweet Penny eating a raspberry off of her chicknic table.

Blueberries, Strawberries, Raspberries, Cranberries, and Blackberries are always a huge hit in our coop! Just like with humans, berries provide antioxidants and vitamins to your chickens. I always grab a cheap pack of berries at Aldi when I go and I also let my flock pick over our strawberry patch occasionally. Berries are another treat that you can toss around the run and let you birds scavenge for. Just be sure to keep an eye on your flock while they are eating! A few of my birds have tried to eat the berries whole, and while they always spit it back out, I can’t help but think there is a choking risk. You can also halve the berries to be safe.

5. Tomatoes

Can chickens eat tomatoes? You may hear some conflicting information because tomatoes are a part of the nightshade family, which is generally poisonous to chickens. Yes, ripe tomatoes a nutritious favorite for our chickens. Tomatoes are rich in antioxidants, fiber, and vitamins, so they make a great chick treat year-round. It is important that they not eat unripe tomatoes or other parts of the plant as they can make them ill. Luckily, chickens are pretty good at knowing what is poisonous to them naturally and I wouldn’t worry about letting my hens in the garden to pick some treats for themselves.

If your garden is accessible to your chickens, they will not want to save any fruit for you once they realize how delicious tomatoes are! Again, tomatoes are only a healthy treat in moderation, so you won’t want to give tomatoes more than once or twice a week. When it comes to serving tomatoes to your birds, there are some good ways to make snack time engaging for them. One option is to dice the tomatoes up and sprinkle around in the grass. This is stimulating to chickens who love to forage (which is most of them). You can also hang your tomatoes similar to the cabbage, but this is a messier option. One of my favorite ways to give my hens tomatoes is to just hide a few whole tomatoes around the yard. It’s like an Easter-egg hunt for them and they stay pretty entertained chasing the tomatoes as they roll around.