A Hot Meal for My Chickens

My chickens are very spoiled - I admit it freely.  Almost every day, all winter I cook them a hot meal.  Last year I cooked them a meal in a large pot on the stove and then had to wait until it cooled enough to be able to feed them.  This year I got a brainwave and use the wood stove we keep running in the basement to help heat the house.  I fill a canner with goodies and let it cook all evening.  I usually add about 1/2 gallon of water to the vegetables.  We take it off at bedtime and let it cool gradually.  The next day, it is ready to feed the girls.

We get the leftover produce from our local grocery store and feed it to the chickens in various ways.  We also on occasion get past-dated wonton skins and veggie burger as seen below.  I boiled the wonton skins first, then mixed in the burger after draining them.

This is an occasional treat because they don't need all that starchy dough.  They do like their noodles though and once in the while it doesn't hurt them.

Every day they have a different meal depending on what is available.  It often includes carrots, potatoes, apples, sweet potatoes and more.  I cut up the produce somewhat so it doesn't take so long to cook.  We have cut up squash and add it seeds, skin and all to cook.

Here you can see carrots, potatoes, cauliflower, and tofu chicken burger chunks .  Citrus fruits are not given to them as I heard they are not good for them.  I also don't give them onions or garlic, just in case the flavors come out in their eggs.

This meal contained carrots, potatoes, cabbage, brussel sprouts, and more.  Whenever available broccoli, parsnips, beets, and zucchini are also added.

Doesn't this look good enough to eat - potatoes, carrots, turnips, apples and more.  The apples help to thicken the liquid so the meal is not so runny.  I usually just cut the apples and potatoes in quarters, skins, cores and all. If we don't have any apples, I will add some grain to thicken it up.

They still get raw produce as well - their greens, grapes, tomatoes, cukes, and melons.  The produce we don't use goes into a pile to chip for compost in the spring as it is too cold to chip the produce for the girls.