Chickens will gobble up almost anything, which is handy in a survival situation when you need to maximize food resources.
However, some kitchen scraps should never go into your chicken coop.
Save this list of foods chickens shouldn’t eat.
13 Foods To Ban from Your Chicken Coop for Good
You can give your chickens pretty much everything, from stale bread and carrot peels to wilted salad and three-day-old pasta.
Around here, I tend to gather whatever remains on everyone’s plates at the end of a meal and dump it all straight in the coop or run.
The following foods are some of the few exceptions.
1. Raw Potato Peels
Raw potato peels, especially from potatoes that started to green, contain the toxic compounds solanine and chaconine. These can harm your chickens, especially when consumed in large quantities. However, cooked peels are perfectly fine.
Luckily, I’ve observed, chickens usually won’t eat raw potato peels anyway. Chickens are generally pretty good at avoiding harmful foods.
2. Avocado Skins and Pits
Avocado, especially the skin and pit, contains persin, a toxin that can cause multiple negative effects in some animals and poultry.
You can keep indulging in avocado, though: it’s a healthy, nutrient-rich fruit, and humans have no problem processing the small amounts of persin in its flesh.
However, please don’t panic if your chickens peck at some avocado skins in your compost pile. If they only consume a little, in my experience it does them no harm.
Just keep a close eye on your birds for the next day or so to make sure they’re fine.
3. Salty or Sugary Foods
Chickens’ natural diet of grain, greens, and bugs is low in both salt and sugar.
Their digestive systems aren’t built to tolerate large amounts of sodium or refined sugars, although a few scattered cookies or chips likely won’t harm your birds.
Too much salt can cause excessive thirst, diarrhea, and even electrolyte imbalance in chickens. Large quantities of sugar might also cause digestive problems. Moreover, salty and sugary foods are typically low in nutrients.
4. Moldy Food
You should never consume moldy food or give it to your animals. Mold contains mycotoxins, which can harm your chickens’ health and productivity. Toss those moldy leftovers straight into the compost pile.
By the way, watch out for mold not just in scraps, but in commercial feed as well. Always store chicken feed in a dry place, ideally in a sealed container that won’t let moisture in.
If you notice the feed smells moldy or develops clumps, you may have to discard it.
5. Dairy Products
Chickens are lactose-intolerant, so they may suffer from bloating, diarrhea, and other digestive issues if you give them dairy products.
However, a few bits of low-lactose hard cheese are OK as an occasional treat rich in protein and calcium. Likewise, pasta with some cheese and butter is just fine.
If you make cheese and have leftover whey, you can give it to your poultry for a protein boost as part of a balanced and varied diet.
Whey is low in lactose, and chickens generally tolerate it well. You can also use whey to ferment chicken feed.
6. Coffee Grounds
Coffee grounds are a fantastic addition to your compost heap, but don’t give those to chickens.
Caffeine consumption is associated with decreased performance and thinner eggshells in laying hens. Stick to using coffee grounds in mulch or compost them.
7. Raw Eggs
Raw eggs won’t hurt your chickens, but they may cause hens to develop the habit of picking at their own eggs. Once it happens, it’s very hard to get chickens to stop doing this.
Only give your flock cooked eggs or finely crushed dried eggshells.
8. Bones
Chickens are omnivores and will gladly eat meat, fish, or (you guessed it) chicken. However, any meat they consume should be free of bones.
Small cooked bones are brittle and can cause severe internal injuries if your birds ingest them.
9. Green Tomatoes
Like green potatoes, unripe tomatoes and other vegetables in the nightshade family contain solanine, which can be harmful to chickens. The same goes for leaves and stems of nightshade vegetables.
Don’t worry if your chickens take a few pecks at a tomato plant, though. The occasional bite of green tomato won’t harm them, and they always prefer ripe juicy tomatoes anyway.
10. Fruit Pits
Plum, peach, apricot, and cherry pits contain poisonous cyanide compounds. If you offer some of these fruits as treats for your chickens, make sure to remove the pits first.
These pits usually pass through the chicken’s digestive tract whole without causing harm, but it’s better not to take risks. Additionally, young chickens can choke on large hard pits
11. Cocoa and Chocolate
Do you have some leftover chocolate cake?
There are many creative ways to use it, but please don’t give it to your chickens or other animals.
Cocoa contains theobromine, a compound that is toxic to poultry. And that’s without mentioning the high amounts of refined sugar in chocolate and chocolate cake, brownies, and cookies.
12. Rhubarb Leaves
Only rhubarb stalks are edible. The leaves are high in oxalic acid, which is toxic in large quantities. When oxalic acid binds to calcium, it forms calcium oxalate, an insoluble compound chickens can’t process.
In extreme cases, calcium oxalate can accumulate in the kidneys and cause kidney stones or even renal failure.
The calcium-binding nature of oxalic acid can also lead to calcium deficiency and thus thinner or weaker eggshells. In short, keep rhubarb leaves away from your chickens. Compost those leaves or use them to make organic pesticide.
13. Dried or raw beans
Any beans you feed your chickens should be fully cooked. Raw beans contain phytohemagglutinin, a toxic compound that can harm your chickens’ liver, kidneys, and digestive system.
In addition, dried beans and lentils can absorb liquid in the digestive tract and potentially cause blockages.
Green beans contain less phytohemagglutinin than mature seeds, but it’s still advisable to cook the pods before you offer them to chickens.
