Chicken Mash
Chicken Mash
Chicken mash, layers mash, poultry mash… are ‘tasty’ chicken ‘mash’ type feeds that you can make up at home, using left over kitchen vegetable scraps, corn, pellets and bread – not to be confused with chicken & mash ‘home cooking’ recipes for humans!
The only problem with making chicken mash at home; is that if you have a compost heap, you’ll have to decide which vegetable and kitchen scraps are ‘saved’ for the chicken mash recipe mixture, and which are going to be put on the compost heap!
Chicken Mash 'Raw' Ingredients
But then again, I suppose you’ll be putting the chicken manure on the compost heap, so there’s no need to be stindgy with your chicken mash ingredients – it all ends up in the same place in the end after all!
Several of the chicken keeping books mention how to make chicken mash, although one book in particular that I keep mentioning since getting hold of a copy – Keeping Poultry And Rabbits On Scraps, takes chicken mash making and recipes to all new levels!
Obtaining ‘free’ chicken feed is almost a ‘mantra’ in Keeping Poultry And Rabbits On Scraps - a chicken mash made from household kitchen scraps is one of the basic chicken feed staples it suggests.
Also the amount of chicken mash that you can create is obviously restricted to the amount of kitchen vegetable and bread waste that you generate. The book suggests that you get friends and neigbours to save suitable vegetable and bread waste for your chicken mash for you…
I don’t know how this would ‘sit’ with most people, but we’ve taken the plunge and asked our parents to save their vegetable and bread scraps for our chicken mash. Our parents get a steady supply of eggs from our chickens, so they are more than happy to assist us in collecting suitable ingredients!
Chicken Mash Simmering
A chicken mash is basically made from ‘minced’ or finely chopped kitchen vegetable waste – peelings and stalks or whatever looks a bit out of date or ropey for human consumption, old stale bread, protein – you can also add meat scraps, corn, stale biscuits, old breakfast cereals etc. I also like to put into the chicken mash some of the chicken’s poultry layer pellets.
A good day we’ve found to make chicken mash is on a Sunday, after a Sunday roast; you can then use the vegetable water that has been used to boil the family vegetables as the base chicken mash ’stock’ and add everything you’ve saved over the week to the pot, bring to the boil and then gently simmer for a while.
How To Make Chicken Mash
With experience, I like to simmer the chicken mash mixture so it turns into a stodgy mash. This way it’s not too ‘runny’ and therefore less messy when feeding the mash to the chickens during the week following.
So what’s suitable ‘vegetable wise’ for putting into your chicken mash?
Well, according to the Keeping Poultry and Rabbits on Scraps book, everything in moderation can be used…
But for a rough guide, see below;
Artichoke
Beans – broad, dwarf, harricot, runner etc
Beet
Broccoli
Cabbage
Carrots
Corn
Kale
Leeks
Lettuce
Maize
Mangolds
Onions
Peas
Potatoes
Spinach
Sunflower seeds
Swedes
Turnips
As for the other chicken mash ingredients;
Bread
Stale Cake
Stale Biscuits
Left-over Cooked Rice
Left-over Cooked Pasta
Old Breakfast Cereals
Left-over Meat
You then feed the chickens the chicken mash along with their usual chicken food / pellet diet.
I like to keep the chickens in their run first thing in the morning whilst they ear their chicken feed pellets, corn and chicken mash – to makesure that they’ve had enough of what I want them to eat before they can then start looking for ‘extras’.
I then let them have the run of the garden so they can forage for whatever else they can find and feed on the grass shoots.
There you have it, chicken mash may be a easy way of supplimenting your chicken’s feed using ‘free’ methods – free because chicken mash is made from ingredients that you would otherwise had thrown away or put straight on the compost heap.
If you’re actually looking to buy chicken mash or chicken layer’s mash, check out this site which we use to purchase chicken keeping supplies.
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Posted: January 21st, 2009 under Keeping Chickens.
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Comments
Comment from Legbar
Time May 1, 2009 at 3:54 pm
Excellent article – I have added your website to our “helpful links” page, hope you don’t mind!
Comment from Shirley Keay
Time August 18, 2009 at 9:18 am
This is a great help and the most clear and sensible chicken mash web page I have come across! Many thanks from a new chicken keeper and her chickens!
Comment from maddy
Time November 4, 2009 at 10:33 am
hello!
Interesting ! Your receipe for mash contains meat – the first one I’ve come accross.All others have specifically said not to contain any meat.Any idea why this should be so ? I am new to this game.
Comment from scratch
Time November 18, 2009 at 8:33 pm
Tried it out this morning my hens loved it.not sure left over meat? Think you could have the ministry after you with this though !
Comment from Jacqui \\\\\\\\\\\\\\james
Time November 21, 2009 at 6:54 pm
My young chickens won’t eat any mash at all
I leave a dish of pellets in their house and feed corn and odd bits most days and let them roam around for a couple of hours each day.
they seem quite picky at what they eat and I am not sure if I am doing the right thing leaving them to help them selves with dishes of pellets down in their house.
They don’t lay yet and I have made several different types of mash but they don’t even ty it. What do you suggest i am new at this, I have read the book and I am going to buy them a new house very soon.
Comment from cosmas njau
Time February 12, 2010 at 2:16 pm
Kindly let me know the formula to use if i want to mix 70kg bag of layers mash
Thanks
Comment from Keeping Chickens
Time March 15, 2010 at 3:13 am
Please note that as stated in the post, the above ingredients list is taken from the ‘war time book’ Keeping Poultry & Rabbits On Scraps. Meat is no longer a suggested ingredient for chicken mash.
Comment from Nicky
Time March 29, 2010 at 2:32 pm
I’m also new to this & my 20wk old POLs don’t eat much of their mash – haven’t started laying yet – I was letting them free range but now keeping them in their (small) run till midday to encourage them to eat the mash. Now going to try making it more appetising usung some recipes from here! Fingers crossed.
Comment from Shirley Keay
Time March 30, 2010 at 10:19 am
Our chickens wouldn’t eat the first mash I made – boiled potato peelings and other bits of leftover veg. But I thought they could chop it up themselves (with their beaks, obviously!). Apparently not – now I cut it up really finely before putting it out, mix in some rolled oats if there’s too much liquid, and they can’t get enough of it. It seems to be doing them good – we’ve had eggs all winter, even on the coldest, darkest days. Good girls!
Comment from Linda Hancock
Time August 1, 2010 at 11:02 am
I never realised how much waste we generated every scrap now goes to the chckens which are all ex batts. They even have the juices out of the grilled meats mixed with a slice of wholemeal bread they love it all now. It was only their first day that they did not know what it was, Since they discovered grubs and bugs they will eat everything
Comment from Mrs B
Time September 4, 2010 at 3:05 am
Love your mash recipe! I’ve been making something similar with our old rice cooker using rice, noodles, leftovers, old broth or meat juices, any kitchen scraps and pealings and spoiled onions, tomatoes and potatoes. The young chicks don’t like until they get a few months old. The adults prefer it over the grain. BTW When our hens slowed their laying last year I found adding a little meat to their mash doubled their egg production. For 20 hens I gave them 3 hot dogs or 2 eggs or half a can of tuna.
Comment from wjames
Time November 18, 2010 at 8:03 am
we have just read the site and we have got
ideas for our chickens
thanks
Comment from Linda Testerman
Time December 16, 2010 at 3:49 am
I only have 2 roosters-it would take forever for them to eat that much- they just eat leftovers…
Comment from Irene
Time February 11, 2011 at 10:47 pm
Re putting in the meat, i don’t see a problem there as they eat worms and slugs while in the garden.
Comment from Cathy
Time March 15, 2011 at 11:37 pm
I keep my egg shells and dry them out. I them crush or put them in the blender till fine and then put them with the mash. You can microwave them for a minute to soften the calcium. This is an excellent way to get calcium back into your chickens diet.
Comment from f.p.
Time May 5, 2011 at 8:51 am
I have always fed leftovers , peelings, garden weeds and grasses, eggshells, lees of our own olive oil , snails i pick out of the garden, all chopped up, to our poultry. They love it and the hens lay very well except in extreme summer heat. Why do you cook the leftovers up, aren’t you losing some vitamins that way?
Comment from Charlotte Sharkey
Time June 11, 2011 at 10:01 pm
Thanks for the tip–I immediately picked up a used copy of your recommended book on Amazon. I raise rabbits, too, so it will be interesting to see what they recommend.
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Time January 21, 2009 at 4:40 pm
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