Suet for chickens?

[SKR8PN]

Like an idiot, I had to go out on Black Friday to pick up some chicken feed. While I was waiting inline at TSC, I noticed a display for suet for birds that had some seeds and stuff in it. Do you guys and gals think it would hurt anything to set a cake of that out for the hens??

 

[BarredBuff]

I dont see why not knowing how they act theyd probably tackle you for it!!

 

[freemotion]

I make my own suet cakes and render fat for multiple purposes, and I give all the scraps from rendering to the chickens. I've even made them their own suet cakes of sorts by mixing their grains with the leftover melted fat scraps just to make it easier to feed to them. They LOVE it! They need fat to make those lovely egg yolks. It is quite good for them.

Being who I am, I don't buy much of anything I could make.... The purchased cakes will be snarfed down by your grateful hens in no time flat!

 

[Chickenkitty]

while at southern states store, they had a case (12) suet cakes for .60 cents each. Today I cut one of those in half and gave to the "girls". It may have lasted not quite 5 minutes. they loved it!

 

[ohiofarmgirl]

we give the chickens fat also - after rendering lard i save it up for them and give them a handful of the leftover bits. they love it!

the only down side i could think of is that its kind of expensive for what you get??

 

[SKR8PN]

Thanks! As I was standing in line, waiting, I noticed them and had an epiphany. I said to myself: "Self, I wonder if I can feed those to the hens!" Might be good for a treat during the winter months when they can't get out.

I/we also give our girls table scraps of fat and the left over chicken bones, and they snarf that stuff down like there's no tomorrow!

 

[lalaland]

bet they would love the occasional suet cake - would worry a little as I've heard that too much extra weight on the hens can be correlated with egg bound issues. don't know if it is true...

 

[Woodland Woman]

I take grease from browning ground beef and pour it in a foil pan on top of scratch grains. Then I harden it in the fridge. The chickens love it!

 

[Emerald]

While I normally use all my bacon grease I do date the little jars that I have it strained and stored in-I do go thru the fridge every so often and melt a bit of the oldest grease for the chickens in the dead of winter- helps them to keep warm and they will peck my gloves off me if I am too slow putting the mash with it poured over on the floor for them!
I also had a few winter squash one year get caught out in the shed during a hard freeze and I ended up giving them one of the frozen squash a week and letting them peck at that instead of one another. They loved it.

 

[shadowrider]

I bet they wipe their beeks alot while eating suet.
shadowrider