# Can My Chickens Eat This?



## Real Hawkeye (Jul 5, 2005)

Cleaning out the freezer I found a long forgotten bag of organic, stone ground, whole wheat, flour sealed in a large Ziploc bag. Had to have been in there over a year. Smells OK to me, but I would rather use fresher flour for cooking, so I was about to toss it in the garbage. Then it occurred to me that chickens eat all sorts of things. Is this one of the things chickens would like to eat, and would it be OK for them to do it? Thanks.


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## chickenista (Mar 24, 2007)

Best to go ahead and cook it up.
You can make a simple bread with it and then feed it to the birds.
You can get all fancy with it and add birdseed, peanut butter, suet, greens etc.. and then freeze the bread to use over the winter as a treat too.


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## Real Hawkeye (Jul 5, 2005)

chickenista said:


> Best to go ahead and cook it up.
> You can make a simple bread with it and then feed it to the birds.
> You can get all fancy with it and add birdseed, peanut butter, suet, greens etc.. and then freeze the bread to use over the winter as a treat too.


Never made bread before. Made egg pasta, but not bread. What is the minimum to mix in for bread?


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## chickenista (Mar 24, 2007)

3 c. all-purpose flour 
3 tsp baking pwdr 
1/2 tsp salt 
1/4 c. oil 
1 1/4 c. water 

This is just a basic bread recipe.. no yeast, no kneading, just mix and pour.
You can use all of the flour this way.
You can add birdseed or weeds or greens, oatmeal etc.. without changing much.

You can use muffin tins too.

If it were me.. I would bake until golden brown on top, then turn off the oven and crack the door and let them harden/dry a bit. Chickens don't mind hard bread.

This recipe would freeze quite well too and could be used as treats for a long time in the future.


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## Real Hawkeye (Jul 5, 2005)

Thanks. I'll try it. Oven temp?


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## Millroad (Oct 15, 2010)

350 should work


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## Real Hawkeye (Jul 5, 2005)

Thanks.


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## gone-a-milkin (Mar 4, 2007)

Personally, I would never cook just for the chickens. Mix the flour 50/50 with their regular feed and add water (or any other liquid: milk, cooking water from greens, etc. ). 

Make a thick paste from it and the birds will eat it right up.
No making extra dirty dishes just for the birds at my house. :nono: :grin:

p.s. Flour stored in a freezer is still perfectly good for human consumption after a year.


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## chickenmommy (Aug 24, 2004)

gone-a-milkin said:


> Personally, I would never cook just for the chickens. Mix the flour 50/50 with their regular feed and add water (or any other liquid: milk, cooking water from greens, etc. ).
> 
> Make a thick paste from it and the birds will eat it right up.
> No making extra dirty dishes just for the birds at my house. :nono: :grin:
> ...



I make porridge for my girls.  
Found some meal worm, oatmeal, sunflower kernel mix that I cook till thick. Then I add milled flax seed, fish oil, cottage cheese, whey and yogurt. They love it, it ups their protein and helps their digestion. I make this once a week and keep it in the fridge. I give it to them cold hoping it will help them cool down on the hot days. Here's the list of ingredients off their web site: flaked organic red wheat, organic rye, organic barley, organic sunflower seeds, organic white wheat, organic oats, organic triticale and dried mealworms. 
If I had flour to get rid of I would mix some it.


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## Guest (Sep 10, 2011)

I would use it for myself because it's still perfectly good, but it won't hurt the chickens a bit.


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## tinknal (May 21, 2004)

You see this question pop up here now and then and the answer is almost always "Yes". LOL


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## Real Hawkeye (Jul 5, 2005)

tinknal said:


> You see this question pop up here now and then and the answer is almost always "Yes". LOL


:hysterical:


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## Guest (Sep 10, 2011)

tinknal said:


> You see this question pop up here now and then and the answer is almost always "Yes". LOL


Seems like there's not very much that chickens can't eat.


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## tinknal (May 21, 2004)

ladycat said:


> Seems like there's not very much that chickens can't eat.


And very little that they won't eat.........


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