Poultry Talk Ontario (pto.ca)

Hi all.
Belated merry Christmas.
After reading everyone's comments on PSO about black oil sunflower seeds and how much chickens love them, I bought a 50 lb bag. My chickens won't touch them! Any suggestions for getting them to try?
Of course today they aren't coming out of the coop. They came to the door and got sips of water from the bowl I was holding, but so far that's as far as they'll go. I will try shovelling a clear spot for them now and putting out some turkey from the soup, and maybe grab one and put her out there.
This new forum is looking great!!

Susan

Wow not sure what to tell you, with mine I throw in a few handfuls and get out of the way of the stampede!
maybe put some in with their regular feed and they will figure out how good it is. Don't force your chickens to go outside, most don't like the snow. leave your doors open if you want them to have fresh air. On a warm winter day with lots of sun you may find they suddenly choose to poke around outside.

Try cracking a few for them- I've found that chickens are suspicious of new food. Mine go ape over them. One other seed mine really like almost as much are sesame seeds. They have lots of calcium, but sunflower seeds don't.

I bought some as well....much smaller bag that is a peanut free version. They will have nothing to do with them unless I stand there and crack the shell and give them the seed inside. Brats!!!

I was wondering which sunflower seeds they won't eat? There are the large grey striped ones, and the smaller, black, oil sunflower seeds. The black ones are the ones I use, they liked them right away- maybe thestriped ones have too much fibre for them?

I've had groups of chickens that wouldn't eat cracked corn. Most love the stuff. It seems that they have to be introduced to a food early in their lives.

Maybe try a bit mixed with wild bird seed. It might appeal to them better. We had to chicken and turkey proof our backyard bird feeders. We never have to clean up under them in the spring. The black sunflower seeds are the ones that I have had great success with to train all the different birds here to come when called, except the geese. Now, if you have a cob of fresh corn in your hand, they will stampede you for that.

I have the small black ones. I will try cracking some and putting them out with some wild bird food. Thanks for the suggestions!

I find they often ignore things when first put out, but go back to them later and try a taste. Exception so far is cauliflower (and BOSS) but maybe I'll try cooking it. They usually go nuts for scratch grains, but after pecking around on the snow for a bit, they left the rest. So maybe they are just confused by the snow.

Thanks. PS Epona your cat is my orange cat's twin!
Susan

my chickens won't touch the striped sunflower seeds, but my turkeys love them! the little black ones are like chicken crack for my chickens, and the turkeys can't seem to pick them up, they just push them all over with their snoods so the bigger striped ones are better for them....lol. first time i gave the chickens BOSS they didn't even try. but then one chicken did, and word spread like wildfire, now they recognize the little plastic container that is in the bag it's like when i go into the coop with the container...and if it's empty...well.... :Shark: LOL It's really uncanny though, first time they left some on the floor, so i opened them up, and they were all empty-they ate only the ones with seeds inside, and left the empty shelled ones. how they can tell is beyond me.

I'd just fire a handful or two into the coop and leave em there, one of them will taste one at some point and then they'll all learn they're candy...

Chickens are odd, mine refuse squash and pumpkin unless it's roasted and even then they're not thrilled! BOSS they love though.