i know chickens eat just about everything............any of you guys feed fish to chickens?? figured im gonna have some carp/crappie/blugill carcassas they could nibble on.

We fed mackerel and sardines to our game roosters when we had them in the keep. they love fish

Yes, I've thrown walleye carcasses to the chickens, once in awhile. Just to give them something to play with, they always pick the eyeballs out first. Kinda funny to watch them sling the carcass over their backs and onto each other, as they try to tear meat off.

But I quit doing that because they would leave the skeletons hidden in all kinds of spots and coated with dirt, becoming a smelly mess in the area. It might work to anchor them down, but I wouldnt advise doing it the way I did.

-NC

They eat my minnows

A little now and then should be fine a constant diet might get a little fishy! LOL The Hoots here fed fish oil to their hogs and after a while the meat started tasting funny so they had to stop it.

This is second hand, but I've heard that too many in a short amount of time gives a fishy flavor to eggs. I'm guessing if you gave them leftovers from cleaning periodically, it would be a cheap, healthy protein boost.

hahahahaha

Many years ago, probably 35, I had a bunch of white bass carcasses. We would go fishing in the spring and catch about a thousand, or so, white bass. I normally dumped them on the garden. One year I gave then all to the chickens. There were around twenty chickens. The chickens ate the heck out of them and everything was fine until you tried eating the eggs. The eggs were not fit to eat. I don't remember the taste being fishy, but I do remember it being weird enough that we didn't eat eggs until the fish had worked itself out of the chickens system.
I think a few fish would be fine but a total diet of fish for a week or so, made our eggs taste funny.

We throw any leftover crappie minnows on the ground after a trip. They start flopping on the ground and the chickens turn into piranhas.

Zim

Chickens are a feathered goat.....they will eat anything. Ever seen a flock go after a nest of mice for a meal? Now that's a sight to see!

Sick! Reminds me of the guys on here that feed coyote carcasses to their chickens.

I give my chickens a little of everything and they love it. Never in a MILLION years would I let my chickens eat a fox or coyote. That’s just nasty.

Bald Eagles love coyote meat.I found that out some years ago.

You’re the only one on here that agrees with me that feeding coyotes to our chickens is nasty. Lol

If chickens were big enough, they would not hesitate to eat people.

I too have heard that feeding to much fish or meat to chickens, makes the eggs taste bad, but have never tried giving them more than a little bit myself.

I have some feed bowls, I got from an old friend of mine, when he had to get out of birds, that are designed to have a space for mice to hide under them. We call the chickens or guineas over and lift the bowls and watch them grab the mice as they run for cover. The first bird to grab a mouse, almost never gets to eat, because another chicken or guinea will steal it from them.

Keith

Same results! Toss the live crappie minnows in and watch the feeding frenzy! I imagine once every week or two would be no problem for the chickens diet!

Chris

My buddy tosses his skunk carcasses out and the chickens are all over them.

My dad used to pitchfork carp in the spring to feed the hogs. They put on weight like nobody's business but you had to finish them on grain for a couple months to get the fishy taste out of the flesh.

ill bet those eggs are decent for dirtholes if not too skunky

Just make sure you did use the pole on them you will lose chickens if you do!

When I was in Eastern Europe after the wall came down to buy dogs some folks were feeding the dog crap to the chickens and the chicken crap to the dogs..

When I was a kid I worked on a mink farm, the chickens ran around in the mink yard eating the mink food (we were feeding wet feed) that fell through the cages. As I remember those chickens usually tasted a little fishy.
You might not want to feed fish to fryer chickens.

chickens are little dinosaurs. they will clean up deer bones that are left over from deboning meat. they will eat nearly anything you throw in the pen. If they could eat bones they would be a great way to dispose of a body i mean carcass lol. Me and the wife halfway joke that if we died in teh pen they would eat us. I dont doubt it at all.

Sounds like Karma to me! LOL

My chickens wouldn't touch the fish. Unfortunately.

When I filet fish I throw the remains in the chicken pen. They clean them up very nicely and there has never been a problem. The chickens also like to clean up any fly larva that develop.
Moderation is the key.

if coop is away from house hang carcass an let maggot's get on they the chickens will eat them all

I'm waiting for Patrice to weigh In on this subject. But I think she feeds her chickens at the dinning room table. And that's before Zim eats. LOL

Mine will peck away at fish scraps to some degree, but when you are skinning beaver, they'll peck away at the fat and meat quite a bit.
A diet with beaver meat in it will produce an egg with a nice sharp orange yolk . I'll bet they would eat beaver hamburger to beat the band.

^^^^^^^
That reminds me of an incident I had when I was a kid. I have tacked a rough skinned beaver to a piece of plywood with about 16 nails, I left it laying flat on the floor for a while and came back to find my dachshund standing on the board, she had cleanly fleshed nearly half the beaver; she'd sort of curl her lips back and while standing on the hide nip away at the fat and flesh, she really loved beaver. The problem was she'd eat so much of it that if you let her she'd eat so much she could hardly walk.

thanks for the replies gang..........I was wondering about a fishy aftertaste......soooo apparently it may be a thing if I give em too much.

Try it and see, you might like them eggs, lol. I feed the cannibals about anything these days. It's called "chicken feed" cause it don't take, nor does it cost much to keep chickens alive .

I feed my chickens fish nearly everyday. It makes up about 20% of their diet. The fish is cooked (boiled) and placed is a rubber pan. They love it and gives them a nice change up from commercial feed. I have not had a problem with fishy eggs though I have heard that cooking it helps.