Chickens & watermelon rines
Edna M Weigel (eweigel@juno.com)
Mon, 6 Dec 1999 13:59:45 -0700
I am finishing off the least promising of last summer's
watermelon crop and am delighted to find some still edible even if they
aren't quite as tasty as the ones I ate in August and September. The
chickens are equally delighted to eat whatever I don't.
Meanwhile, a friend told me a story from his childhood: It seems
that his father complained to the feed store because his hens weren't
laying their usual quota. The feed store guy asked what else they were
getting besides the feed he sold. When the father mentioned kitchen
scraps including watermelon rines, the feed store guy immediately said
watermelons make chickens quit laying.
Do any of you know if there's any truth to this, or was the feed
store guy just trying to get off the hook? Egg production from my 11
hens is down right now, but I blame the time of the year (i.e. decreasing
daylight and cold weather) more than diet variation. Even if I thought it
was diet, I'd be more inclined to blame the fact that this is a dry
winter (blamed on la nina) with very little green forage available to the
chickens. I've returned to last winter's strategy of gleaning from the
food co-op's garbage and growing oat sprouts in the greenhouse just to
give the chickens more fresh foods. They also have green tomatoes right
now, some of which are ripening with flavor no better than you'd find in
an ordinary grocery store. Any comments?
Best regards, Edna
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