Love it or hate it, celery is a highly nutritious food. It is a marshland plant that has been cultivated as a vegetable since antiquity. Celery and its seeds provide rich source of vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants. It can be eaten raw or cooked. But, can chickens eat celery?
Have you ever wondered whether you should be feeding your backyard chickens celery? Wondering how to prepare it to ensure that it is as easy as possible on your animal’s stomach? Well, that is what we want to take a look at on this page.
Can Chickens Eat Celery?
Absolutely! In fact, the question here isn’t so much; can chickens eat celery, it is ‘how much celery should my chickens be eating?‘.
This is because celery is absolutely packed to the brim with nutrients. Nutrients that can have an impact on the quality of egg that your chicken produces e.g. celery is a fantastic source for calcium, something that you can struggle to get outside of your typical chicken feed.
Obviously, you still do not want to give your chicken too much celery. The stomach of a chicken is quite small, so if you give them a ton of celery in lieu of other foods, then they may not be able to get all of the nutrients that they need.
How Much Celery Should Chickens Eat?
Not too much. As we said; celery is very nutritionally dense. Chickens do not need a lot to get all of the nutrients that they need. A couple of celery stalks between a coop of about six chickens each week should be more than enough to give them a good meal.
If you give them more than this, then you will run the risk of the chickens focusing on the celery a bit too much, and not the other food that is providing them with the nutrients that they need to be healthy.
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How to Prepare the Celery For Chickens To Eat
While you could, in theory, give your chickens whole celery stalks to nibble on, we probably wouldn’t recommend it. If you do that, there is zero chance that your chickens are going to be getting a balanced diet. Perhaps the best way to serve the celery to them is to cut it up into chunks and mix it up with a few other greens.
You may also want to mix a small amount into their standard chicken feed. However, this is something that we really do not recommend. This is because the celery will start to go rotten, and you do not want it impacting the rest of the feed as you are going to be giving your animal. It will make them sick.
You should only be leaving the celery with your chickens for a day or two at the most. Anything longer than this, and the celery will start to go rotten. The chicken will probably avoid eating it (chickens are great at not eating things they are supposed to avoid), but you probably do not want to be risking it.
If your chickens are not eating the celery, then you could soak it in water a little bit before you give it to them. This will soften it up a little, which may provide a bit of encouragement for your animal.
Summary
In short; chickens absolutely can eat celery. They are probably going to love it. However, do not overload them with celery. Make sure the celery forms part of a balanced diet. Perhaps the best way to serve them the celery is to mix it up.
