Can Chickens Eat Peaches: Skin, Flesh, And Seeds

Peaches only grow in summer seasons, so it’s seasonal fruit. If you have chickens—and peaches are in season—you may be asking the same question. Can chickens eat peaches? After all, this fragrant fruit has loads of nutrition. To find out more, read the whole article.

This article will cover

• Can Chickens Eat Peaches?
• Is Peach Skin Safe For Your Chickens?
• Is Peach Flesh Safe For Your Chickens?
• Is Peach Seed Safe For Your Chickens?
• Nutrients Your Chickens Can Benefit From Peaches
• Benefits Your Chickens Can Get From Eating Peaches
• Other Benefits Of Peaches To Your Chickens
• How To Feed Peach To Chickens
• The Proper Amount Of Peach To Feed Your Chickens

Can Chickens Eat Peaches?

Chickens are voracious eaters, but you can’t feed them everything. Some edible food for humans and other animals may be dangerous for these cluckers. So, can chickens eat peaches? Is it safe to feed your chickens peaches?

Your flock will love this fruit packed with aroma and taste. It’s a luxury for your chickens to enjoy.

As chicken breeders, we feed food to our fowls that we believe are harmless and nutritious for them. But, sometimes, we oversee things and serve our backyard chickens something unsafe for their health.

Chicken keepers who commit mistakes in serving toxic food to their birds assume that if those foods are nutritious for humans, they should be (likewise) beneficial for these birds. Or sometimes, breeders make mistakes by not researching enough to determine what foods are appropriate for the chickens. And hopefully, this article will shed some light on some questions about feeding peaches to your chickens.

Do Chickens Love To Eat Peaches?

Yes, chickens love to consume peaches because of their appealing smell. The peach texture is also desirable for chickens to peck.

Are Peaches Healthy For Chickens?

Peaches contain many nutrients your flock needs. So yes! This seasonal fruit is healthy for your chickens. But what’s more—this good-smelling fruit is low in calories but packed with minerals and vitamins.

Is Peach Skin Safe For Your Chickens?

Like other fruits and vegetables, it’s safe for chickens to eat peach skins. Surprisingly, peach skins are healthy for the chickens. It contains loads of nutrients your chickens can benefit from when you feed it to them.

Because the peach skin is thin, you can cut the peach fruit with its skin attached to it. In this simple way to feed peaches to chickens, your flock can get all the nutrients of both flesh and skin.

Is Peach Flesh Safe For Your Chickens?

Peach flesh is also safe for chickens, like its skin. Your flock can take advantage of the water and vitamins present in the fruit. Plus, your chickens will love pecking and consuming peach fruit. The fruit has pulpy goodness your flock would love.

Is Peach Seed Safe For Your Chickens?

Similar to humans, the seeds can also be toxic for the chickens. Avoid serving the fruit with its pit to your chickens. Even when you give the peach whole to your flock, the best thing is to slice it first. Then, take out its seed to avoid health issues among your chickens.

Nutrients Your Chickens Can Benefit From Peaches

One medium-sized peach can provide 50 calories for your chickens. Plus, 15 grams of carbohydrates and 13 grams of sugar. Also, the birds can get half a gram of healthy fats, two grams of fiber, and one gram of protein. More so, peach fruit doesn’t contain sodium and cholesterol.

Here are the primary nutrients you can find in peaches that your chickens can benefit from.

Vitamin C

Vitamin C helps generate collagen, so it’s incredibly favorable for your flock. Plus, this vitamin helps in boosting your chickens’ immunity.

Collagen

Collagen aids in the chickens’ healing and recovery from wounds and other injuries. Also, collagen takes control in developing healthy skin for the chickens.

Potassium

The potassium in a peach fruit helps the chickens’ core cell function. This nutrient lessens the risk of diseases and health issues like kidney stones, stroke, and high blood pressure.

Fiber

The fiber in this fruit helps in controlling a chicken’s weight. So, it helps prevent obesity among your flock, which can lead to severe health issues. More so, fiber strengthens the health of a chicken’s colon.

Carbohydrates

The chicken fed with peaches also gets carbohydrates that will keep it energetic. Also, carbs from peaches help boost the overall wellness of your flock.

Natural Sugar

Peaches are sweet because of their natural sugar. This raw sugar performs as a natural taste enhancer.

That’s why your chickens love to eat peaches. Because of the peaches’ natural sugars, these fruits are healthy alternatives to processed food or other sweet treats.

Water

The water in Peach can keep your chickens hydrated. Peaches have enough water content for hydration to your feathered pets.

Benefits Your Chickens Can Get From Eating Peaches

Antioxidants

Chickens need antioxidants for overall health and growth. It’s because antioxidants block free radicals from destroying the cells in the chickens’ bodies.

Several factors develop these molecules called free radicals. Treats and foods the chicken ate, exposure to cigarette smoke, and even normal metabolism in the body can be some of the causes of free radicals.

If the chicken has many free radicals, it can end up in damage to systemic cells. The outcome will make the chickens sick and weak.

Boosts Immunity

The fruit contains a lot of vitamin C. We all know that this vitamin prevents humans and animals from getting sick by boosting the immunity in the body. It’s the same with chickens. More so, when you have a sick chicken, feeding it with peaches and other treats high in vitamin C will boost recovery at once.

Helps In Digestion

Chickens fed with peaches have healthy digestion. One medium-sized fruit already has about 2 grams of fiber. Half of it is soluble fiber, and the other half is insoluble.

Soluble fiber takes care of beneficial bacteria in the chickens’ intestines. These bacteria generate short-chain fatty acids that feed the cells in the chickens’ gut.

The insoluble fiber also helps make the stool denser as it helps transfer foods through the digestive tract well. More so, the insoluble fiber helps in preventing constipation.

Other Benefits Of Peaches To Your Chickens

Chickens, in general, are energetic and curious animals in nature. These birds are not domestic at the beginning. So, it’s natural for you to see your flock constantly pecking at something and sometimes at each other!

Domesticated chickens can adjust without difficulties, yet you still need to keep them occupied. Chickens do not do well in being lethargic. It would help if you did something to keep your poultry physically fit.

You can use peaches for entertainment or your flock’s physical activity. Chickens in confined environments are prone to get bored and stressed. Our previous articles mentioned that boredom and tension could lead to becoming aggressive. More so, it affects egg production.

There are two ways to stimulate your chickens’ physical activities using peach fruit.

• Slices Or Cubes Of Peaches Scattered– To bring out your fowls’ scavenging nature, you can scatter slices or cubes of peaches on the ground for them to explore.
• Hidden Slices Or Cubes Of Peaches– It’s also best to hide the portions under a few pieces of hay for your chickens to uncover. These methods will keep your chickens active, entertained, and healthy. [9 Tips to Keep Chicken Laying Eggs in The Winter]
• Hang Peach Cubes – You can hang slices or cubed peaches on a thin string and tie them on a tree branch. Or some solid poles or sticks near or in their coop. This method will make your birds bounce and run for the treat. It would be amusing for your flock.

How To Feed Peach To Chickens

There are different ways of serving peaches to your chickens. Below are some examples you can follow.

Whole Peaches To The Chickens

You can serve the whole peach to your flock as long as you first remove the seeds from the fruits. Chickens don’t eat the seeds, as a rule. But some of them may be curious and peck at it. If chickens ingest the peaches’ seeds, it could make them sick. You can fling the fruit to your flock once you scooped the seeds out, and your chickens will start eating them.

Hanging The Peach

One way to keep your chickens busy is to hang fruit from a branch. You can suspend a peach fruit for your chickens to peck at it like a tetherball.

Mixing Peaches In Chicken Feeds

The mixing method of peaches in chicken feeds is another excellent way to include nourishment in their fodders.

No matter how you feed your chickens with peaches, don’t forget to wash the fruit first. Fruits like peaches have wax and other contaminants on their skins when you buy them in grocery stores. You can clean the fruit well by soaking or rinsing it first with lukewarm water. Ensure that the wax is nowhere in sight.

Canned Peaches

Though your chickens can eat canned peaches, experts don’t recommend it. Canned peaches mostly have additional preservatives to maintain the fruit’s quality for a long time.

The substances in canned peaches more often than not include ascorbic acid, citric acid, salt, and sodium benzoate. We all know how preservatives can be dangerous to the health of chickens. Plus, a mixture of sugar is present to retain the flavor of the fruit while in the can.

Small amounts of all the additional preservatives and sugars may not immediately affect your chickens. But feeding them constantly with canned peaches can have a long-term effect. Also, feeding canned peaches in large amounts can do a lot of harm to the chickens’ well-being.

The Proper Amount Of Peach To Feed Your Chickens

Like other fruits and vegetables, you can feed your chickens peaches in moderation. Many wonders that even when the peach skin and flesh don’t have toxins and are nutritious, how come we shouldn’t feed too much of them to the chickens.

Peaches don’t have the proper nutrition your chickens need daily. It’s necessary to feed your flock of peaches only occasionally. This fruit doesn’t have the appropriate sustenance your poultry needs every day.

Feeding only peaches to your chickens or feeding them much of this fruit will provide less nutrition these birds need daily. Thus, it will also lead to chicken health concerns.

Ninety percent of the chickens’ diet should come from quality commercial feeds. In comparison, treats like peaches should only be about ten percent of their diet. Why is that so? The commercial feeds have the correct quantity of nourishment to meet the chickens’ daily dietary requirements.

Healthy Fruits To Try Aside From Peaches

Besides peaches, here are other fruits that can provide beneficial effects to your chicken.

1. Watermelon

This vibrant fruit is ideal during summer to prevent overheating among the flock. Chickens eat its flesh, seed, and even the rind. But the reason why it is the best treat is that it contains hefty amounts of water. To make a cooling watermelon soup, blend the flesh and ice cubes. Pour the soup into the watermelon rind, and let them enjoy the freshness.

2. Apple

Since it is available all year round, you don’t have to wait for warmer weather. Apples are highly nutritious, but you want to remove the seeds. Why so? It contains little amount of cyanide which can be unhealthy for the flock.

3. Bananas

This yellow fruit contains high potassium, magnesium, and vitamin B levels. All of which help improve the health and well-being of a chicken. Unripe ones can also aid in digestion and support the gut microbiome. Ideally, bananas should only cover 5% of their weekly diet.

4. Blueberries

This fruit may cause unusual waste color, but they offer essential nutrients like fiber and vitamin C. It is low in calories, and like peaches, it has a sweet flavor. Try mixing this with other treats to keep them excited. But remember that fruits should only cover 10% of their weekly diet.   

5. Strawberries

If you want a variety aside from blueberries, try this red plump fruit. Strawberries are high in vitamin C and B9, offering anti-oxidant and metabolism assistance. You can cut it to bite size pieces or mix it with grit for easier processing. But we recommend the latter since high-content fruits are tough to break down.

Summing Up

Can a chicken eat peaches? The answer is YES! As long as you scoop out its pit or seed. It will surprise you how your chickens will love eating those peaches full of flavors plus packed with nutrients!