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Can Chickens Eat Split Peas?

When learning how to take care of chickens, knowing what chickens eat is important. This begs the question of can chickens eat split peas?

Every day, chicken owners wonder about feeding their backyard chickens various foods and ingredients.

The fact of the matter is some foods are incredibly nutritious for chickens while others are actually detrimental to your flock’s health and immune system.

red chicken eating split peas from a tray with the label can chickens eat split peas

If you’re wondering if your chickens can eat split peas, you’ve come to the right place. In this article, we are going to answer that question as well as provide some additional information about using split peas as a food source for chickens.

For example – what is the nutritional value of split peas? What things should you keep in mind when offering split peas to your backyard chickens?

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Can Chickens Eat Split Peas?

If you want to raise healthy chickens, it’s important to feed them a well-balanced diet. When choosing food for your chicken, one question you may have is “can chickens eat split peas?

The short answer is yes, chickens can eat split peas (including cooked split peas) as part of their regular diet.

Split peas (including yellow split peas and green split peas alike) are a good source of protein, fiber, and minerals like magnesium and potassium. They also contain antioxidants that can help keep your chickens healthy.

Your birds can eat both fresh and frozen peas and glean these same benefits.

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Feeding your chickens split peas is a great way to give them some extra nutrients, and it’s easy to do! Just add a handful of split peas to their feed each day and they’ll take care of the rest.

Split peas (including raw and cooked peas) are safe and nutritious for chickens.

bowl of split peas with a label that says can chickens eat split peas

However, keep in mind that split peas don’t contain enough nutrients to be fed to chickens as an entire meal.

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Your chickens can eat chicken feed that contains split peas or you can give them split peas as a snack to maintain a healthy diet. But don’t expect them to live exclusively on split peas and still stay healthy.

How Are Split Peas Good For Chickens?

Chickens can eat split peas and in fact, when used appropriately, split peas can be a wonderful and healthy addition to your chickens’ regular diet.

If you’re looking for a healthy way to mix up the bird’s diet, incorporating split peas is a good choice. And the good news is that split peas are very easy to work with.

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Chickens can safely digest split peas whether they are cooked or raw. Some people even give their chickens frozen split peas for a cool treat on a hot day.

How you give your chicken split peas is a personal choice, and you can base it on your (and your chickens’) personal preferences. What’s really important when feeding split peas to a chicken is that they are given as a treat.

red chicken eating split peas from the ground with the label can chickens eat split peas

Split peas have a lot of nutrients that are good for chickens, but they don’t contain enough nutrients to make up a balanced diet.

For this reason, you should never replace chicken feed outright with split peas or other legumes. Instead, choose a chicken feed that contains split peas or mix some in with the bird’s usual feed.

Split Peas Nutritional Value

Why are split peas good for chickens?

Split peas have a lot of nutrients that are just as good for chickens as they are for us as people. In fact, they are one of the best plant-based protein sources and chickens love the way they taste.

Similarly to lentils, this healthy legume is low in fat and also contains a good dose of fiber. On top of that, a single split pea is loaded with beneficial vitamins and minerals, such as:

  • Vitamin B1, B2, B3, B5, and B9
  • Vitamin K
  • Folate
  • Magnesium
  • Calcium
  • Healthy Carbohydrates (energy!)
  • Iron
  • Zinc
  • Vitamin C
  • Vitamin A
  • Amino Acids
  • Potassium 

The only time split peas aren’t recommended for chickens is when they are dried. Dried peas (like dried beans) of any kind are no good for birds to eat. (Soaking your peas will easily solve this problem or keep in mind that chickens can eat cooked peas too.)

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While some chicken owners give their birds dried split peas, we don’t recommend following in their footsteps. Chickens can have a difficult time digesting split peas that have been dried out which is why we don’t recommend chickens eat dried peas.

Only give chickens peas that have been cooked, are raw, or are frozen. (Have you ever fed your birds frozen peas? Yum!)

When to Feed a Chicken Split Peas

Split peas are incredibly healthy, so you’re not doing wrong by allowing your chicken to eat them often. Just remember not to substitute regular chicken feed for split peas exclusively.

Even though split peas are nutritious, they need to be treated as a treat or nutritional supplement. They need other nutrients too!

A good chicken feed has all the nutrients your birds need to complete a well-balanced diet and keep your chicken’s health in tip-top shape. You may even notice split peas in certain brands of chicken feed because they add to the nutrients in addition to the other vitamins and minerals.

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Since they don’t contain all the nutrients needed, split peas can’t be the main food in a chicken’s diet. 

It’s very important that the chicken eats a full-balanced diet for not only its own health but also the health of the eggs it lays. If you are raising chickens specifically for eggs (i.e. laying hens), you will notice that you get better quality eggs from chickens that eat a better diet. 

There’s a rule of thumb that all chicken owners should follow when feeding chickens split peas.

When planning out your chicken’s food, 90 % of their daily diet needs to be chicken feed. The other 10 % can be made up of safe-to-consume treats, such as split peas or other foods that are safe for chickens to digest.

To Recap:

  • Don’t feed chickens dried peas or dried beans.
  • Do feed chickens fresh peas
  • Do feed chickens raw peas
  • Do feed chickens dried peas that have been soaked for 6-12 hours (did you know soaked peas and beans get rid of any anti nutrients? Simply soak split peas in a bowl or bucket of water until they start to swell.)
  • Do feed chickens cooked peas
  • Do feed chickens frozen peas (chickens eat frozen peas to stay cool!)
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So, there you have it! Chickens can eat split peas and they’re a great addition to their normal feed.

Just make sure that you don’t rely on split peas as the only source of nutrition for your chickens – they need a variety of different foods to stay healthy.

What do you give your chickens as a treat? Let us know in the comments below! We love getting feedback from our readers.

More Recommended Resources For Feeding Chickens

And if you’re looking for more information on keeping backyard chickens, be sure to check out our other posts!

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Thanks for reading. Happy homesteading!!

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Charlene has been dabbling in and learning about the homesteading lifestyle for almost 20 years. She recently started a real-world homestead with her extended family and is excited to share 20+ years of knowledge and experience with the world!

While she certainly doesn't know everything about homesteading and is learning more every day, she is excited to learn and grow along with YOU!

Charlene blogs about about homesteading at https://secretlifeofhomesteaders.com/.

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