Kangkong and Green Feed
TL;DR: Kangkong is fast, free green supplement feed — chopped and offered daily, it gives confined birds greens they would otherwise never see. It is not a ration and it does not replace one. The real hazard is not the plant but the water it grew in: kangkong from canals, drainage or contaminated water carries what was in that water, and rinsing is not a reliable fix. Grow it in clean water or buy it as food-grade.
The cheapest greens in the Philippines, with one condition attached.
What Greens Are Actually For
Not nutrition in the headline sense. Green feed is bulky relative to what it supplies, and a chicken’s capacity is small — see chicken anatomy. Birds fill up long before greens have contributed much to their requirement.
What greens genuinely do:
- Give confined birds something they would otherwise never get. A flock without range eats what is in the feeder and nothing else.
- Give them something to do. Boredom in a penned flock turns into feather pecking and cannibalism, and a hanging bundle of greens is one of the cheapest interventions against it.
- Deepen yolk colour, which matters to buyers — see selling eggs — and is otherwise cosmetic.
- Reduce waste, when the greens are trimmings you have anyway.
A genuinely free-range or pastured flock is already finding this for itself. Cut greens are for the birds that cannot.
Why Kangkong Specifically
It grows faster than almost anything else you can produce at home, in water or wet soil, from cuttings, and it regrows after cutting. For a keeper who wants a continuous green supply without buying it, that is hard to beat.
Practical points:
- Chop it. Long stems get dragged around and wasted.
- Offer it fresh. Wilted or slimy material is refused or, worse, eaten.
- Feed alongside the ration, not instead of it. If complete feed intake drops noticeably, you are overdoing the greens.
- Do not let it rot in the pen. Uneaten greens on the floor attract flies and rats and go straight into the wet-litter problem — see chickens in the rainy season.
The Water Is the Risk
This is the part that gets skipped.
Kangkong is an aquatic plant, and it takes up what is in the water it grows in. Kangkong harvested from roadside canals, drainage channels, or water near industry, dumping or heavy agricultural runoff carries that history with it, and rinsing does not reliably remove it.
That is a food-safety issue for people, and it becomes one for you too if you are eating the eggs or the birds.
The rule: grow it in clean water you control, or buy it from a source selling it as food for people. Do not gather it from wherever it happens to be growing because it is free.
The same principle applies to azolla, which is also grown on water.
Other Greens Worth Using
| Green | Notes |
|---|---|
| Malunggay | The other easy one, grows everywhere |
| Madre de agua | Cut-and-carry tree forage |
| Vegetable trimmings | Fine, within the kitchen scraps rules |
| Grass clippings | Only fresh and untreated; never from a treated lawn |
| Weeds from the garden | Free, provided you know what they are |
What does not go in, regardless of how green it looks: anything slimy or mouldy, anything from treated ground, and everything on the standing list at what not to feed chickens. Mouldy material is discarded, not fed — see aspergillosis for one reason why.
How Much
No figure here, because it depends on your birds and your ration. The workable test is behavioural:
Watch complete feed intake. Greens are a supplement while the birds are still eating their ration normally. When the ration starts sitting untouched, the greens have stopped being a supplement and started being a substitute — and a substitute is a bird slowly getting less than it needs. See how much feed does a chicken eat per day.
For chicks, a formulated starter is the diet. Small amounts of finely chopped greens alongside it are harmless; greens displacing starter are not.
The Honest Limits Here
That chickens readily eat kangkong and other greens, that green feed functions as a supplement rather than a ration, and that aquatic plants take up contaminants from the water they grow in, is uncontroversial. This guide gives no quantities, no composition figures and no production claims — greens vary enormously and the useful measure is whether your birds are still eating their ration. Kangkong from canals, drainage or contaminated water should not be fed, and rinsing is not a reliable remedy. Anything mouldy or spoiled is discarded.
Related: what to feed chickens, malunggay for chickens, kitchen scraps for chickens, protein sources for chicken feed.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can chickens eat kangkong?
Yes. Chopped kangkong is readily eaten and is one of the easiest greens to produce in the Philippines. It is a supplement rather than a feed.
Is kangkong good for chickens?
As green supplement feed, yes. It gives confined birds greens they would otherwise never get, and it gives them something to work at. It does not replace a balanced ration.
What water should kangkong for chickens be grown in?
Clean water. Kangkong grown in drainage, canals or contaminated water carries whatever is in that water, and washing does not reliably fix it.
What greens are unsafe for chickens?
Anything that has gone slimy or mouldy, anything from a treated or contaminated water source, and the plants on the general do-not-feed list including raw dried beans, avocado and heavily salted material.
How much green feed should chickens get?
Enough to be a supplement, not enough to displace their ration. If intake of the complete feed drops noticeably, you are giving too much.
Do greens improve yolk colour?
Generally yes. That is a cosmetic property that matters to buyers, not a measure of the egg quality.
Do free-range chickens need greens given to them?
A flock with real range is already finding greens. Cut greens matter most for confined birds and for birds whose range is bare.