No. There may be some very minor benefits such as additional minerals or energy (not needed), but they'll be getting that if you're feeding a commercial feed anyway.

The drawbacks are quick bacteria build up, especially in warm weather, attraction of flys, and chickens just don't need that much excess sugar. It's a waste of time and money.

thank you for the info, we find a combo of nutrena layer crumbles and wild game feed, we also haev peacocks.

There is a great page by MSU on various poultry solutions here:

http://msucares.com/poultry/diseases/solutions.html

The molasses basically is used as a laxative for birds that have been exposed to botulism toxins, to flush their digestive tract. As with any home treatment, some people swear by it, some don't. If you have birds that have suffered an outbreak of botulism and are dead if you do nothing, I think it may fall under the 'can't hurt' category.

Are you maybe thinking of the benefits of putting ACV (apple cider vinegar) into chickens' drinking water...?

By the way, I'm jealous of your peacocks. :( I want peas!

Velvet ~:>

We have always used a mixture of molasses and apple cider vinegar in our chicken's water and have never had a sick chicken. Yes, anecdotal, but molasses has tons of vitamins and minerals and AVC is also a wonderful additive. With the little chicks, we use it all the time until they get to be about 3 months old.

We always have a waterer with it available after that and just plain water in the others. In the winter, they seem to drink more of the doctored water and in the summer, more plain water.

Recipe for a concentrate that doesn't need refrig. and lasts forever:

Microwave in a 2 C. measuring cup, 12 oz. ACV for 2 minutes. Add molasses to make 2 cups (1/2 C.) Use 1/4 C. of this mixture to one gallon of water.

Great idea...keep it up Carmen!