Lots of detail.. But my neighbor smmed it up nicely when I first started with chickens some sixteen years ago "You can't poison a chicken." Now Joe was about seventy or so at the time and had come up in a house w/o inside plumbing etc etc. So, I trusted Joe and fed my (free-range) birds accordingly.
I keep a coffee 'can' on the counter and strainers in the sink. Whatever food particles wind up in the sink, get transfered to the container. When preparing dinner, the odd bits of this, that and the other discarded in trimming the veg or meat are added to the 'can.' at teh end of the meal the plates are scraped and rinsed into the sink and that detritus winds up in the strainer, then into the 'can.' With each pot of coffee the can gets the grounds.
And, the chickens get whatever's in that coffee can the next day. So, egg shells after breakfast. Cantaloupe seeds and rind as well as orange peel*, less than perfect grapes and bananna peel.
* I was gifted a ninjah bullet food chapper thing and will grind up the banana peel and orange peel along with whatever's in the can (sometime I add water to facilitate the chopping) and toss the resulting mess in teh run for them to peck at - eating what they will and discarding whatever they don't feel ike eating that day.
I figure what they don't eat will attract insects which they love to eat.
I've got the best tasting eggs and sell every dozen they produce to the same small set of customers that swear by them.
I also use that chopper thing to turn a rotisserie chicken's remains into Dog Food Enhancement - bones, cartilige, skin fat (whatever we don't eat) all becomes a treat to mix in with the bargain dry dog food.
In short, these birds, left to their own devices, got along without us beore they met us and will get along without us as necessary. But it doesn't hurt to let them have at your (otherwise) garbage or compost as long as you have to go out there and collect the eggs anyway
I keep a coffee 'can' on the counter and strainers in the sink. Whatever food particles wind up in the sink, get transfered to the container. When preparing dinner, the odd bits of this, that and the other discarded in trimming the veg or meat are added to the 'can.' at teh end of the meal the plates are scraped and rinsed into the sink and that detritus winds up in the strainer, then into the 'can.' With each pot of coffee the can gets the grounds.
And, the chickens get whatever's in that coffee can the next day. So, egg shells after breakfast. Cantaloupe seeds and rind as well as orange peel*, less than perfect grapes and bananna peel.
* I was gifted a ninjah bullet food chapper thing and will grind up the banana peel and orange peel along with whatever's in the can (sometime I add water to facilitate the chopping) and toss the resulting mess in teh run for them to peck at - eating what they will and discarding whatever they don't feel ike eating that day.
I figure what they don't eat will attract insects which they love to eat.
I've got the best tasting eggs and sell every dozen they produce to the same small set of customers that swear by them.
I also use that chopper thing to turn a rotisserie chicken's remains into Dog Food Enhancement - bones, cartilige, skin fat (whatever we don't eat) all becomes a treat to mix in with the bargain dry dog food.
In short, these birds, left to their own devices, got along without us beore they met us and will get along without us as necessary. But it doesn't hurt to let them have at your (otherwise) garbage or compost as long as you have to go out there and collect the eggs anyway
While I've two neat, clean nest boxes in the one pen, I have an two or more occasions found a fresh egg amid the droppings - feet away from and behind the nest boxes I'd so lovingly crafted for the ladies.