List of food NOT to feed chickens

It is not really a wonder. Our pioneers in early days would just let loose a bunch of bantam chickens into the adjacent forest near their homesteads. ( Bantams can survive free range only). Whenever they could, they would catch them and eat them. They would keep resupplying the forest, kind of similar to what we do with fish from hatcheries released into lakes and rivers. (restocking) . The chickens obviously were on the small size, but that was better than no chickens at all. Jungle fowl chickens are the original chickens from which all others were developed. I had one a while back, She was an excellent flyer, medium size, and not very meaty. Could survive in the wild with no problem. The later developed large fowl breeds are huge chickens that need to be fed by Keepers/Farmers. They would not survive in the wild on their own.
I totally have to disagree with you. Take a trip to Miami Florida for instance. They have a huge feral chicken problem and they are breeding and surviving just fine. My egg chickens? I don't have to feed them at all in the summer. They ignore the food in their dishes and are off foraging the whole day. They come back to the coop to lay. Their only threat is predators not a lack of food and they give me more eggs than me and three or four other families.
 
I totally have to disagree with you. Take a trip to Miami Florida for instance. They have a huge feral chicken problem and they are breeding and surviving just fine. My egg chickens? I don't have to feed them at all in the summer. They ignore the food in their dishes and are off foraging the whole day. They come back to the coop to lay. Their only threat is predators not a lack of food and they give me more eggs than me and three or four other families.


Disagree with what specifically about my post?

Sure in some isolated areas especially 'tropical' ones like you point out some wild populations of chickens can survive, I never said they did not and could not... But they are not exactly your garden variety domestic birds, they have been feral for generations and due to natural selection over those years and generations the 'survivors' have regained their wild behaviors, skills and in many cases some degree of flight back...

Also if we look at a page like this ( https://thenaturalpoultryfarmingguide.org/2013/04/11/when-urban-chickens-go-wild/ ) it's estimated that the feral population is 10,000 chickens in Miami... Considering the number of eggs 10,000 chickens can lay and hatch in a year it's easy to factor that they are in fact having horribly high mortality rates and not exactly thriving at optimal rates...

And last these chickens are not exactly fully 'wild' but are almost certainly sustaining in large part from their human interactions and the local human population, be it intentionally or unintentionally supplied food, shelters and the fact that humans have eradicated and continue to eradicate for the most part a large percentage of the predators in that area...

To me they are simply 'homeless' chickens, not 'wild' more akin to a 'homeless' person living in Miami...
 
@MeepBeep
You have plenty of acreage , so maybe try one summer and don't feed your gogo girls any feed . Let them free range, and you should still have plenty of eggs. Just think of all that extra time you will have on your hands from not having to get all those goodies from the market. And think of the hurt you will be putting on Farm & Fleet. Yea,,,, Teach em a lesson....
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@MeepBeep

You have plenty of acreage ,  so maybe try one summer and don't feed your gogo girls any feed . Let them free range, and you should still have plenty of eggs.  Just think of all that extra time you will have on your hands from not having to get all those goodies from the market.   And think of the hurt you will be putting on Farm & Fleet. Yea,,,, Teach em a lesson.... :gig :lau


Yeah, if only it was that easy, too bad no one else every thought of this as it could revolutionize the poultry industry worldwide and put all those feed companies out of business, LOL... :lol::lol::lol::lol:

Or more likely I would wake up to mass slaughters of chickens every day or missing chickens every night and a huge drop in egg production and health, but the coyotes and coons will likely love me and have fully bellies for a bit until there were no chickens left...

And I'm sure during the coming winter months my chickens, guineas and peafowl will be able to find plenty of ripe food under the snow to keep their gizzards full, right? I mean it's not like a vast majority of the local fowl and birds migrate or anything... :lol::lol::lol::lol::lol::lol:
 
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Yeah, if only it was that easy, too bad no one else every thought of this as it could revolutionize the poultry industry worldwide and put all those feed companies out of business, LOL... :lol::lol::lol::lol:

Or more likely I would wake up to mass slaughters of chickens every day or missing chickens every night and a huge drop in egg production and health, but the coyotes and coons will likely love me and have fully bellies for a bit until there were no chickens left...

And I'm sure during the coming winter months my chickens, guineas and peafowl will be able to find plenty of ripe food under the snow to keep their gizzards full, right? I mean it's not like a vast majority of the local fowl and birds migrate or anything... :lol::lol::lol::lol::lol::lol:


Sounds like you live right next door... coyotes, coons, fox, link, skunk, bobcat, possum, etc... i have plenty of acreage also but my properly backs up to the shawnee national forest.
 

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