Grain-free chickens? - Page 6

Geese are not strictly herbivores, but they can and do thrive without supplemental grain if you're able to provide them plenty of pasture. 

Hmmmm.... You use the word, "thrive." I dont know any better, so ill go with that.
I'm contemplating geese, although they will get grains... I'm a rebel like that!

I saw on a nature documentary once that there is a breed of wild ducks that eat carcasses like vultures.

I guess I over-simplified by calling geese "herbivores." That's not really accurate. What I should have said was that traditionally, geese do get the vast bulk of their food from pasture during the growing season. One assumes this would be particularly true of the older, thriftier, heritage breeds (eg. Pilgrim and especially Cotton Patch). I've never raise geese (yet), but I took this from the 10th edition of the Encyclopedia of Country Living (written and compiled by Carla Emery):

 

"They can thrive on no more than grass, can be a cash crop, and will lay eggs for an amazing number of years....

 

Provide green grass to goslings as soon as they will eat. Although you can feed goslings the same diet as ducklings, you can also offer them bread or cornbread moistened with milk. You can gradually reduce the number of feedings until the fourth week....

 

At 5 to 6 weeks your goslings can survive entirely on pasture if they can get enough of it, although it's helpful to their diet if you continue the supplemental grain and/or pellet feeding until they're completely feathered.... They can also eat grocery store culls of lettuce, cabbage, endive, and celery leaves... For best results, plan on 1 acre of prime pasture for each 20-40 geese.... You can compensate for poor pasture by feeding supplemental grain. In winter... they'll also need some good (not moldy!) alfalfa hay, corn fodder, grain... or whatever you're feeding your chickens. Geese enjoy warm cull potatoes and can thrive on them....

 

Geese love green stuff. It's their natural food. Grown geese can thrive on grass and weeds alone, if the plants are tender.... Feeding geese grass gives them cheap nourishment and keeps them healthy."

Well sky, Im not convinced grains are bad.

 

Now if they get along without grains, that is good for different reasons than some fear of grains. During a grain shortage, for example, this could be a big plus.

 

But t wouldn't hurt my feelings for my geese - or any other critter - to eat some grain. Im thinking a ground corn mash supplement.

 

 

I don't think grains are bad either (and for the record wasn't trying to say they were). I just think that, in those cases and places when better options for certain flock-raising circumstances present themselves, it's silly to cling blindly to a grain-feeding paradigm if it's not in one's best interest or doesn't serve the common good.

 

I think we're kind of in agreement, Davaroo. Just as people shouldn't blindly reject the idea of feeding grain, they shouldn't blindly assume that feeding animals must mean feeding them grain. I'm sure there are many good reasons both to feed grain or not to feed grain to various animals, depending ON UNIQUE and often LOCALIZED CIRCUMSTANCES.

 

Often, for many people, the simple fact that feeding grains requires a significant and regular PURCHASED input is enough of a reason to at least consider other options for carbohydrate ration components!

 

I don't want anyone to feel defensive about their concious choices, only to question blind assumptions and paradigms that may be ill-suited to their actual needs. One size doesn't fit all when it comes to small-scale farming (including "backyard flocks")--never has, never will.

Edited by sky the chicken man - 4/22/12 at 4:13pm

 

 

Works for me. I can see geese, now, running amok on my place.

 

 

I definitely like the thought of having a few geese someday myself... Probably not a lot... just a few, ya know... :)

Edited by sky the chicken man - 4/22/12 at 7:09pm

And guineas, dont forget the guineas. Rancho Davaroo will be a noisome place.
 

I have really enjoyed these post on such a topic that everyone is so passionate about. I am of the primal lifestyle. I take issue with soy being fed to chickens. I have read studies that show soy will be in the eggs of chickens fed soy. As for grain I think it's impossible to have grain free chickens, but it has been proven scientificly that chickens fed a predominantly grain diet contain a much higher amount of heart unhealthy Omega-6 fatty acids. Probably fine for the birds, but not so much for us.