HYPOTHETICAL DISCUSSION: What to feed your chickens when we can't buy chicken feed anymore

There is no chicken feed available on the island where I live, I just received a bag that I ordered from the U.S..
Before that I fed them for 6 months on kitchen and table scraps, weeds, ferns, hibiscus leaves, banana leaves, worms, crushed snails, crushed egg shells, cracked corn, grass clippings, parrot seed, moringa leaves, spent grain from a local brewery that I dried in the sun (I had 5 bucket loads) and they foraged their own food in their 25' x 14' run. I added old tree trunks infested with ants nests, that kept them busy for a few days and I also hung a maggot bucket on top of the run. <-- really cool, they used to stand under the bucket waiting for maggots to drop.

bahamabanty said:

There is no chicken feed available on the island where I live, I just received a bag that I ordered from the U.S..
Before that I fed them for 6 months on kitchen and table scraps, weeds, ferns, hibiscus leaves, banana leaves, worms, crushed snails, crushed egg shells, cracked corn, grass clippings, parrot seed, moringa leaves, spent grain from a local brewery that I dried in the sun (I had 5 bucket loads) and they foraged their own food in their 25' x 14' run. I added old tree trunks infested with ants nests, that kept them busy for a few days and I also hung a maggot bucket on top of the run.

<-- really cool, they used to stand under the bucket waiting for maggots to drop.

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Have you eaten any of those birds? They sound like they would be tasty!

bahamabanty said:

There is no chicken feed available on the island where I live, I just received a bag that I ordered from the U.S..
Before that I fed them for 6 months on kitchen and table scraps, weeds, ferns, hibiscus leaves, banana leaves, worms, crushed snails, crushed egg shells, cracked corn, grass clippings, parrot seed, moringa leaves, spent grain from a local brewery that I dried in the sun (I had 5 bucket loads) and they foraged their own food in their 25' x 14'  run. I added old tree trunks infested with ants nests, that kept them busy for a few days and I also hung a maggot bucket on top of the run.

  <-- really cool, they used to stand under the bucket waiting for maggots to drop.

Click to expand...

Great video, thanks! I will have to try that.

bahamabanty said:

There is no chicken feed available on the island where I live, I just received a bag that I ordered from the U.S..
Before that I fed them for 6 months on kitchen and table scraps, weeds, ferns, hibiscus leaves, banana leaves, worms, crushed snails, crushed egg shells, cracked corn, grass clippings, parrot seed, moringa leaves, spent grain from a local brewery that I dried in the sun (I had 5 bucket loads) and they foraged their own food in their 25' x 14' run. I added old tree trunks infested with ants nests, that kept them busy for a few days and I also hung a maggot bucket on top of the run.

<-- really cool, they used to stand under the bucket waiting for maggots to drop.

Click to expand...

With all that wondrous bounty to choose from your chickens are gonna think they are being punished if you give them plain ole chicken feed. Sounds like they had it pretty good.

Yes, but I soon realized that making sure my chickens got all their 'chicken food groups" from scratch means hard work! Me and my wife both have a dayjob and 3 young kids, so I will admit I kinda like just filling their bowl with Layena in the morning..... LOL

No I couldnt eat my 3 chickens Allysha, my youngest would have a fit. Yes the video is awesome and I like that guy in there too, he has some more cool videos on his channel, and it really works. The hanging maggot bucket is not for people that have their coops under their bedroom window though!


I forgot to tell I also fed them fish guts and conch slob (parts of giant sea snail thats not used for cooking), all freely available.

bahamabanty said:

Yes, but I soon realized that making sure my chickens got all their 'chicken food groups" from scratch means hard work! Me and my wife both have a dayjob and 3 young kids, so I will admit I kinda like just filling their bowl with Layena in the morning..... LOL

No I couldnt eat my 3 chickens Allysha, my youngest would have a fit. Yes the video is awesome and I like that guy in there too, he has some more cool videos on his channel, and it really works. The hanging maggot bucket is not for people that have their coops under their bedroom window though!


I forgot to tell I also fed them fish guts and conch slob (parts of giant sea snail thats not used for cooking), all freely available.

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Yes, I could see where that would be a great deal of work and very time consuming. My first rule when planning my chicken forage plot is that the bulk of it they must be able to get for themselves. Gathering all that would certainly get old real fast.

Aphrael said:

Yes, I could see where that would be a great deal of work and very time consuming. My first rule when planning my chicken forage plot is that the bulk of it they must be able to get for themselves. Gathering all that would certainly get old real fast.

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Yes, and mine are in a huge protected run, because we have a lot of stray dogs and cats around. I wish I could let them totally free range but its just not possible in my area.

bahamabanty said:

Yes, and mine are in a huge protected run, because we have a lot of stray dogs and cats around. I wish I could let them totally free range but its just not possible in my area.

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You say your run is huge. Would it be possible to integrate some chicken garden areas and/or compost piles or something similar inside of it for them? That would let them forage at least some an give them something to keep them occupied as well. I know when I have to confine mine for some reason they get into LOTS of trouble.

Here in Thailand I don't buy chicken food very often (only when I have newly hatched chicks)

All my chickens get kitchen leftovers which include veg, meat, and a LOT of rice, cooked and uncooked. They free range all day and roost in a coop at night.

Thats it.....easy and cheap.

jak2002003 said:

Here in Thailand I don't buy chicken food very often (only when I have newly hatched chicks)

All my chickens get kitchen leftovers which include veg, meat, and a LOT of rice, cooked and uncooked. They free range all day and roost in a coop at night.

Thats it.....easy and cheap.

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Yes, I had to go to asian and hawaiian based chicken websites and youtube channels to see what I could feed them. Thats how I found out about the hibiscus, banana leeaves and the ferns.
A lot of info on feeding them for (almost) free in the tropics here in this video (from Phillipines I believe): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bdNHEpMISmQ
Jak2002 you will probably like this video, a lot of plants I didnt recognize but maybe you will!
Btw, did you find that they would lay less when you feed them a lot of cooked rice? Some old folks here told me not to give them too much rice,
but I havent noticed a difference. It seemed to me they lay more after I fed them left over pea's and rice, called "potcake":



What would you feed babychicks if you had no chick starter around?

Aphrael said:

You say your run is huge. Would it be possible to integrate some chicken garden areas and/or compost piles or something similar inside of it for them? That would let them forage at least some an give them something to keep them occupied as well. I know when I have to confine mine for some reason they get into LOTS of trouble.

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Yes, I throw compost/garden clippings etc in one corner of the run daily, this works because thats where they scratch etc. I try to limit the amount of table scraps to what they will eat in an hour or so, because of rats. So far its been going very well.


after a good afternoon tropical downpour, its a creepy crawly dig fest in here


(This is the coop and the run I started with, all that bush in the back of the coop, middle to right is the "jungle run" I added.)