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

[bj taylor]

the old timers didn't go buy feed for their chickens. they tossed stuff to them & let them free range during the day. that's probably how i'd do it.

 

[missnu01]

Great question.

I feed them food out of our garden, but only fresh food.

I have pondered this question, along with how much they could forage themselves. I think you cannot go far without saying corn,and then dry it to be used later. I would say hay too. I don't think i could grow all the grain needed for a flock unless it was my full time job or very small scale. Also if need be free ranging with human protection.

I have also wondered about a large flock to be systematically culled through the winter and then replenish with hatching your own in the spring. I keep a relatively large flock of dozens (4 dozen) birds. I find that free ranging truly reduces my feed bill, but then I lost 11 to a fox attack this spring, so there is a balance to be struck of savings versus safety.

I also believe eggs are a perfect food, my favorite in fact! My husband thinks I am a little hysterical when I ponder such things, but then I am a planner and if catastrophe would truly strike, I would like to think I won't be the proverbial chicken with my head cut off without a plan.

Anxious to hear what others think.

Cucumbers, squash, peanuts, strawberries, bell peppers. Anything you can grow that you can eat and get vitamins from will also benefit the chickens. None of this would matter in a nuclear holocaust though..the chickens would die from free ranging and all the soil would be dead...so whatever people managed to survive it probably wouldn't be for long. Unless they had a really large underground bunker set up with a huge indoor garden area. I feel like while those people are out there, they are few and far between.

 

[LilyD]

If we were to experience a complete societal collapse or major calamity I suspect feeding chickens won't seem quite so important.

I think if we had complete societal collape then I think it would be even more important to feed them so they continue to live and lay eggs for us to provide more chickens and more meat and eggs. But then my thoughts are that if society collapses I want to be able to live completely off the land rather than have to barter or buy things. So I am working on getting to the point where I buy less and make more.

 

[coopscritters]

It makes sense to cull the flock in fall keeping only best birds. Broodiness would be a real attribute. It has not been all that long since people lived more off the land. I recall the old family farm as a kid and in winter there were just a few chicken ranging around the barn picking up bits of feed from the cows and basically living off kitchen scraps. ( I'm not all that old)
There are also lots of ways to preserve eggs without refrigeration. All of this has been done before very successfully and if you just ask, old farmers are full of the best tips.

 

[Missa Chickabee]

I'm going to try to revive this thread.

As time has passed I'm thinking that in America we may see this 'hypothetical' become reality.

Quite honestly, I am not much further ahead in preparation than I was last year when we started the discussion.

All the good input has been appreciated. But I just need to overcome this 'paralysis' start implementing some of the excellent ideas contributed!

I would like to say that free-ranging would be the answer but where I live, we would lose all thirty something of them within the month.
We are predator thick. But maybe with a good LGDog.

Shall we begin again?

 

[RedneckGurl]

I've read through this thread from start to finish and I too am becoming more and more concerned about our country and our ability to maintain the status quo with the skyrocketing debt, out of control spending, and printing money like there's no tomorrow - not to mention the threats coming at us from outside our borders. My husband and I talk about it often and are trying to take steps to mitigate the impact to us should the SHTF. We moved out to the country two years ago, and this year I planted a garden that has sustained us this summer and also allowed me to freeze or can to use during the winter or times of need. I was truly amazed at the yields you can get from just a few plants if you take appropriate steps before planting and then tend them properly afterwards.

I know for many folks, it goes against our somewhat delicate sensibilities to consider doing this, but I like the earlier comment about feeding road kill to your chickens in the absence of commercially available feeds and/or funds. This is the story of how I found out that chickens were omnivores and not herbivores. In my defense, I had only a brief exposure to chickens on my grandparent's farm as a child. In rural Georgia where we lived for a brief time in the 90's most people who had chickens free ranged them so it was nothing to see them along the roads in front yards and drainage ditches doing their thing and foraging away. One day we came upon what I would literally call a pile of chickens going nuts over something on the side of the road. As we got closer we could see that it was a medium sized dog that had been hit by a car and killed. The chickens were all over it, taking it down to the bones. I think I turned green and gagged but have definitely gotten over that reaction since.

I have 18 birds at the present time and live in a fairly rural setting on 2 acres. If it came down to it, and I couldn't buy scratch or layer pellets anymore, I feel certain that I would supplement my chickens' diets with protein from any available source. There's no shortage of animals (raccoons, possums, squirrels, etc.) that have been hit by cars and I truly think that is a viable option. I already give my chickens left over meat scraps and they go crazy for them. If we end up having to supplement our diets with wild game (which I suspect will happen) such as hogs or deer, I see no reason why some of those trimmings could not go to the chickens as well.

I read on one thread somewhere here on BYC about hanging fish or other small game in a wire basket inside the run and allowing it to become a laying ground for flies, thus producing maggots, which if the basket is tapped hard a few times, will fall onto the ground giving the chickens something to eat and once all the maggots have hatched, dumping the remaining contents out of the basket and allowing the chickens to finish it off. I'm not sure I have the stomach for that since I'm pretty sure the smell would be hard to take, but should the worst happen, you will probably do things you never imagined you could or would do in order to survive and thrive.

I am enjoying this thread and I hope that others find it again and share their ideas and tips.

 

[20736]

Great post, redneck girl!
I think most people sensible enough to keep chickens can see the clouds on the horizon. Does it rain everytime it gets cloudy? Not always. But, if you see those clouds, you should be prepared for rain when it comes.

 

[HeatherEmme]

A rooster took up at my next door neighbors a couple of months before he died of cancer. He was elderly and couldn't get out there to feed the rooster after it had taken up. He worried about how it would survive out there with no food. Another of our neighbors said the rooster would do just fine eating the bugs and grass from the field that separates our home (which is technically an acre of my land). True to that statement the rooster has in fact done just fine on his own. I have been trying to coerce him to come live with us, but he has yet to do so. I have been putting out food recently to get him used to me, but before that he was living alone with no one to feed him for at least 2-3 months. Every day I see him out there in my field pecking away in grass almost as tall as he is. I have no idea where he sleeps at night or how he has survived predation all these months, but survive he has. I would like to have such a savy rooster join my flock...sigh.

Basically, if there was no available feed for the chickens, you could turn them out in the yard (for people who have enough yard) and they'd do just fine on their own.

 

[ChocolateMouse]

Here's a thought; could we not easily raise BUGS to give us the bulk of the feed? This is what chickens eat in the wild to start with...

Earthworms. 30 small buckets (5 gallon) with drainholes set up on them, 500 worms in each. They reproduce in 90 days, low maintainence, easy to collect too all you need is a tarp on a sunny day. Feed one half bucket (250 worms, ish) every three days. Infinitely replenishing source of high protein, can eat just about any waste we have, even some from our chickens and provides us with great compost. Can be watered with rain water and fantastic garden benefits.

Crickets. Very easy to feed and maintain. Very easy. Can have a similar setup, just count out several dozen crickets each day for your penned chooks.

I think I would also keep and feed a fast-breeding fish. Doesn't take a big, appetizing, fish... Goldfish are fine, maybe mollies because they breed faster. Catfish are probably one of the best if you can manage them.

Offal from butchered animals for the packed vitamins and eggshells and crushed bones for calcium.

Green stuff can come easy from grass and weeds, but you could also dry whole grains and sprout them, especially in the winter.

In a societal collapse I just want people to think for a moment. We have seven MILLION cats and dogs going into shelters country-wide each year. That's with serious efforts to STOP over-breeding and with FREE spay/neuter facilities and 3-4 million being euthanized every year. We still get 7 million each year. What happens to those animals in the first year of societal collapse? Probably seven million cats and dogs out on the streets. The majority of those are breeds people were unprepared to care for. And the next year? And the next? You really think that with a few LGDs you will protect a free-ranging flock from a pack of half-wild feral pitbulls? Sorry. Not happening. Much like coyotes which can kill LGD, these dogs will team up in packs and tear your dog to shreds. The difference is they're not scared of people, unlike coyotes, which means they will NOT be deterred. Cats will sneak into small places to steal chicks and are almost as nimble as raccoons at opening doors, and are barely domestic even in their domestic form.
And what happens when some nitwit with a poorly managed exotics collection releases a dozen unfixed human-raised tigers and lions and bears (oh my) into the north American forests?

You may want to rethink your plans to simply let the hens loose. Before long we'll be making bomas like they do in Africa!

 

[RedneckGurl]

Here's a thought; could we not easily raise BUGS to give us the bulk of the feed? This is what chickens eat in the wild to start with...

Earthworms. 30 small buckets (5 gallon) with drainholes set up on them, 500 worms in each. They reproduce in 90 days, low maintainence, easy to collect too all you need is a tarp on a sunny day. Feed one half bucket (250 worms, ish) every three days. Infinitely replenishing source of high protein, can eat just about any waste we have, even some from our chickens and provides us with great compost. Can be watered with rain water and fantastic garden benefits.

Crickets. Very easy to feed and maintain. Very easy. Can have a similar setup, just count out several dozen crickets each day for your penned chooks.

I think I would also keep and feed a fast-breeding fish. Doesn't take a big, appetizing, fish... Goldfish are fine, maybe mollies because they breed faster. Catfish are probably one of the best if you can manage them.

Offal from butchered animals for the packed vitamins and eggshells and crushed bones for calcium.

Green stuff can come easy from grass and weeds, but you could also dry whole grains and sprout them, especially in the winter.

In a societal collapse I just want people to think for a moment. We have seven MILLION cats and dogs going into shelters country-wide each year. That's with serious efforts to STOP over-breeding and with FREE spay/neuter facilities and 3-4 million being euthanized every year. We still get 7 million each year. What happens to those animals in the first year of societal collapse? Probably seven million cats and dogs out on the streets. The majority of those are breeds people were unprepared to care for. And the next year? And the next? You really think that with a few LGDs you will protect a free-ranging flock from a pack of half-wild feral pitbulls? Sorry. Not happening. Much like coyotes which can kill LGD, these dogs will team up in packs and tear your dog to shreds. The difference is they're not scared of people, unlike coyotes, which means they will NOT be deterred. Cats will sneak into small places to steal chicks and are almost as nimble as raccoons at opening doors, and are barely domestic even in their domestic form.
And what happens when some nitwit with a poorly managed exotics collection releases a dozen unfixed human-raised tigers and lions and bears (oh my) into the north American forests?

You may want to rethink your plans to simply let the hens loose. Before long we'll be making bomas like they do in Africa!

I like the idea of the insects but I wouldn't suggest earthworms as they can easily pass blackhead disease onto your chickens. I'd instead suggest meal worms which many on this forum already raise very successfully. As to the other, well, I don't know...but should whatever it is, be it a feral dog, cat, or whatever, decide to come after my animals, it will get shot just like any other wild animal will today. I have a pellet gun to use for a non-lethal deterrent but if that doesn't work, there's my .22 to start and if that doesn't work, I can move up to the 12 gauge...and just keep going up until I reach the appropriate caliber.