Percentage of Greenery for Pellet-Fed Chickens?

[Macis Papa]

I don't think greens are treats.

 

[Beekissed]

Nope. They are a large part of their natural diet that they choose when they have a choice.

 

[Chris09]

Well since chicken are a man made animal and there are no wild chickens that means that there, "natural diet" would be that which we feed them at the time of hybridization. Look at some of the oldest breeds that were well bred and have changed very little over the past 1000+ years (i.e. gamefowl chickens) when left to free range they eat very little greens. Grains, Seed, Fruits, Meat, and now and than young Shoots and Sprouts.

Like I said before the chickens digestive system is not made for high intake of fibrous matter.

 

[Beekissed]

That's a huge fallacy commercial growers love to perpetuate but it's just not true. Man did not make chickens, God made chickens and He made them with a cecum that helps them digest fibrous material like grass. Every single chicken I butcher has a gizzard full of grass and they have plenty of grain based feed to feast upon, so it would seem that this myth that chickens don't want nor need green foods is just that. And these are not game fowl, just regular ol' Plymouth Rocks.

People can see with their own eyes that chickens graze as they forage and it's not "young shoots and sprouts" either. They clip the very ends of grasses, some very tough and saw like in their blades, while also feeding freely on clover...not young clover, just clover.

I watch them with my own eyes eating established grasses that are not sprouts and shoots, but regular ol' grass blades. No need to lie about things, Chris, especially things that people can see for themselves. Been doing this for 40 yrs now and can testify to the validity that chickens do indeed eat greens as a regular part of their natural diet each and every day they can get it and lots of it.

These chickens have traveled 100 yds through the snow to get some grass that's definitely not "shoots and sprouts"....

 

[Chris09]

Man created (made) the animal we know as the chicken. God gave man the brains to create set animal. There were NO chickens on earth until man created them...

Now, Most all animals have a Cecum (ceca more than one cecum as with chickens) including Herbivores and Omnivores which have a larger Cecum, Some Carnivores and Insectivores which have variable sizes of Cecum and Piscivores and Graminivores which have a small Cecum.

Now note that a Graminivore which eats primarily grass has a small Cecum.
Having a Cecum helps with the digestion of all food whether it be fibrous or non-fibrous. If the Cecum was for the digestion of fibrous matter then Graminvores would have a much lager Cecum than they do.

 

[QueenMisha]

Man created (made) the animal we know as the chicken. God gave man the brains to create set animal. There were NO chickens on earth until man created them...

Now, Most all animals have a Cecum (ceca more than one cecum as with chickens) including Herbivores and Omnivores which have a larger Cecum, Some Carnivores and Insectivores which have variable sizes of Cecum and Piscivores and Graminivores which have a small Cecum.

Now note that a Graminivore which eats primarily grass has a small Cecum.
Having a Cecum helps with the digestion of all food whether it be fibrous or non-fibrous. If the Cecum was for the digestion of fibrous matter then Graminvores would have a much lager Cecum than they do.

Yes, all of this, x2. God, evolution, a combination thereof... whichever you would like to call it... created the RED JUNGLEFOWL. Domestic chickens may be scientifically classed as a subspecies of the Junglefowl but at humankind's behest the chicken in it's modern form has been drastically changed from the natural state of the junglefowl... and these modern breeds require modern nutrition.

 

[Macis Papa]

Your probably right, if I would not free range my chickens and only fed them comercial feed I might get a few more eggs every week. Getting back to the original question. If you dump a wheel barrel of greens in with 20 chickens they will spend the whole day eating a little then scratching it around. They're not going to eat the whole thing and I'm pretty sure that won't hurt them.

 

[lazy gardener]

Selective breeding is not "creating"! All breeds as we know them are the result of man taking the huge genetic pool of any given species that was created by God, and selectively breeding for certain traits! What a marvelous creation we have been blessed with, that any species would have such genetic diversity for us to enjoy. As far as the original post, I think this poster is blessed to have such a community garden where chickens can be included. I'd love to hear more about how this is set up. Please enlighten! If I were working in this situation, this is what I'd do: I'd gather as much of that available green material as I could get my hands on, and put it in their run, along with some high carbon material: leaves, some wood chips, a bit of hay/straw. Let those chickens eat what they will, and they will turn the rest into wonderful bedding/compost, that will result in a healthy soil laden with worms, insects, bacteria and fungus that will benefit soil, chicken gut, and compost as well. I would not be at all concerned about "how much" green material I was giving to the flock. I'd look at that material as a base to a sheet compost, where the chickens will eat all they want, while happily mixing the rest into an incredible compost. Give them their pellets. They'll decide how much of each material they want to eat! HMMM... If I was a chicken, would I want a widely varied diet of fresh veggies and protein, or dry pellets that were milled weeks ago, with the grains oxidizing, and loosing nutrients long before the bag of feed was even brought home???

 

[song of joy]

Hi Everyone,

I am a new member of a chicken coop co-op at my community garden. The girls are fed pellets. I know chickens prefer to range in the grass, but these chickens are in a roofed, fenced enclosure with open air walls...so no free ranging.

On the positive side, it is a big, active community garden (vintage 1970's) where big compost piles are being turned with tractors and I can get fresh pulled weeds and greens any day I am there to feed them.

Does anyone know the percentage of greens versus grain pellets that chickens should have? 50-50?

I have about 20 chickens and they seem to scratch and peck through a wheel barrow full of greens in a day. Do they want more?

Is there any opportunity for the chickens to forage in the community garden during the dormant season? They would clean things up nicely, eat left-over garden plants, turn over the soil, add nutrients to the soil, and eat harmful bugs.

 

[song of joy]

That's a huge fallacy commercial growers love to perpetuate but it's just not true. Man did not make chickens, God made chickens and He made them with a cecum that helps them digest fibrous material like grass. Every single chicken I butcher has a gizzard full of grass and they have plenty of grain based feed to feast upon, so it would seem that this myth that chickens don't want nor need green foods is just that. And these are not game fowl, just regular ol' Plymouth Rocks.

People can see with their own eyes that chickens graze as they forage and it's not "young shoots and sprouts" either. They clip the very ends of grasses, some very tough and saw like in their blades, while also feeding freely on clover...not young clover, just clover.

I watch them with my own eyes eating established grasses that are not sprouts and shoots, but regular ol' grass blades. No need to lie about things, Chris, especially things that people can see for themselves. Been doing this for 40 yrs now and can testify to the validity that chickens do indeed eat greens as a regular part of their natural diet each and every day they can get it and lots of it.

These chickens have traveled 100 yds through the snow to get some grass that's definitely not "shoots and sprouts"....

Thanks for sharing this! A poultry expert from the extension office told me chickens "get no nutritional value from grass", and that they eat more pellets and produce less eggs when allowed to free-range, as free-ranging costs more energy. His statements contradict my observations. During the growing season, my flock spends lots of time eating grasses, forbs, clover, bugs, etc., AND they eat 30-40% less commercial feed, AND they produce a good number of eggs per hen.