anyone feed wet feed?

[debid]

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I wouldn't want to eat crickets or mealworms either... but that doesn't mean the chickens don't love them.

I took the chickens I was babysitting some bread that had gone stale (no mold, just didn't get wrapped up well enough) and soaked it with warm buttermilk. It was a feeding frenzy and no worries about spoilage -- all was gone in 5 minutes.

 

[superchemicalgirl]

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Every morning I fill a rubber pan with food and hot (or cold if it's summer) water to feed to the girls. I also add flax seeds to it to give them a small bit of omegas. Also anything else gets thrown in. I like to throw in slightly expired yogurt, and I also food process any old vegetable leftovers and throw it in.
I also do the hot water and feed with chicks - like someone said earlier - they eat it up quickly and I know they're getting good nutrition. However, don't let the food get rancid. I change mine out twice daily in the brooders and only feed enough so that it will get mostly (if not all) eaten within a short period of time.

 

[Akane]

If you feed it immediately I don't see the problem. Damp feed though can grow some very toxic mold that could wipe out your whole flock in one go.

 

[Organics North]

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Indeed good common sense is needed. Damp feeds have been fed to backyard/farmyard flocks since chickens have been kept.

IMO, Live foods with lots of good guy organisms in them builds immunity in a living creature.. Make them tough, more tolerant and able to fight off the "bad" stuff. The big industrial producers set the precedence of "sterile" food and "sterile" conditions so chickens do not get sick. Their birds are stressed and have compromised immune systems... The small flock keeper can raise their birds more naturally, with stronger natural immune systems IF you choose to do so.

Funny the only bird I lost to feed so far, was one that ate too many of the non organic pasture seed mix I was sowing once. (The stuff was coated and treated with anti fungal anti rot agents.)

ON

 

[gmendoza]

Quote:
I wouldn't want to eat crickets or mealworms either... but that doesn't mean the chickens don't love them.

I took the chickens I was babysitting some bread that had gone stale (no mold, just didn't get wrapped up well enough) and soaked it with warm buttermilk. It was a feeding frenzy and no worries about spoilage -- all was gone in 5 minutes.

True to do if they gobble it in a flash.

 

[Captain Carrot]

My ducks get a pan full of water with a scoop of food inside...they love it.

In winter a mix a little hot water with the food so it's crumbly, but not wet....the chickens love this.

This is a very old trick used by poultrymen to encourage birds to feed, a little of this crumble is sprinkled over the normal feed.

In the kindergarten where I work, I made apple juice with the kids and there was a load of apple pulp left over. I mixed this up with some of their feed and gave it to them. They loved that.