The last thing I want to do is come off as rude or hateful. It's just that with many activities that go back centuries, there is alot of advice and rituals out there sold as fact when, most of the time, common sense would tell you that it's just not so. Maybe I'm just a cynic but I want to see scientific proof/results. Don't get me wrong, I take my elders' advice. However, I do alot of fact checking before I implement it.
Example: Last week my grandmother told me that a solution of 1 tbs or Borax to 1 Gallon of h2o is a failsafe, nontoxic flea/mite/lice dip and if I put it in my bird baths, the wild birds won't be as iikely to transmit bugs to my chickens. So I get home and turn to the internet. Not only do people who raise and race pigeons swear by it, people who are infected themselves with scabies, lice, etc also testify that it works. This beats the heck out of using some expensive chemical when I can pick up a 4lb box of the stuff for $3!
Processed chicken ration has been around, at most, for 100 years maybe. I think the chicken feed industry promotes the story that scratch grains are junk food. Although I find the sport dispicable, the men who raise Gamefowl for fighting purposes have the most useful advice because everything they do is backed up by results. Also, when you invest $500-$1,000 for a single cock or hen, you want results aren't going to blindly follow anyones advice without cold, hard proof. If you go to the Gamefowl forums and look at what they are feeding their birds you'll find it's mostly a whole grain ration with vitamin and mineral supplements.
What I'm trying to say, I guess, is don't take my word for it just 'cuz I have 10,000 posts and have owned chickens for 100 years. Sometimes chickens thrive in spite of what we do, not because of what we do.
