can I feed my chickens with only food scraps?

[pradierenee2]

I'm about to be a new chicken farmer. My friends and I are getting chickens for our school's campus, and we're trying to make it a sustainable operation (i.e. as little outside inputs as possible). We plan on having about 3-4 chickens.

They'll be in empty garden beds, and will get a lot of tastiness from grit, grubs, bugs and weeds from the soil. We're gonna supplement that with food scraps from the kitchen, so will store-bought feed be necessary? if so, how much? if not, awesome!

thanks.

I'll probably be on these boards a lot in the future. i'm a total noob when it comes to chickens.

~Ben

 

[pixie74943]

I doubt it...

it is possible if they have enough free range space, but just think, would you be happy and healthy if all you got were scraps and never got anything especially for you? You'd survive, but you wouldnt be plump and cheerful (and laying eggs everyday).

Chickens need a proper balanced diet to stay happy and healthy (dont we all). You can supplement their proper feed with table scraps and free ranging, and they will eat alot less of it, but they should still have 24hour access to real food.

Edited to Add: I sell my eggs for $3 a dozen and it just covers the food costs and leaves me some extra eggs of my own to eat as well

 

[Beekissed]

I'd offer feed at the end of the day. Food scraps are not a real good option, especially if you want them to lay well or end up in the freezer?
If you are just keeping them for lawn ornaments, food scraps might help them survive but it would have to be some pretty good scraps!

If you offer feed at the end of the day, they will have foraged all day and have found all the feed they can on their own and the extra feed will send them to bed with a full belly. If you have some left in the morning, you are feeding too much. If not, you might kick it up a notch, especially in the winter.

If you want birds who produce eggs for the family, you definitely need some feed. You can try whole grains, grow supplemental feed sources such as sunflower seeds, meal worms, earth worms, veggies and fruits if you want to be sustainable as possible.

Try clicking on the links for sister sites at the bottom of each page and visit next door at the SufficientSelf.com site. Look up Freemotion, she feeds her flock on whole grains only with some home grown supplementation. She can steer you in the right direction!

Welcome to the forum!

 

[cockadoodle]

You're going to get a lot of different opinions on this one (probably). Mine is that while feeding them completely off of scraps and garden bugs works and they will survive if you do it right, your chickens will almost certainly get much better nutrition from a good commercial feed mixed in. Especially because you admit you are new to this... it's the doing it right part that would scare me. Someone with a lot more experience would have better odds. You could probably get a bag of 8 dollar feed to last you 2 months. Secondly, if you plan on getting eggs from these chickens (didn't specify hen's or roosters) you are going to have additional nutritional concerns (calcium, additional protein, etc) Me personally I would supplement with commercial feed. It's worth the peace of mind. As your experience grows, venture off the commercial feed when you really know what they need (how to tell when they aren't getting it), etc..

good luck
Mark

 

[Big Chicken Little]

in a word ......NO

 

[pradierenee2]

thanks you guys. we were leaning towards using some store-bought feed. we could experiment with growing some of our own grains, though. that would be awesome

 

[BroodyBecca]

If you want your feed to go further, i recommend fermenting it. Good for digestion and immune system and bonus that it goes further for your money

 

[EddieSalita]

If a domestic breed of chicken.... no it won't be enough for ethical well-being and optimum health.
Providing them commercial feed won't stop them scratching and hunting for goodies and consuming all the scraps you can provide. There is no downside to offering a complete feed on top of scraps. There is a potential downside to trying to make your domestic bred chooks revert to a self sufficient way of survival.

Your feed won't magically go further if you ferment it. It won't magically increase significantly in protien, calories or nutrients. It can provide additional well-being through pro biotics and palatability. Don't ferment to make food go further, it's a myth.

Chickens will always consume animal based scraps first. They will tend to faculative carnivore/insectivore if given the chance. Grains and plants on their own don't have adequate levels of certain aminos Chickens really need to thrive as a general rule.
If you're feeding lots of meat and dairy scraps it's certainly possible to do without commercial processed feed. It's helps to have a more advanced knowledge of their requirements however imo. There is a long thread by perris somewhere worth reading on this subject.

 

[BroodyBecca]

If a domestic breed of chicken.... no it won't be enough for ethical well-being and optimum health.
Providing them commercial feed won't stop them scratching and hunting for goodies and consuming all the scraps you can provide. There is no downside to offering a complete feed on top of scraps. There is a potential downside to trying to make your domestic bred chooks revert to a self sufficient way of survival.

Your feed won't magically go further if you ferment it. It won't magically increase significantly in protien, calories or nutrients. It can provide additional well-being through pro biotics and palatability. Don't ferment to make food go further, it's a myth.

Chickens will always consume animal based scraps first. They will tend to faculative carnivore/insectivore if given the chance. Grains and plants on their own don't have adequate levels of certain aminos Chickens really need to thrive as a general rule.
If you're feeding lots of meat and dairy scraps it's certainly possible to do without commercial processed feed. It's helps to have a more advanced knowledge of their requirements however imo. There is a long thread by perris somewhere worth reading on this subject.

If a domestic breed of chicken.... no it won't be enough for ethical well-being and optimum health.
Providing them commercial feed won't stop them scratching and hunting for goodies and consuming all the scraps you can provide. There is no downside to offering a complete feed on top of scraps. There is a potential downside to trying to make your domestic bred chooks revert to a self sufficient way of survival.

Your feed won't magically go further if you ferment it. It won't magically increase significantly in protien, calories or nutrients. It can provide additional well-being through pro biotics and palatability. Don't ferment to make food go further, it's a myth.

Chickens will always consume animal based scraps first. They will tend to faculative carnivore/insectivore if given the chance. Grains and plants on their own don't have adequate levels of certain aminos Chickens really need to thrive as a general rule.
If you're feeding lots of meat and dairy scraps it's certainly possible to do without commercial processed feed. It's helps to have a more advanced knowledge of their requirements however imo. There is a long thread by perris somewhere worth reading on this subject.

Okay, this isn’t exactly a ‘health benefit’ per se… but valuable nonetheless! As chicken feed grain soaks in water to ferment, it also expands in volume – so your birds will get full faster. They aren’t being cheated out of anything in the process though, like filling up on junk food. On the other hand, they’re getting more nutrients than ever! That said, fermenting chicken feed is an inexpensive way to improve the nutritional value of basic dry feed while also consuming less of it.

 

[EddieSalita]

So if I pump an orange with probiotic water so you can now only eat 3/4 of an orange instead of a whole orange. Am I getting more nutrition or less?

If you want to get into the more scientific exploration of how fermenting may deactivate some anti nutrients and make it more nutritious that way. Then specificity is needed. it's highly dependent on exactly what is being fermented... ie what food? Maybe it's a pellet which has already been treated to remove most anti nutrients and you're really just adding some pro biotics?

I'm open to being shown where fermenting has measurably reduced consumption of feed while improving overall performance. If that evidence exists, i will readily eat my words.

I ferment. I like fermenting. But to claim it reduces consumption and measurably increases performance at the same time is incorrect imo.