Can I feed road kill? Please say no.

[chrism]

I feel very weird even asking this but now that I have a flock I am always thinking of what free food can be fed to them.
I'm in a rural area that has a WHOLE LOT of slow critters that didn't make it to the other side.
I do feed them my cooked meat scraps but wonder if they would go after the road kill.

I'm kinda hoping y'all say no so that I don't have to fashion a road kill collection method.
(My wife would appreciate a negative response also.)

 

[QueenMisha]

I think it depends. Old road kill, no. But if you drive past a deer/raccoon/squirrel/whatever five minutes after it got hit and all the important bits are still intact and nothing's burst? Heck, I did that once (nice young doe got hit a couple cars ahead of us) and collected the meat for my own family.

Regardless of the kind of meat you're feeding, definitely do not overfeed animal products. Things like meat and dairy should be fed in careful moderation.

 

[donrae]

Yes, you can. Your birds will appreciate the protein boost and happily dispose of the carcass for you. I think there's a fair amount of folks who dispose of trapped predators this way.

Do you necessarily want to? That's the question. I recently lost my rooster to a sudden death type thing. Honey's co-worker asked if I was going to hang the carcass in the coop and let it breed maggots to drop down and feed the flock. Well, nope, I wasn't. While I can appreciate that as a viable source of protein........

. Just not my thing.


If you decide to utilize road kill, my collection method of choice would be an 11 year old boy

 

[chrism]

Things like meat and dairy should be fed in careful moderation.

Could you please be specific?
My flock of 50 gets about 20 lbs of cooked pork scraps a week.
Is that too much?
No dairy to speak of.

 

[chrism]

If you decide to utilize road kill, my collection method of choice would be an 11 year old boy

Dang... mine's only 9.
I'm trying to figure out a way that I use some sort of grabber and pick from the center line and toss right behind me into the bed without ever getting out of my truck.

 

[QueenMisha]

Could you please be specific?
My flock of 50 gets about 20 lbs of cooked pork scraps a week.
Is that too much?
No dairy to speak of.

I'd feed it in relation to how much crumble/pellet ration your flock is consuming. While treats such as scratch or kitchen scraps should only comprise maybe 10-20% of their diet, I'd say definitely max out meat at 10% or so. Maybe since it's molting season, 15% would be alright. Since it's higher protein than most treats it's not likely to cause a huge dietary imbalance like some treats can, but chickens aren't equipped to consume and digest huge amounts of meat.

 

[chrism]

I go through about 75 lbs. a week for 50 hens and 2 geese but I imagine that will go up quite a bit about now.
Can the ratio go up in the summer when forage is the main source?
My forage is white clover, bent zoysia and dandelions.