I was raised in the city but had grandparents who lived on a small farm out in the country. I remember my grandmother having chickens and guineas but being very young at the time I didn't pay a lot of attention to their diet. Even as an adult, I didn't know much about chickens until I began to research them a couple of years ago when I decided I'd like to have some.
I did, however, get a very "in your face" lesson on chickens being OMNIVORES and not herbivores when my husband and I lived in a small town in coastal Georgia many years ago.
Most people there just let their chickens free range all the time. It was nothing to see a half dozen chickens foraging in the ditches along the four lane highway. One day we were driving home from work and saw a large pile of chickens going nuts over something on the side of the road. As we got closer, I could see that it was a midsized dog that had been hit and killed by a car. Those chickens were literally engaged in a feeding frenzy over that dog. I think I turned green and made a gagging sound because my husband asked me what was wrong. I pointed to the chickens and said, "LOOK! They are EATING that roadkill dog!" Apparently he knew the whole chickens are omnivores thing and wasn't the slightest bit phased. He said something along the lines of yeah, what do you expect? They're little scavengers after all. WHAT?
I have since come to grips with the fact that chickens don't just eat pellets or seeds thrown on the ground and that, in fact, chickens being allowed to be chickens means that they will eat meat (and not just bugs) and actually need that protein to be healthy.
I will, however, NEVER forget the day I learned the hard way that chickens eat meat.
