Dose cracked corn keep chickens warm

[MysteryChicken]

I add a cup, or 2 of corn to the feeder occasionally during the winter to put a little extra fat on them. It seems to help them get through winter better, & have noticed less Frost bite on their combs.(Single combed birds) Corn must have some truth about making your chickens warmer during the winter.

 

[Jodiwan]

Theres a lot of sources on Google that say its good to feed chickens cracked corn in winter. Sources on Google say that cracked corn helps them stay warm, because their bodies
Work to process the corn and helps the body generate heat.
So I'll keep feeding cracked corn along with some fermented scratch grains. This wont be the main source of food as I keep
Feeders in my coop with layer pellets.
Have a great day!

 

[MysteryChicken]

I add a cup, or 2 of corn to the feeder occasionally during the winter to put a little extra fat on them. It seems to help them get through winter better, & have noticed less Frost bite on their combs.(Single combed birds) Corn must have some truth about making your chickens warmer during the winter.

Just to add to my first response.
It's not actually the corn that I originally thought previously, it's actually the protien content of the feed itself. High Protein = Better internal heat regulation during winter. I no longer mix corn in their feed.

Corn only somewhat helps only by adding some fat, but too much can be a bad thing, so I only use scratch, or corn as a snack for the birds occasionally instead.

 

[nuthatched]

Theres a lot of sources on Google that say its good to feed chickens cracked corn in winter. Sources on Google say that cracked corn helps them stay warm, because their bodies
Work to process the corn and helps the body generate heat.
So I'll keep feeding cracked corn along with some fermented scratch grains. This wont be the main source of food as I keep
Feeders in my coop with layer pellets.
Have a great day!

Were the sources a bunch of blogs or a.i? It's wives tales.

 

[NatJ]

Theres a lot of sources on Google that say its good to feed chickens cracked corn in winter. Sources on Google say that cracked corn helps them stay warm, because their bodies
Work to process the corn and helps the body generate heat.
So I'll keep feeding cracked corn along with some fermented scratch grains. This wont be the main source of food as I keep
Feeders in my coop with layer pellets.
Have a great day!

Digesting food does help the chickens stay warm. Corn is better than nothing at all (starving chickens do get cold). No-one is arguing with that.

The real question would be whether digesting corn is better than digesting other feed, like layer pellets or all-flock feed or whatever else the main food would be. If the chickens can eat as much as they want of their normal feed, replacing part of it with corn is not going to help them stay any warmer. If the chickens fill up on corn, and do not eat as much of their normal feed, that is what happens. The corn does not help them stay warmer in that situation.

 

[AinaWGSD]

I think this idea probably arose back when it was unusual for chicken keepers to feed a balanced feed. Before commercial feed was the norm, when most chickens just ate whatever forage or spilled feed from other farm animals was available.

Before most people fed their chickens a balanced feed it would have been much harder for chickens to meet their nutritional and caloric needs in the winter. Cracked corn would have been beneficial for helping chickens keep up their body heat in the winter.

Now that most people feed primarily a balanced commercial food, cracked corn doesn't carry any significant benefits for winter feeding. Kinda like how cod liver oil used to be the norm for preventing rickets, but with the discovery of vitamins and improvement in diets it's not really necessary anymore.

Yes, I am aware that cod liver oil is still very much a thing and that it still has current benefits for some people. But its historical use for preventing rickets has been replaced by improved diet and for most people it is no longer a necessary supplement. The same way that cracked corn is no longer a necessary supplement for keeping up with a chickens metabolic needs during winter because the improved diets most people are feeding today have adequate nutrients to meet that need. And cod liver oil and cracked corn can both cause health problems if used in excess of what the body needs/can use.