Feeding Chickens Crushed Wood Charcoal Mixed with Vinegar?

[CluelessChickMom]

I am wondering if anyone has found benefits (or non-benefits) of feeding crushed wood charcoal mixed with vinegar to your chickens? I have been researching alternatives to store-bought corn and soy based bagged feed and bagged feed in general. I found several articles about the benefits of feeding/mixing with feed/supplementing with natural wood charcoal lumps, crushed charcoal and crushed charcoal mixed with vinegar. Benefits mentioned with the vinegar/charcoal mix (backed by pubmed.gov) included thicker eggs w/ increased collagen in eggs and meat of chickens. Any experience or comments?

 

[littlechickenmama17]

Wow, I did not know chickens love charcoal! This is new information to me, but i just did a google search and yes, it seems to have a positive effect on the chickens! If anyone wants to read this article about Charcoal with chickens, I liked this blog post from Pampered Chicken Mama https://thefrugalchicken.com/charcoal-chickens-healthy-backyard-flock/
If anyone has any other info, i'd love to hear about it! Good luck CluelessChickMom!

 

[CluelessChickMom]

Wow, I did not know chickens love charcoal! This is new information to me, but i just did a google search and yes, it seems to have a positive effect on the chickens! If anyone wants to read this article about Charcoal with chickens, I liked this blog post from Pampered Chicken Mama https://thefrugalchicken.com/charcoal-chickens-healthy-backyard-flock/
If anyone has any other info, i'd love to hear about it! Good luck CluelessChickMom!

Yep, yep, that is one of the several websites I found on this topic. My chickens are ridiculous when fed anything different. They often sniff it and stare at it with a perplexed look for hours before maybe trying a new food.

 

[3KillerBs]

I'm highly dubious.


I'm sure that if my chickens had access to a place where a wood fire had been they'd sample the charcoal. They sample EVERYTHING. But, if it were *that* beneficial then commercial chicken keepers would certainly use it because it would increase their profitability.

That said, I have read in a 100-year-old chickenkeeping book that chickens should be given charcoal the way they're given grit and oystershell. But then that same book also recommended a mix of lard and kerosene to treat hens for lice.

 

[pennyJo1960]

I have always took wood ash to the coop as my folks did the same or had me do it..
Wood ash is suppose to stop bugs ? okay never thought to look hard into reality but still wood ash in coops

 

[3KillerBs]

I have always took wood ash to the coop as my folks did the same or had me do it..
Wood ash is suppose to stop bugs ? okay never thought to look hard into reality but still wood ash in coops

But that's for dustbathing, not food, right?

 

[pennyJo1960]

Sure is offer oyster free choice do not recall my folks did ?

 

[Weeg]

I've read this before as well. Its likely that commercial stock would be using it if it were that beneficial, but commercial chickens eggs are also very thin, and yolks are very pale. Oyster shell is proven to be beneficial, and a chicken feed with higher protein and sometimes certain flowers will make egg yolks darker. Commercial hens don't seem to be getting fed that because of the egg quality. Of course, this depends on were you buy the eggs.
The paragraph above is purely based on opinion not fact though.
I'de be interested in seeing a side by side comparison, and see if it made a big difference in egg quality. Definitely intriguing information.

 

[U_Stormcrow]

I've read some of those studies - as I understand it, they are not substituting for any significant portion of the feed (less than 1%), but rather are making the feed itself more digestible/absorbable, just as fermenting feed makes certain B vitamins more bioavailable. Ash used to be incorporated into corn for us humans to make it more bioavailable, too.

They also contain some trace minerals (and concentrated quantities of whatever heavy metals the previously green growing thing absorbed over its lifespan). Finally, there's a bit of the charcoal neutralizes all poisons snake oil - which oversells its utility more than a lot, though there is a tiny bit of truth. Many things not yet absorbed into the body will bind to the surface of charcoal and eventually pass out of the body in the feces - but what has already been absorbed will not be improved by charcoal, activated or otherwise. Its not good for strong acids, strong bases, and an actual list of what will and won't bind it is poorly known - even such common chemicals as alcohol are claimed to be bound by charcoal on some sites, while others claim it ineffective.

Vinegar's benefit is primarily to adjust pH. (Acetic Acid). If your tap water is already acidic, no need. Do a cabbage test.

You may also be thinking of biochar, which is almost, but not quite, the same thing.

My opinion? Makes for a neat youtube video, but its closer to magic than science, and not worth the effort at the scale of the typical backyard flock holder.

 

[Brooks_]

Do a cabbage test

??