Feeding chickens rice>>

[Cadjien_De_Louisiane]

Feeding chickens rice>> What are yall's input. I get free rice from time to time. Even if you buy rough rice its like $5 for 50 pounds. I get what I call broken rice that is swept up at a rice dryer and rough rice, pretty much whole rice with the shaff on still. I feed all my chickens mostly laying pellets and will continue everyday to give them mostly pellets. But I was thinking about mixing in say maybe 75% pellets and 25% rice to make the feed go longer or even 70/30. I think personaly that its a myth about rice being so bad for chickens. Two people have told me they feed there chickens alot of rice.. Like the web link I posted below says "in louisiana all sorts of birds eat a alot of rice from rice fields" and im sure they have very simular digestive systems.. interesting link must read if have a minute.

copy and paste in web browser
http://wiki.answers.com/Q/Do_chickens_e … ooked_rice

 

[mljohnson05]

I have only feed my birds cooked rice for a treat, I know I am not much help, hopefully someone else will come along

 

[EweSheep]

Go ahead and feed them rice, they would love it! Raw or cooked, never bothered them!

 

[rungirl]

I thought they stopped throwing rice at weddings because it can kill the birds. I don't give it to them uncooked just because I'm concerned about them stuffing themselves like pigs on it and then it swelling up inside of them and causing impacted crop. When you cook rice it absorbs about 2 cups of water for every cup you cook. So what's going to happen when the dry rice starts to absorb water inside the chicken?

Of course, this might just be a bunch of hooey, because the chicken's crop isn't the same as a pan of boiling water.

 

[Cadjien_De_Louisiane]

yea it really takes boiling water to swell rice I believe. I think there digestive system would break it down before it would have time to swell any.

 

[Neil Grassbaugh]

Copy of a post of mine from October 2010

Of course it kills them! They bloat up like toads! Horrible death.

This is why there are no seed or grain eating wild birds in any areas of the world that produce rice. They would get out into the fields, eat the rice and kill them deddern a plastic Christmas Tree. Why do you think that there are no wild birds that would feed on rice living in the rice growing regions of the world. AK, TX, LA not a one! Nor are there any in those areas of Africa, South America, or, for heavens sake, of Asia where rice is raised extensively.

This was all proven years ago. Why do you suppose that for the longest time there were never any sparrows around churches in big cities where there was a wedding or two every week. Rice killed them off as fast as they could fly in from the 'burbs. That is why we now use bird seed. To save the sparrows!

Primitive man in South Eastern Asia had to guard the jungle fowl day and night to keep them from eating rice so that they could domesticate the buggers.
My gosh, why do you suppose all those ckickens are kept in buildings all over the rice growing areas of the world. It is to keep them from eating the dam rice!

I don't think that a lot of you realize what a serious uphill battle this has been for since the dawn of time.

I'm really glad that so much time has been spent reaffirming the "common sense" elements of this discussion.

And ya wanna know what is even more detrimental to chicken health- I think internet dunderheads.

 

[Katy]

Quote:

 

[galanie]

Soak some rice in lukewarm water and see what happens. Or I'll just tell you: It doesn't appear to swell much, if any at all.

I have cracked rice in my wild bird feeder and have for a couple months. No decline in visitors at all. The girls love to pick up any that the birds spill, too. Nope, they haven't died from it.

 

[Cadjien_De_Louisiane]

Ok how about the millions of black birds in Louisiana that eat rice out the fields, there not dead all over.

 

[OldGuy43]

I know it's an old thread, but it answered my question. Ya just gotta love BYC and the search engine if you're new to keeping chickens.