Feeding scraps to chickens

[Red-Stars-in-RI]

I'm just in the other camp and hope to feed as much kitchen scraps to my birds as possible. As long as they are happy and healthy, I'm fine with it. In reality, my young pullets don't eat most of the scraps I offer them, so it gets raked up and thrown into the compost bin anyway. I hope they will eat more variety of scraps as they get older. In any case, I think they would eat what they need, or want, from the scraps and they always have commercial feed available to them in the coop.

I'm in the same camp (do we have a flag? what's our favorite campfire song?)

I'm not alone...the USDA Food Waste Reduction Pyramid has "feed animals" above "compost":

 

[gtaus]

You have to remember that those "ol time" farm birds also weren't selectively bred to lay 250+ eggs per year. You can google the exact numbers, but chickens have gone from "scavengers that lay a few eggs" to "egg laying machines" in the last 100 (give or take) years. These aren't your grandpa's "dung hill fowl"!

And I bet those old time farmers were not hanging kerosene lanterns in the barn to keep the chickens laying eggs all winter long. When I think about it, I have 10 chicks of 10 different breeds, but all the breeds are rated for 250+ eggs per year and some I can expect 300+ eggs per year. So I can understand the need for better quality, balanced feed for the needs of the chickens.

My concern, at this point when the chicks are now 11 weeks old, is that they prefer to eat anything else before their commercial, high quality, balanced feed. They seem quite happy running around on the grass and eating things that I can't see. They are all still growing and seem happy and healthy, so I am too concerned.

 

[gtaus]

I'm in the same camp (do we have a flag? what's our favorite campfire song?)

I'm not alone...the USDA Food Waste Reduction Pyramid has "feed animals" above "compost":

What? A government pyramid that I don't automatically reject! I hate to think I am following any government recommendation, but yes I do try to feed kitchen scraps to the birds before taking it to the compost pile. I also do everything I can to reduce the amount of material going to the landfill. It appears that EPA pyramid has it about right, at least in terms of how I think.

 

[Red-Stars-in-RI]

It's a good point that eggs were probably a bit more of a "seasonal" food back in the day.

I think it really depends on what the scraps are. Would I feed my chickens the contents of a dumpster from behind a fast food restaurant? Probably not?

Would I feed them the scraps my family generates (bits of fruit, veggies, grains, a little meat) - yes, and I'm probably go out on a limb and say that it'd be pretty "balanced".

Of course, I can't tell you the % of every nutrient *I* ingest in a day, either....and I've managed to live way longer than your average chicken.

And if you're worried about the nutrients...give them access to layer feed all day, then feed the scraps shortly before they go in for the night - the idea being that they've already eaten most of the layer pellet for the day they would have.

 

[Red-Stars-in-RI]

What? A government pyramid that I don't automatically reject! I hate to think I am following any government recommendation, but yes I do try to feed kitchen scraps to the birds before taking it to the compost pile. I also do everything I can to reduce the amount of material going to the landfill. It appears that EPA pyramid has it about right, at least in terms of how I think.

I know....blind squirrel, broken clock, etc....but I think this one is spot on!

 

[gtaus]

I think it really depends on what the scraps are. Would I feed my chickens the contents of a dumpster from behind a fast food restaurant? Probably not?

There are any number of YouTube videos of people picking up food scraps from "real" restaurants and feeding them to the chickens quite successfully. But yeah, not "fast food" restaurants with fake food and salty french fries ever mentioned. If you really look at all that fast food, humans should not eat it either. I'm a bit biased as I recently attended an 8 week class on food and nutrition. "Fast food" is neither.

 

[LazytownChick]

I figure they're better off being happy with just their pellets so I've given up trying.

 

[woodmort]

Also I’ve heard tell of some of the flock being too old to eat. My guess about that is balancing fuel to cook vs getting edible chicken!

They could always be stewed. They didn't let anything go to waste. I knew my aunt to quickly bleed out and pluck a bird killed by the family dog.

BTW, for those who live in the "older" areas of the country. Next time you go through the older part of town, note the number of houses with chicken coops behind. Many have been converted to sheds but at one time almost everyone kept a flock of a dozen or so birds. Given today' backyard chicken movement, I'd say the cycle is going back around.

 

[Chickengene]

I can see that. Probably also to keep them closer to the house so they don't find their way to a neighbors plot, or pot!

Also, after reading your previous post, I remember their being several different breeds of chicken. Mostly big white ones, Barred Rocks, RIR and a bunch of Hienz.

 

[Possum chicken farm]

Technically, there hasn't been a "wild" chicken in hundreds, potentially thousands, of years....humans have been selectively breeding livestock for a long time.

That being said, a chicken can get the proper nutrients it needs from non-pelleted food, just like a person can (although on some busy days, I wish I could just have some "human pellets" for a quick, balanced meal).

I give small treats fairly early to chicks, certainly by the time they're let out. Turns out, they figure out pretty quickly that they are chickens, and act like chickens.

You should read up about Swedish Flower Hens. They are a landrace breed so very little meddling by humans.