Feeding with mealworms as the only protein source

[LoveMyGurls]

As you are in the UK I think I should point out that it's actually against the law to feed scraps here. Yes, yes, the law's an ass, but you still need to know that you're breaking it because ignorance is not a defence that stands up in court.
The relevant page of the gov website is here
https://www.gov.uk/government/news/...craps-to-farm-animals-because-of-disease-risk

I've just read that and yes, that's for the UK and I see it's against the law to do what we used to do and have waste bins from schools etc, It caused disease in the farm animals and so the days of slop buckets from institutes was thrown off years ago when I was very young. I see what they're saying but seeing as I live in town and far away from farms I'm still going to give my girls some treats.

 

[Perris]

now we've left the EU, Defra can and are revisiting a lot of these regulations, so hopefully a more sensible approach will be taken, on kitchen scraps and on insect protein, very soon.

 

[NatJ]

I've been reading and reading this thread and do not any of you feed your chickens scraps? It has always been the done thing on the smallholding I was brought up on as it saved on money, they would be given any scraps. I give my chickens what is about to go out of date in the fridge. They love cauliflower cheese and mashed potatoes, pasta... they adore meat. What doesn't get eaten off our plates goes straight to the chickens. A friend of mine gives his leftover vindaloo and takeouts to his flock, I'm not sure I would go that far though. I just wonder if we look too much into what they should and shouldn't be eating? I've not had my chickens long as I'm sure you know and maybe I'm about to be shot down in flames... but my Mum always cooked up peelings and made a mash for them... chickens will eat anything and mine really like pizza..... *hides and runs for cover*

I always have given scraps to my chickens. Yes, the same as you: anything the people did not want to eat, or did not eat quite soon enough. If the people were eating a varied diet, then the scraps were varied too. The chickens decided what to eat and what not to, and what they did not eat would get mixed into their bedding and eventually composted and used in the garden. My chickens have always had a feeder of complete chicken feed available at all times, and plenty of water, so I never had to worry about starving chickens making a bad choice of which scraps to eat.

 

[3KillerBs]

I've been reading and reading this thread and do not any of you feed your chickens scraps?

I give them all the fruit/vegetable trimmings and certain food scraps -- but nothing greasy, salty, or composed of empty starch.

Also, my flock at the moment is quite large so this is spread over more chickens.

It would be very easy to overdo it with a small flock.

 

[NatJ]

I give them all the fruit/vegetable trimmings and certain food scraps -- but nothing greasy, salty, or composed of empty starch.

I think "scraps" from different households can be very different, which makes it hard to compare from one household to another.

I figure the grease and starch are good sources of calories, especially in the winter, and salty foods are pretty rare in my household, so I don't bother excluding any of those categories of scraps. But of course I might have a very different amount of those things (on a per-chicken basis) than what you have.

 

[3KillerBs]

I think "scraps" from different households can be very different, which makes it hard to compare from one household to another.

I figure the grease and starch are good sources of calories, especially in the winter, and salty foods are pretty rare in my household, so I don't bother excluding any of those categories of scraps. But of course I might have a very different amount of those things (on a per-chicken basis) than what you have.

Well, I only give stale bread or leftover pasta, rice, potatoes, etc. if I'm balancing it with protein leftovers. Today I'm actually making a mash of several packages of freezer-burned meat mixed with stale bread and a bit of scratch -- but I nixed my DH's suggestion of tossing them some stale saltines and sugary cereal that my teens didn't eat.

I'll give them a ham bone that's been boiled twice and the picked over chicken/turkey carcasses from making soup, including the simmered-out skin, but I don't give them the fatty and salty rinds that I peel off hams.

I don't really have winter to worry about them needing calories to stay warm. I'd probably treat kitchen grease differently if a cold winter day meant -25F instead of +25F.

 

[raingarden]

I was wondering..... Do chickens (or any animal for that matter) have a sense of what is good for them and what their diet is deficient in? Like peope who feel a craving to eat dirt for the minerals it contains.

 

[JacinLarkwell]

I was wondering..... Do chickens (or any animal for that matter) have a sense of what is good for them and what their diet is deficient in? Like peope who feel a craving to eat dirt for the minerals it contains.

Supposedly

 

[saysfaa]

I trust them to self-regulate calcium and grit and their chicken feed.

I don't trust them to self-regulate many other things - chickens are known to eat styrofoam and the toxic odor-absorbing crystals in cat litter.

They are also known to pick out certain seeds in whole seed feeds. And to fill up on mealworms (much too high in fat).

 

[NatJ]

I was wondering..... Do chickens (or any animal for that matter) have a sense of what is good for them and what their diet is deficient in? Like peope who feel a craving to eat dirt for the minerals it contains.

I don't know how precise it is, but they do self-regulate to some extent.

If they have access to a grassy yard and a compost pile with worms and bugs, they spend some time foraging each place, and they will also eat some chicken food from their feeder.

Or when there are unlimited mulberries on the ground under a tree, they will certainly devour a lot of them the first day. But over several days' time, they settle down to eating a constant amount of mulberries, while continuing to eat chicken food and forage in all their other usual places. They show the same behavior when cicadas emerge, or when there are lots of grasshoppers, or any other food source in large amounts: they eat a large amount the first day or two, but after that they eat a fairly consistent amount each day (lower than the initial large amount.)