Feeding your flock amidst of feed shortages

[BigBlueHen53]

My family is from Newfoundland, and I can tell u that there were no fancy feed mills to buy feed for livestock.

Sheep, goats, ponies/horses and cows were feed hay only in the winter, they all foraged for whatever they could find to survive the rest of the year. There was very little in the way of grain other than in winter.

Chickens were fed table scraps, leftover scraps of meat, fish guts and heads, any 'vegibles' (hahaha as we call them) left over and old bread. There was no fancy chick starter, grower, layer, etc.

And guess what? They laid eggs and provided meat just fine. My menagerie here love when I throw them left over 'vegibles' and scraps of fatty salt beef left over, they go mad for the boiled carrots, turnip and potatoes, not such a fan of the boiled cabbage but they pick at it throughout the day.

Chickens r opportunistic feeders they would eat the paint off my truck if they could I am sure!

Vegibles, I love it. Is what I call them, too!

 

[alwaystj9]

I love bagged feed and often wished someone would sell 50# bagged food for my children...
I base feed with commercial layer pellets at a daily minimum (based on weather, forage available and scraps available) and I judge the amount, over time, by condition of my birds. None have ever even looked "willowy" much less "thin". I have always been impressed by how little attention I have needed to pay to their feed especially compared to feeding dogs, horses or goats. The only animal here that is less complicated to feed is my barn cats.
That said, I am not feeding for production or meat gains, just for daily chicken life and eggs.

 

[Sally PB]

I'm going to try my hand at baking sourdough bread soon. To make the starter, you have to throw out some, then add more flour and water. (You throw some away so that you don't end up with a gallon of the stuff, so I read.) Has anyone given sourdough starter to their chickens, as a way of not wasting it? I'd be mixing it with their food to make a mash, just like I mix water with their food now.

I'm thinking it'll be half to a full cup; it's just flour and water, and the wild yeast you capture out of the air to ferment it.

 

[BigBlueHen53]

I'm going to try my hand at baking sourdough bread soon. To make the starter, you have to throw out some, then add more flour and water. (You throw some away so that you don't end up with a gallon of the stuff, so I read.) Has anyone given sourdough starter to their chickens, as a way of not wasting it? I'd be mixing it with their food to make a mash, just like I mix water with their food now.

I'm thinking it'll be half to a full cup; it's just flour and water, and the wild yeast you capture out of the air to ferment it.

I understand you can do that, and I tried it, but it was a very frustrating and wasteful process for me. You could also pm @ronott1 and he will sed you a dehydrated starter, as he has done for so many of us, along with instructions and recipes. Is why we him!

 

[ronott1]

I'm going to try my hand at baking sourdough bread soon. To make the starter, you have to throw out some, then add more flour and water. (You throw some away so that you don't end up with a gallon of the stuff, so I read.) Has anyone given sourdough starter to their chickens, as a way of not wasting it? I'd be mixing it with their food to make a mash, just like I mix water with their food now.

I'm thinking it'll be half to a full cup; it's just flour and water, and the wild yeast you capture out of the air to ferment it.

I understand you can do that, and I tried it, but it was a very frustrating and wasteful process for me. You could also pm @ronott1 and he will sed you a dehydrated starter, as he has done for so many of us, along with instructions and recipes. Is why we him!

You can give the chickens starter for sure!

Adding some to the feed is a good idea. They do love mash.

I send out sourdough starts to anyone that wants one. Send me a pm with a shipping address.

 

[NatJ]

To make the starter, you have to throw out some, then add more flour and water. (You throw some away so that you don't end up with a gallon of the stuff, so I read.) Has anyone given sourdough starter to their chickens, as a way of not wasting it? I'd be mixing it with their food to make a mash, just like I mix water with their food now.

I'm thinking it'll be half to a full cup; it's just flour and water, and the wild yeast you capture out of the air to ferment it.

I'm sure it is fine to feed to your chickens, but there are other ways to reduce the amount you discard.

You could work with a very small amount. (So the discard is a tablespoon or two, instead of half a cup or a cup. That's much less going to the chickens. You only need to increase it to a large amount when you have a good working starter and are ready to make bread, and at that point there is no waste because you are cooking it.)

Or instead of discarding the flour/water mixture, use it in a batch of ordinary bread. Just add the yeast and other stuff you would need (probably including more water and more flour). Depending on how far along your starter is, your bread might taste a little bit like sourdough or it might not.

 

[Sally PB]

Send me a pm with a shipping address.

on its way!

 

[alwaystj9]

I make pizza dough with my discard starter when I can but I have fed it to my chickens with no ill effects whatsoever!

 

[Minister Marc C]

I agree, Minister! In building our henhouse, we recycled, repurposed, pieced together as much as we could because of prices. Lumber is ridiculous, hardware, too. The only “new things” are the nest box we bought from Premier1, and screws to hold everything together. I’m not sure recovery is possible for our economy. We’ve gone into survival mode on this small farm.

Yup. We have too. Stock-up what you can, be as frugal as possible.
Most of our coop minus the wire fencing is all re-purposed materials.
I'm really not expecting our economy to recover either. They are trying to collapse it on purpose, (it's apparent).Survival mode is a readiness mode. And everyone better well be ready!

 

[Ponypoor]

Just found out that chickens LOVE roast chicken hahaha - rather macabre when you think about it! But they sure went bananas over it, so now I know my kiddos like cooked carrots, turnip, mashed potatoes, rice, bread, croissants, steak, shrimp, and chicken

These chookies have very expensive taste it seems!