Food scrap feeding?

[Stoney Meadow Maple]

I dont have chickens, i have ducks, and i am pretty darn choosy about what they eat. I know of many folks who take food scraps from restaurants, schools, etc. some of it surely is fine but some of that cant be great for birds. Is this common practice? Are chickens just less sensitive than ducks?

 

[User105877]

I mean ducks shit in the same water they drink… So there's that. And chickens will literally eat anything in front of them

 

[NatJ]

I know of many folks who take food scraps from restaurants, schools, etc. some of it surely is fine but some of that cant be great for birds. Is this common practice?

I think collecting large amounts of food scraps from such sources is fairly rare, but feeding food scraps from the household seems pretty common.

Are chickens just less sensitive than ducks?

I don't know about chickens vs. ducks.

But as regards chickens: if someone gets just barely enough scraps, so the chickens eat every bit, they will probably not get a balanced diet. But if you let the chickens pick through a large amount of food scraps, they will do better, because they eat the parts they want and skip the things they already have too much of. It probably does not make a perfect diet in any case, but it might be good enough for hens to lay eggs for a while, or males to grow big enough to butcher.

Of course it will depend a lot on the scraps-- doughnuts are different than scrambled eggs or salads! A mixture of foods would give the chickens the best chance of picking a suitable combination to eat.

A number of people provide a complete, purchased feed and ALSO offer food scraps. They generally say the chickens eat some feed and some scraps, and seem healthy and productive.

The easiest way to provide a balanced diet for chickens is to purchase a complete feed for them. But many other ways do work, depending on how much effort the person is willing to put into it.

 

[Stoney Meadow Maple]

The thing that got me thinking was the local donut shop owner with 2 trash bags full that someone was giving to their chickens.
i gibe my ducks stuff like melon rinds, lettuce scraps I half pumpkins and let them pick at it. I stop short if carbs.. additionally my ducks wont touch bread.

 

[NatJ]

The thing that got me thinking was the local donut shop owner with 2 trash bags full that someone was giving to their chickens.

Doughnuts would be a cheap source of calories, and chickens do well with a certain amount of carbs in their diet. So whether it is healthy for the chickens would depend on how much of what else they are eating along with it.

Depending on how long the doughnuts get to sit around in the chicken pen, some bugs or mice might come eat the doughnuts too-- and then the chickens could eat the bugs or mice. So the doughnuts might serve as bait to attract protein (aka pests that most people do not want to attract.)

I don't know what the person is actually doing, so I'm just thinking about what they MIGHT be doing. Of course, they might have unhealthy malnourished chickens that are fed doughnuts and not much else. That is just as possible as any other scenario I can think of.

 

[Red-Stars-in-RI]

I think collecting large amounts of food scraps from such sources is fairly rare, but feeding food scraps from the household seems pretty common.


I don't know about chickens vs. ducks.

But as regards chickens: if someone gets just barely enough scraps, so the chickens eat every bit, they will probably not get a balanced diet. But if you let the chickens pick through a large amount of food scraps, they will do better, because they eat the parts they want and skip the things they already have too much of. It probably does not make a perfect diet in any case, but it might be good enough for hens to lay eggs for a while, or males to grow big enough to butcher.

Of course it will depend a lot on the scraps-- doughnuts are different than scrambled eggs or salads! A mixture of foods would give the chickens the best chance of picking a suitable combination to eat.

A number of people provide a complete, purchased feed and ALSO offer food scraps. They generally say the chickens eat some feed and some scraps, and seem healthy and productive.

The easiest way to provide a balanced diet for chickens is to purchase a complete feed for them. But many other ways do work, depending on how much effort the person is willing to put into it.

I think “plenty” is the key…given options, the flock will eat what it wants/needs and leave the rest.

I feed a lot of food waste…fruit and veg and some occasional bread…but also always have layer pellet available (and offer extra protein from time to time).

And can’t argue that feeding commercial feed is easier. I was out dumping buckets of food waste this morning and it was 30 degrees out.

 

[Stoney Meadow Maple]

I think “plenty” is the key…given options, the flock will eat what it wants/needs and leave the rest.

I feed a lot of food waste…fruit and veg and some occasional bread…but also always have layer pellet available (and offer extra protein from time to time).

And can’t argue that feeding commercial feed is easier. I was out dumping buckets of food waste this morning and it was 30 degrees out.

View attachment 2904112

Heck some of that looks like it was still good.

 

[Red-Stars-in-RI]

Heck some of that looks like it was still good.

Yeah, some of its not bad, some is just a bit past it’s prime, some pretty far past human edible.

The flock picks out it’s favorites, comes back for a few other things, and the non-favorites and way past their prime stuff gets composted in and feeds the worms.

When I turn the compost, the chickens go nuts for the worms…so even the food they do t eat feeds them indirectly!

 

[Red-Stars-in-RI]

My flock got a nice protein boost this morning. My son’s Cub Scout pack had its annual turkey dinner fundraiser last night…so I brought home a cooler full of five turkey carcasses and dumped that out for the flock this morning.

 

[Shadrach]

I dont have chickens, i have ducks, and i am pretty darn choosy about what they eat. I know of many folks who take food scraps from restaurants, schools, etc. some of it surely is fine but some of that cant be great for birds. Is this common practice? Are chickens just less sensitive than ducks?

It's illegal in many parts of Europe now.