Freeze dried chicken feed???

[Huntmaster]

CHICKENS CAN CONTROL HOW MUCH OF SOMETHING THEY WANT TO EAT AND DON'T CARE WHAT WANNABE NUTRIONISTS DECIDE FOR THEM.....What does that mean? Have you ever filled you feeder with crumble or pellets and your chickens didn't eat it all and walked away to eat grass or weeds or bugs?

And what if your birds do not have access to walk away and forage for other items as you say? and if you set a separate bowl of pellet feed and separate bowl of crumble and separate bowl of just say corn and never let them go empty and see how often you have to fill crumble or pellets. And watch the health of your birds in time. In all my experiences they go for the grain mostly no matter how they decline in lay/health.

 

[Perris]

It's called having neighbors in a windy area. Not everyone thinks about how their trash can blow into other people's yard.

The polar ice cores contain lead residues from ancient Greek and Roman metal working, blown there thousands of years ago. We all pollute all of the planet. We all need to think about all the waste we create, and reduce it.

 

[Huntmaster]

these are all human created pollutants. Many plastics are aromatic and confuse animals who mistake them for food. If we didn't leave our trash all over the place the animals would be fine.

Thing is they still ate it, and it wasn't in their best interest or nutritional gain, and they still thought it might be good for them.

 

[Sally PB]

Chickens can and do thrive on all sorts of diets. I don't know what sort of apocalyptic condtions you are thinking about but if you're still eating then there is some kind of food still available for the chickens and if you're not eating, then I expect you'll be eating the chickens so problem solved.

I rarely give my chickens the heel off the loaf of bread. I didn't give them any of the hotdogs I threw out either. Those items went into the compost bin.

If we get to the SHTF scenarios, I will. But we're not there. Actually, if we get to that point, there will not be any heels of bread or hotdogs to throw out, as we will eat them first. And if we get to that point, I won't be so picky as to turn up my nose at, say, raccoon or possom or groundhog. (None of those sound even remotely appealing to me, but I've never had the opportunity to eat them, prepared by someone who knows how.)

Commercial feed is easier and cheaper than trying to feed my chickens on what I can grow or find for them. It's almost certainly better at meeting their nutritional needs too. I don't stockpile bags of the stuff because it does have a shelf life.

A year or so ago, there was lots of chatter about how the war in Ukraine was going to lead to shortages of grain and therefore feed. I asked the owner of the place where I buy my feed if he'd heard of that, and he said he had not.

He could have said, "You better stock up now, because I think there will be a shortage," and tried to sell me 6 bags of feed. He could tell me that any time I'm in there, but he doesn't. He's in a better position to know what his supplier has available than I am.

 

[Perris]

Thing is they still ate it, and it wasn't in their best interest or nutritional gain, and they still thought it might be good for them.

like people and junk food?

 

[U_Stormcrow]

I rarely give my chickens the heel off the loaf of bread. I didn't give them any of the hotdogs I threw out either. Those items went into the compost bin.

If we get to the SHTF scenarios, I will. But we're not there. Actually, if we get to that point, there will not be any heels of bread or hotdogs to throw out, as we will eat them first. And if we get to that point, I won't be so picky as to turn up my nose at, say, raccoon or possom or groundhog. (None of those sound even remotely appealing to me, but I've never had the opportunity to eat them, prepared by someone who knows how.)

Commercial feed is easier and cheaper than trying to feed my chickens on what I can grow or find for them. It's almost certainly better at meeting their nutritional needs too. I don't stockpile bags of the stuff because it does have a shelf life.

A year or so ago, there was lots of chatter about how the war in Ukraine was going to lead to shortages of grain and therefore feed. I asked the owner of the place where I buy my feed if he'd heard of that, and he said he had not.

He could have said, "You better stock up now, because I think there will be a shortage," and tried to sell me 6 bags of feed. He could tell me that any time I'm in there, but he doesn't. He's in a better position to know what his supplier has available than I am.

Don't possum. Unless you are truly desperate. They readily carry a host of diseases you won't be able to get cured if SHTF. Better in that case to go hungry and await a better opportunity. Trash panda would be the less risky option. Ground hog, I don't know - I don't think we have them.

and the war in Ukraine did help drive prices up on certain grains (as did other issues, related to shipping) and came on the heels of the Pandemic related price increases, prices which have not returned to pre-pandemic levels - but the Ukraine impact was relatively short.

 

[U_Stormcrow]

5 chickens walk into a restaurant.

They share everything they order evenly on one plate. Other than the one plate of food, they also get grass, weeds, or insects that they encounter.

They order:

1/4 pound 80/20 cooked ground beef (don't strain the fat)
1/4 head of cabbage
5 baby spinach leaves (each chicken gets 1 leaf)
5 1/4 teaspoons minced carrots
1/4 strawberry
1/2 baked sweet potato

Can't help but notice that after extolling the virtues of a whole grain diet, your hypothetical immediately does most of the things I mentioned.

1) Feed more than 100g/day
4) Introduce animal/insect protein sources
6) provide additional, unspecified, uncertain food sources in the form of a diverse pasture.

and seemingly 3, accept lower performance.

Additionally, it doesn't include any whole grains.

Appears to be some cognitive dissonance included in your dietary advice.

 

[Red Star 2019]

Good question but if it 'preserves' it in food for humans why not chicken food. And it would mostly take out any remaining water and make it so it wouldn't mold in jars. I'm thinking I might try all of them. I currently use pellets as my chickens are old enough to not need crumble now.

Don't need to freeze dry chicken feed. Put it in a large tote and keep it dry. Crumbles should be feed to new chicks until they are a couple months old. As long as the feed doesn't get moisture on it and doesn't have mold that is the main thing.

 

[JacinLarkwell]

Don't need to freeze dry chicken feed. Put it in a large tote and keep it dry. Crumbles should be feed to new chicks until they are a couple months old. As long as the feed doesn't get moisture on it and doesn't have mold that is the main thing.

The problem is that it starts losing quality after a certain time frame

 

[11th Hour Poultry]

And what if your birds do not have access to walk away and forage for other items as you say? and if you set a separate bowl of pellet feed and separate bowl of crumble and separate bowl of just say corn and never let them go empty and see how often you have to fill crumble or pellets. And watch the health of your birds in time. In all my experiences they go for the grain mostly no matter how they decline in lay/health.

I don't understand. If your chickens don't have access to walk away and forage, maybe you shouldn't have chickens. Why do you keep chickens if you deny them their nature? Why do you keep chickens in such a small area that their feet can't escape their own poop and bacteria?

Every time a chicken gets a scratch on their face from a peck, a bush, an edge of a fence, or a even a scratch from their own large talons, and they have poop on their feet, you're going to get infection problems.

If they don't have access to walk away and forage for other items, you might as well have a hamster in a cage in your living room for amusement and feed it everything from petsmart or tractor supply that says, "Happy Hamster Food", and then watch the tumors grow and the illnesses begin.

I think I might start a cry thread, for real. I want to cry that some people don't make enough money to buy enough land to keep chickens in a healthy manor. Let's cry that our chickens in confined spaces are getting bacterial illnesses and we didn't do our due diligence about how to keep healthy chickens. Let's cry that we like chickens and want them as pets, but don't really want to give them an opportunity to thrive by keeping too many chickens in too small of a space with INADEQUATE PELLETED DEAD FOOD. Let's cry shall we? I'm crying right now.