Getting free produce - is more protein necessary?

[NewFlockOnTheBlock]

There's a huge difference between an 'old time' chicken, and a modern laying hen, who will produce 300+ eggs per year! She will do this at the expense of her health and survival, and needs to eat a good balanced ration.

OK, I wonder if this is where the difference lies. Most of my chickens are heritage breeds such as Cuckoo Marans, Speckled Sussex, Buff Orpington, and Partridge Rock; we also have several Rhode Island Reds from a small, local family breeder. I haven't counted, but I doubt that any of our hens are producing 300+ eggs a year. We don't provide supplemental light in the winter and allow our hens to go broody. One of our hens hatched chicks this past spring so she went even longer without laying.

Regardless of the number of eggs they lay, I do believe in the importance of a balanced diet for chickens, so I do feed a good-quality, organic, locally-produced layer/grower feed (switched to grower for the winter based on advice I received elsewhere on this forum) that contains grains, peas, corn, healthy fats from fish oil/flaxseed/sesame oils, and a vitamin/mineral blend. We also supplement protein with dried grubs, tofu, and, occasionally, cooked eggs or meat. And, we supplement fresh produce and dried herbs when pasture is limited or unavailable, as well as provide limited amounts of treats such as oatmeal, cooked noodles, and stale bread.

Looking into the protein content of different types of feed recently, I realized that there is quite a range, which indicates to me that those percentages should be taken as a rough guideline and plus or minus a few percentage points is unlikely to make a life-changing difference. For example, someone in a different thread mentioned that their broiler feed contains 21 or 22% protein, while the broiler feed made by our preferred manufacturer is only 19% protein. Similarly, I believe someone mentioned a grower feed with 18-20% protein while ours is only 17%.

So, in my opinion it's definitely good to make sure your flock is getting appropriate ratios of key nutrients (e.g. 10% protein is obviously too little and 50% is obviously too much) but there is some room for flexibility. Again, this applies to heritage breeds; I have little knowledge of modern production breeds, so it is possible that those chickens do best on a highly regimented diet.

 

[NewFlockOnTheBlock]

I would think pet food companies would actually try to convince us that wet food is better than dry because it is a lot more expensive on a per serving basis and contains that very inexpensive, but heavy ingredient: water.

The history of commercial dog food is fascinating! Here is a brief recap: http://digest.thefarmersdog.com/the-history-of-commercial-pet-food-a-great-american-marketing-story/

Granted, this comes from a company that makes human-grade, non-processed dog food, so you could say that they have their own agenda, but I've read the same story elsewhere previously, just can't find the source right now. Re: wet food vs. dry food, the gist is that commercial dog food evolved from biscuits to wet food and then back to dry food in the form of kibble when tin and meat became scarce during WWII and dog food manufacturers had to come up with an alternative and used the same type of machinery that was used for making dry cereal to come up with extruded pet food pellets that used less meat and did not have to be packaged in tin cans.

 

[CanadaEh]

When making broth, I cook a carcass in the crock pot for 24 hours and afterwards the bones are brittle enough to crush between your fingers. Make yourself a nice soup with the broth and feed the solids to the chickens.

You will save a lot of electricity using pressure cooker instead of crock pot. Also the bones don't have to be that brittle. I throw them chicken/turkey bones for chickens to pick up from, than I walk the run and crash the remaining hard bones with 2x4 (works especially good if the ground is frozen). The chickens gobble up all the split bone fragments.

 

[Folly's place]

There can be an issue with whole grain type diets, especially with some individuals, who will eat the yummy stuff and leave the rest. These individuals will totally unbalance their diet, and fair poorly. It's a common problem with 'house birds' and pet rodents. It's a reason that I feed a crumble or pelleted feed instead.
Mary

 

[NewFlockOnTheBlock]

There can be an issue with whole grain type diets, especially with some individuals, who will eat the yummy stuff and leave the rest. These individuals will totally unbalance their diet, and fair poorly. It's a common problem with 'house birds' and pet rodents. It's a reason that I feed a crumble or pelleted feed instead.
Mary

I save all the "small bits" that accumulate at the bottom of the feeder once the grains/peas/corn are gone and make a mash out of them. The birds eat it up! I love that it eliminates feed waste and ensures that the chickens get all the nutrients they need.

 

[Red-Stars-in-RI]

You will save a lot of electricity using pressure cooker instead of crock pot. Also the bones don't have to be that brittle. I throw them chicken/turkey bones for chickens to pick up from, than I walk the run and crash the remaining hard bones with 2x4 (works especially good if the ground is frozen). The chickens gobble up all the split bone fragments.

Yeah, at some point I need to invest in a pressure cooker to speed things up. That's good advice on breaking up the bones with a 2 x 4. I have a few turkey leg bones in the run right now I need to try that on..."food waste" collected from last week's cub scout turkey dinner.

 

[blackandtan]

If the feed my chickens are eating is low in protein I dump a worm bin where I compost coffee grounds in their run... I wait until the coffee grounds are all taken care of by the worms first.... and if they need protein they feast on worms, if they do not need protein they pass up on worms. Worm composts are a great way to turn food chickens will not eat into food they will eat. Worm composts also have other things in them that chickens eat.

Hahaha I’ve never seen a chicken pass up a worm, they usually come running when I’m gardening because they KNOW

 

[blackandtan]

I also let all my birds have access to carcasses after butchering, they have a huge party...deer and moose anyway...they also get all the boiled off meat from deer and moose skulls in winter, they’ll clean up every last speck and look for more the rest of the day

 

[Compost King]

Chickens love meat, I saw 2 squirrels get run over by cars years ago and both times while it was still fresh I got out the flat head shovel and brought them in the back for the chickens to pick at. I also had chickens start pecking at a hen that was a victim of a predator but I got her buried as soon as I could run over to pull the other hens off their sister.

 

[Red-Stars-in-RI]

Cost effective? I think that buying a higher quality food for them is still the easiest and most cost and time effective plan.
Mary

Well, cost effective compared to cat food or meal worms, for sure...and with my plan, you feed people too!

Unless my math is wrong, I'm not sure the jump from 16 to 18% protein (or even 22%) is necessarily going to make a huge difference, depending on how much produce is being consumed. If it's 10-15% of the diet that is protein, then sure...if it's more, though, it might be as much help as switching from full milk to 2% to lose weight.