Giving chickens corn that is soaked in 5 gallon bucket of water good??

[nuthatched]

Is soaked corn healthy ?

No, not at all.
If chicken feed (such as flock raiser, all flock, a good layer or chick feed) available, I highly recommend you get some. All your issues are likely stemming from nutritional inadequacy.

 

[nuthatched]

container of monster cookies to pass

Are those the ones with mms and pretzels?

 

[50-45-1]

Are those the ones with mms and pretzels?

Humm.. never put pretzels in mine but it sounds good! Yes M&M's, crunchy peanut butter, old fashioned oats, all varieties of chocolate, butterscotch and white chocolate chips. I even have thrown in rasins and chopped coconut at times.
Big glass of milk or fresh cup of coffee.......

 

[Noralynn]

Them eating soaked or unsoaked corn will not cause cellulitis. I don't know exactly what egg cellulitis is but cellulitis is a bacterial infection. I assume it is somewhere in the reproductive tract. Corn will not cause that.

People soak different grains to feed them. That is not the question. Are they getting a balanced diet? If you are feeding them everything they eat and you are only feeding them the stuff you mentioned, probably not. If yours forage for a lot of their food and the forage is decent quality they are probably not doing that badly. But I'd limit the corn to what they can clean up in about 10 or 15 minutes to help keep them on a balanced diet.

Another possible issue. Does the corn go sour before it is all eaten? It could be going off and causing problems. I'd want it to be fairly fresh.

Iv gone and checked it before and it smelled soured to me so I told my ol man it needed to be dumped out and refilled with new corn .I sometimes wonder if he lets it go at times and just feeds till it's gone.Yes our chickens free range.we live on two big lots.lots of bushes and wooded areas to scratch and find bugs,worms,snails,ect.we sometimes go outside and turn things over and let them get the bugs.Im just curious bout why out chickens have lived to be only 6 years of age then get something and die .The egg cellulitis or

A diet of mostly corn either whole, cracked soaked in water or not, would be as unhealthy for chickens as you eating cookies every meal, every day for life.
I feed formulated chicken feed. scratch feed (with corn) is just an occasional treet. I offer free choice oyster shell to keep egg shells strong, and granite grit for healthy digestion.
Do you not have regular chicken feeds avalia

 

[Noralynn]

Iv gone and checked it before and it smelled soured to me so I told my ol man it needed to be dumped out and refilled with new corn .I sometimes wonder if he lets it go at times and just feeds till it's gone.Yes our chickens free range.we live on two big lots.lots of bushes and wooded areas to scratch and find bugs,worms,snails,ect.we sometimes go outside and turn things over and let them get the bugs.Im just curious bout why out chickens have lived to be only 6 years of age then get something and die .The egg cellulitis or

Thank you for info

 

[Noralynn]

I just want to confirm you don't feed your chickens chicken food? The chicken feed is formulated with balanced nutrients. Feeding only corn, blueberries, birdseed, and mealworm will cause serious health issues in your chickens.

I honestly did not know,

 

[WingItRanch]

I honestly did not know,

That's ok. We're all here to learn! I'm not sure where you're located but there are some inexpensive feeds out there that are formulated to give your flock everything they need. I bet they would really enjoy it and their health will improve. Egg production may even increase. You might also find that it's much more convenient for you to use commercial feed.

 

[GardenDmpls]

To understand better, you must go back to high school biology. All of the proteins in our bodies: hair, organs, muscles etc. are made of amino acids. When we digest proteins from different sources, they are broken down into amino acids which our cells rearrange to make human proteins. Different plants may lack certain amino acids. Corn lacks lysine and has very little tryptophan, isoleucine and valine. Legumes (beans) are lacking in methionine and cysteine. If you combine the incomplete proteins, corn and beans, you get a complete protein. Although I could figure out how to balance different ingredients to get the amino acids chickens need, it is easier for me to buy a balanced chicken feed and supplement it with various weeds, bugs and scraps. There is plenty of information out there to help you make your own balanced feed. It helps to be ok with doing the math calculations, but there are probably programs available to help with that, too.

 

[Chickmama1111]

My husband takes the corn I buy for chickens ,dumps dry corn feed in it ,bout half full,then fills it with water till it completely cover and let's it soak,feeds chicken for about 4 days off it.They eat it alot.We have had some health issues with our chickens,lost like 4 hens in one year spread out over year.Vets said it was most likely egg cellulitis,everyone who I know that have chickens haven't had the health issues with their chickens like ad have with ours ,now I'm wondering if it's the soaked corn we feed them,I would like to hear someone's experiences or if they know If soaked corn is bad??

I believe you’re only supposed to give corn as a treat. For instance, I just gave my chicks the water in a water feeder that I boiled six ears of corn in for dinner last night and they are loving it, but that’s just something extra as if you were giving a dog a treat

 

[U_Stormcrow]

You don't need me, @Ridgerunner has more than adequately covered it.

To summarize -

Yes, corn contains some valuable nutrients, no it is not a compleete diet, and soaking in water won't magically make it so.

Bird seed is not a balanced diet for chickens either. It suffers some of the same nutritional excesses and deficiencies as corn. Both are low on protein and high in fat. Most likely, the bird seed lacks the balance of amino acids needed to make efficient use of what prootein it doess contain - but as there is great variety in birdseed, I can't say that with 100% confidence.

Obviously, blueberries are not a high protein source.

All of the above, in combination, is likely more expensive than a nutritionally complete, balanced, feed.

For the benefit of those who would still rather here it from me.

Post Script - no, feeding corn is not like feeding cookies. I've eaten more nutritionally balanced cookies. The two sitting next to me, however, are not examples of the rare (and expensive) home made "trail cookie".