Grain-free chickens?

[tamlynn]

A friend of mine in VA pays good money to get eggs from chickens that are "grain-free" and only eat grass and insects. First of all, I don't see how that is possible during the winter unless they are feeding alfalfa pellets or something, and second, is that nutritionally balanced for the chickens?

Oh, and third, what is the benefit of having eggs from chickens who don't eat grain?

 

[NotTheMomma]

Interesting! I wasn't aware how little of the layer feed mine were eating until I put them on lock down for the last two days. They went through almost a 5 gallon bucket of feed in TWO DAYS! It had been taking them at least 2 weeks, sometimes close to three weeks to eat that much. Mine are out foraging all day, typically. Though I have horse pastures, and two of the fields have been used for hay in the past. Until last year anyway. So the grain based hays are there, and one field has gone to seed, and the chickens do eat that. I think it's possible, if the proper plants were there, and the amount of poultry to land was kept to a minimum. For instance, we have 10.5 acres. Also have horses grazing the land!!! So with 31 chickens, I don't have any bare dirt land. Well I take that back, I have one bare area in front of the main field gate. The horses refuse to let any grass grow in that area.

If you think back, there hasn't always been chicken feed for the backyard farmer. Sure the commercial farmers had access to feed, but I remember my great grand ma, and my grandma... different sides of the family, had chickens, and they fed table scraps, stuff from the garden that was too blemished to use/had gone to seed/ etc., and I remember having some cracked corn that was used as our scratch feed is. Both had chickens running around in the yard, and were giving some corn when they were put up at night.

 

[Olive Hill]

In addition to the allergy concerns and health benefits already mentioned there are environmental implications that come with feeding grain that some people choose to avoid by supporting grain-free poultry practices.

It is possible to raise chickens without grain. Am I saying it's the best way? No, but I'm not saying it's a bad way to do it either.

During the warm months my "regular" breeds do very well with MAYBE 1% of their feed coming from commercial processed feed. And I'm pretty darn confident that's a heavy estimate. They won't go through a medium sized feeder in MONTHS, let alone weeks. I can raise from chick to full-sized chicken from spring to fall with very, VERY little grain and honestly, if I didn't offer the grain am pretty confident they'd not have any problem getting that last little bit from added foraging. It's just convenient and there so of course they're going to peck at it occasionally. But my chickens are FREE range. This doesn't mean I have an acre fenced in yard that they can roam around. This means NO fences whatsoever. And lots of open land with a variety of bugs, grasses, weeds, etc available to them.

ETA: I think the distinction that needs to be made here is that between grains obtained commercially and those found naturally by the chickens. I'm sure my chickens are eating "grains" just not those I purchase in a feed store.

 

[runsamuckranch]

The benefits to grain-fee eggs (and meat) are more for the people following the "Primal Blueprint" type of lifestyle: no carbs or grains. It makes a HUGE difference for some people and I am trying to find a way to feed my chickens without grains.

 

[triplepurpose]

I'm not ready to condemn a prepared ration simply because the chickens have found other things to eat. They are creatures of habit like most other critters - and are also keen opportunists. This in no way condemns prepared feeds. In fact, it places a greater burden on us to ensure we KNOW what they are eating out there, as they roam around.

So what I'm curious to know is this: Why eliminate grains?
To my way of thinking, grains are a part of the birds natural diet. They provide much needed energy in the form of carbohydrates. Along with seeds, nuts, bugs, carrion, fruit, mice, well - you name it - grains are an intrinsic part of the diet.

A hundred years ago, when a chickeneer might have to prepare his own feed, every recipe from the period included grain of some kind. They had this stuff figured out.
What do we know that they did not?

The Jungle Fowl don't eat grains, although to be sure they will eat various kinds of seeds and nuts and fruits and all kinds of things, when they can find them. The reason that chickens have historically been fed grains in the olden times alluded to was because grains were the staple crop that farmers already happened to be growing, not because grains are a natural part of the chicken diet. The earliest domesticated chickens had to adapt to eating domestic grain. And BTW you can be sure that they weren't fed any more of it than the farmers though absolutely necessary to keep them, because grain was, first and foremost, an important and expensive people food (all grain had to be grown and harvested without machines running on cheap oil, and without government subsidies). Flocks were also smaller as a result, and were culled seasonally so that only the breeders were kept through the winter (the peak grain-feeding season).

The reason grains found their way into all these recipes in early America and in much of Eurasia was because that was what was available as a concentrated, storable source of calories for omnivorous livestock like pigs and chickens, and for people. So in east Asia they fed rice, in Europe, wheat or rye, in America, corn. In many parts of the world (Oceania comes to mind), farmers have always grown other staple crops for calories. In Polynesia for example grains were unknown--instead, people ate taro, cassava, sweetpotatoes, breadfruit, and yams. If true domestication of chickens had occured in Polynesia "back in the day," they would have adjusted to eating sweetpotatoes or something else to supplement their foraging instead of grain. Chickens don't NEED to eat grain any more than people do, and there's nothing especially natural about it, it's just a case of convenience--and one that the early domestic chickens had to adapt to (meaning it wasn't "natural" at the time). Fortunately chickens, like people, and most omnivores by definition, are very adaptable creatures. Other nutritious sources of calories can fit the bill just as well. In the past, small farms (for whom growing grain is impractical on a small scale) have also grown mangel beets, squash, and potatoes (and I'm sure other things) to supplement omnivorous livestocks' feeding, and this would be, in the big scheme of things, no more or less natural than feeding grain--if that is what makes sense, that's what farmers will do, being on the whole pragmatic folks.

That said, I think the whole "grass-fed" chicken concept is kinda silly. As other people said, chickens are undeniably omnivores that eat an omnivorous diet. While they may nibble on some tender grass shoots now and then, unlike herbivores, they lack the ability to reap any significant sustainance from grass, just as humans do (if you don't believe me, YOU try living indefinitely on nothing but grass). It's one thing to talk about "pastured poultry" or free-roaming flocks, but "grass-fed poultry" is a stupid and misleading term that just confuses things more and contributes to a general public ignorance about livestock and farming ecology that serves no one. There, I said it--sorry if that sounds harsh, but I've gotta call a spade a spade here...

 

[hearts34]

I'm confused , I thought grains were seeds??? Alfalfa hay has a large seed pod similar to wheat, aren't they both comparitively grain? Same goes for many types of grasses with the same seed head types.

 

[triplepurpose]

No worries - you are right on all counts. I would consider wild grass seed as grains, though, when you consider wheat, oats, milo and the many others from which we have grown our own staples are nothing more than well... seeds. But I can accept your logic without splitting hairs.
So let us admit that human 'grain' is fed because it is available.

Chickens have very similar nutritional needs as humans, i.e carbohydrates, proteins, fats minerals, vitamins, micro nutrients**.... 16-20% protein, right? Some fats and minerals. Certain vitamins etc. - - AND carbohydrates to equal about 75% of their total intake.
SO, how do people propose to fuel their chickens without the carbohydrates provided by grains? This is the part that confounds me. As you note, chicken does not live by grass alone.

While were calling a shovel a scoop, this whole thing sounds like a foodists imposition upon chickens. Someone reads Rodale Press denouncing grains or we hate Monsanto, and so we want our chickens to follow suit.
Poor chickens.

** The micro nutrient factor is fascinating, by the way.

I totally agree with your overall points. And foodist fads are really dumb. People need to become educated on farm ecology, because they have become way to disconnected from reality recently.

But I'm NOT so sure whether wild grass seeds count as "grains" in my book. Maybe it's just "splitting hairs," like you say, but I think the nutritional profile is very different. Most annual grains are very different from their wild, mostly perennial counterparts. It's kind of like saying that feedlot beef is essentially "the same" as wild bison, but hopefully we all know that's not true--very different profile and physiological effects on the consumer. But anyway I suppose too that the point is moot for all practical purposes, because domestic grain is what we generally have readily available to feed chickens, and they've adapted quite well to it of course, since ages ago.

Perhaps I should have offered a little disclaimer here: I buy some commercial feed (grain and soy based, organic) for my flock to supplement feeding, but my personal goal is reduce the amount of expensive, fuel reliant, imported feed I use in favor of things I grow on my farm and farm byproducts firstly, or failing that other things locally available that make sense (eg, expired bread from groceries or fish scraps). I've already save a ton of money this way to BTW. I live in Hawaii, where hardly any grain is grown, now or in the past. Grain is not the traditional carbohydrate staple here--the earlier settlers preferred root crops, taro, and breadfruit for their starches. I have given workshops on the subject of feeding chickens homemade feed and encouraged people to look outside the regionally inappropriate "grain box" of American convention for more locally available carbs to feed their birds. So "grain-free chicken" means something totally different to me than it might to someone living where grain was locally prominent and available, or who misguidedly doesn't understand that chickens do need some carbs of some kind.

I realize that the Polynesian situation of grain-less farming is somewhat unusual in the world at large, but I want to stress that it's not weird or unique, and it fed a dense and healthy population in Hawaii for well over a millennium, and going back even earlier in other parts of Oceania. These people weren't some kind of jungle savages or nomads, but a densely populated, complex society with elaborately fastidious land-use regulations and a well developed system of agriculture. And the Inca thrived and built an empire on potatoes. Potatoes have been a significant staple in "Western cultures" ever since they were introduced to Europe, especially for people with small amounts of land. Grains are not the only source of carbohydrates in the world. However, if I lived somewhere where grain was locally grown, or I grew grain on my farm, I would definitely be feeding more grain to my chickens. But root crops and other starches (eg. winter squashes) can make great food for chickens, just like people, and are particularly useful for chicken keepers with smaller acreage wanting to feed small flocks more homegrown feed--especially those living in places where humid, tropical climates and unpredictable, year-round rainfall makes growing grain nearly impossible.

I guess maybe I'm just looking at this from a whole different perspective... But that's how we can learn from each other I suppose...

 

[chickiedoodle]

I have heard of people around here doing that. We actually have more grass available in the winter here than in the summer. Anyway, their reason has to do with allergies. Apparently some people are so allergic to grain that they can't even eat animals that eat grain. Sounds miserable to me--for the people I mean. I imagine chickens in our climate at least can live fine without grain.

 

[digitS']

Chickens can probably scavenge up a meager diet in many places altho' it won't be possible for our higher production breeds.

Even Joel Salatin is only talking about a 30% reduction of commercial (grain-based) feed for pastured poultry. Some poultry experts suggest lower percentages.

Seeds of any sorts pack more nutrition generally than the other parts of the plant. Chickens aren't ruminants. They cannot gain necessary nutrition from high-fiber foods.

Steve

 

[Buster52]

Quote:
I seriously doubt it is possible with the Cornish X commercial broiler, if that is what you mean by meat chickens. Maybe that is why Salatin isn't able to do it, since that is what he raises, even though he has great pasture.

I'm very intrigued by this thread and plan to research this more. It would be nice to raise my chickens without commercial grain for even part of the year. Maybe my standard Cornish could do it.