Modern poultry are not the same as Jungle fowl. They have been selected for their ability to live off of our scraps and now for our grains. I did read that today's poultry will eat at the ratios quoted above--40/60 Grains to Protein. Other birds eat a lot more protein--hawks being one but they still eat 10 to 15% grains\grass.I'll have to throw in a dissenting vote on that view for a moment. I've been watching birds free range for a long time now and watching them closely. I'd say that it's a 40/60 split on what they forage in a day's time.....grass/insect and worm life. My birds work their meadow surrounded by woods in a circuit and that changes with the seasons and the available grasses but they seem to spend an good amount of time grazing vs. foraging in the leaf litter. I think a person is going to see that this varies according to the available grass in the pasture area as to what is palatable to the bird. I'm thinking just regular lawn variety grasses may not be the most palatable for a backyard kept bird but native grasses and pasture grasses, including forbs such as clover, are more suitable for their monogastric existence and they are gaining quite a bit of absorption of the proteins to be found there.
And it's the actual grasses they are grazing and not the seed heads, though they do a good bit of that as well in the fall. I've watched them and actually can hear them nipping the grass as they go along.
CX doing the evening grazing of the clover plots.
Fall planted clover on the finished garden being gleaned by the layer flock.
Young pullets mowing the meadow.
Whenever I kill a bird and empty out that crop and gizzard, I'll find quite a bit of grass in both and I can honestly say I've never found a bug in a crop. I can understand the bugs not being found in a gizzard as the cellulose and fiber in the grass takes longer to process but the crop is merely a storage area and should hold whatever the bird foraged immediately prior to the kill.
When I was free ranging CX this past spring they consumed a lot of grasses and forbs...it was their first stop for feeding. They'd fill up on clover and then move the wood line and start tossing leaves. Come evening they'd hit that clover again and graze it down like a herd of cows.
Bee you have to connect the rest of my posts to get what I am saying.I'll have to throw in a dissenting vote on that view for a moment. I've been watching birds free range for a long time now and watching them closely. I'd say that it's a 40/60 split on what they forage in a day's time.....grass/insect and worm life. My birds work their meadow surrounded by woods in a circuit and that changes with the seasons and the available grasses but they seem to spend an good amount of time grazing vs. foraging in the leaf litter. I think a person is going to see that this varies according to the available grass in the pasture area as to what is palatable to the bird. I'm thinking just regular lawn variety grasses may not be the most palatable for a backyard kept bird but native grasses and pasture grasses, including forbs such as clover, are more suitable for their monogastric existence and they are gaining quite a bit of absorption of the proteins to be found there.
And it's the actual grasses they are grazing and not the seed heads, though they do a good bit of that as well in the fall. I've watched them and actually can hear them nipping the grass as they go along.
CX doing the evening grazing of the clover plots.
Fall planted clover on the finished garden being gleaned by the layer flock.
Young pullets mowing the meadow.
Whenever I kill a bird and empty out that crop and gizzard, I'll find quite a bit of grass in both and I can honestly say I've never found a bug in a crop. I can understand the bugs not being found in a gizzard as the cellulose and fiber in the grass takes longer to process but the crop is merely a storage area and should hold whatever the bird foraged immediately prior to the kill.
When I was free ranging CX this past spring they consumed a lot of grasses and forbs...it was their first stop for feeding. They'd fill up on clover and then move the wood line and start tossing leaves. Come evening they'd hit that clover again and graze it down like a herd of cows.
How old is he?Ok, so I'm hoping that my rooster that was acting weird just has worms because I'm starting to get nervous I'll be one rooster short this year. He now has green-blue poop that is in the runny form or at least I think it is since it's all on his butt feathers. He's now dropping in weight. Not too bad yet but still he should be adding weight at this point. He's losing color in his face not horribly but it's starting to go. He's still walking but not a whole ton. I put water in and he came over to drink. Right now he is in my other coop by himself with his own feed and water. He has just been dewormed.
@PetRock Picked up some special ones at the Stockton Show
Langshans!
