Home Feeding Ideas and Solutions Discussion Thread

[bucky52]

tea and coffee grounds are they harmful for chickens.

 

[CDel]

I would love to hear more on your experiment as time progresses. I normally let my layers free range from dawn til dusk, but after some issues with stray dogs, I was forced to keep them in their coop and run for quite a few weeks. I noticed that I went from 30-40 eggs per day to around 12-25, all during the same season. The only change was the lack of "free run". While there was grass and weeds in the run, most of it had been picked over throughout the spring and summer. As soon as I was able to let them free range safely again, within a week they were all back to laying normally. This winter, we never added light to the coop, and they continued to free range. We only went down to 25-38 eggs per day all winter, and I can assume part of that was the lack of available forage, not so much the amount of light.

I'm working on an experiment as part of my biology Master's degree that challenges the old adage that chickens need so much light to sustain egg production. Commercial operations usually run on a 15 hour light cycle but those hens are bred for the specific task of laying eggs and they have a very limited life cycle under controlled environments.

My theory is that our backyard flocks produce eggs based on factors other than available light hours. I think that age, health and food sources are more important factors for egg output. I'm still gathering data so I won't speculate just yet, but my control flock has shown an initial decline in production even though the available light has increased. I can show a correlation between lower egg output and a reduction in green vegetables and insect protein for the month of January. This leads me to think that fewer worms and green food are factors in egg output. But like I said, I still need to collect and analyze more data over the next few months.

I'm sure that there will be some who will discount what I'm trying to analyze and claim that light is the mitigating factor in production. We shall see what science says about this experiment.

 

[WI FarmChick]

That sounds like a good idea...I do have one I will have to give it a try...Thanks

 

[harleyjo]

Thanks for all the great ideas!

 

[WI FarmChick]

 

[LunaticCafe]

I haven't tried this, since I don't even have my chicks yet, but I have read that chickens can eat acorns. We have a large, mature oak tree in the front yard that had lots of 'em last year; this fall I plan to gather as much as I can and try using them to supplement the feed.

I'd like to provide as much of my chicken's feed as possible from the "homestead". Will be a bit of a challenge, since we have just 1/5 acre!

 

[RaZ]

I would love to hear more on your experiment as time progresses. I normally let my layers free range from dawn til dusk, but after some issues with stray dogs, I was forced to keep them in their coop and run for quite a few weeks. I noticed that I went from 30-40 eggs per day to around 12-25, all during the same season. The only change was the lack of "free run". While there was grass and weeds in the run, most of it had been picked over throughout the spring and summer. As soon as I was able to let them free range safely again, within a week they were all back to laying normally. This winter, we never added light to the coop, and they continued to free range. We only went down to 25-38 eggs per day all winter, and I can assume part of that was the lack of available forage, not so much the amount of light.

I've been tracking production of my own flock as the control group for this little experiment. Preliminary analysis suggests that egg production is going down, but the size of eggs is going up. I haven't run the stats yet to see if there is a significance but I think there is a relationship between foraged food and freely available feed.

We have had a very mild winter so far and the ground hasn't really frozen over enough to drive worms and bugs very deep underground. I've noticed that when the ground does get enough frost to be solid, the hens don't scratch as much and the egg output has dropped. Days when the sun is out and warms the soil, I see a lot more scratching and foraging and the next day I get higher egg output. For example; the last 2 days have been in the mid-40s and the hens have dug some pretty deep holes and came up with worms. Egg output was an egg from every hen. It is snowing right now and expected to snow for 2 days, so it will be interesting to see what happens with egg production if we get a big snow cover.

I have about 8 more weeks to collect data before we analyze the data and draw conclusions.

 

[dsljim]

I'm digging in the pile of chopped hay I put in their run last summer, my reds are out side every day and they wont touch their grain till they can't find anymore worms. I'm saving eggs for the incubator this week, has anyone ever seen a change in chick health because of lots of worm protein in the parents diet? I'm hatching my own because I'm hoping the healthy outdoorsy genes will be passed on.

 

[400constantne]

Caffeine is supposed to be bad for chickens...

But so are Potatoes, and I plan on feeding my chickens primarily Potatoes simmered over the woodstove. I'm just going to dedicate 1/8 acre to potatoes. Which makes 3,000 pounds total harvest. 375 saved to plant next year. That leaves 2,625 lbs. - 365 lbs for cooking- leaving 2260 so I can have 12 chickens, feeding them 1/2 lbs per chicken per day. + alfalfa + grass + barley seeds + maggots collected from suspended buckets in the summer + whatever they can find in their large deep litter/compost bin coop. (maybe duckweed too)

I am also planting quaking aspen trees around the perimeter of my property in order to have organic matter for the deep litter. They may or may not eat the buds... I don't know.

Oh yea... and lots of tree bark too lol


Given the potatoe scenario we can see what the feed to egg ratio is in a chicken, and why buying commercial feed will never get us ahead of the game. It takes 8oz of Potatoe, for 1.5 oz egg (most days). + the freeloading rooster.

Grain to meat ratios:

• "Grain-to-meat ratios are different for each species of animal. Some are more efficient than others. It takes about 3.5 lbs. of feed to produce 1 lb. of weight gain in pigs. Broiler chickens on the average require 1.8 lbs. of feed to produce 1 lb. of gain and laying hens need 2.0 lbs. Salmon are the most feed-efficient with a 1-to-1 ratio. Beef cattle, partially because of their size, use 6 lbs. of feed to produce 1 lb. of weight gain."
  http://www.ehow.com/info_8408697_graintomeat-ratios-farm-animals.html
  
  I was surprised that the Broiler chickens were so efficient! This shows how not smart it is to order the minimum amount of chickens in order to get the free "packing peanuts" that they send... I have to feed my packing peanuts twice as much food, I have to keep them twice as long in order to butcher them, and they still end up half the size! I would have been better off just to have ordered the chickens that I wanted, + broilers to fill my order.

 

[galanie]

Will they eat the potatoes? Mine won't. Even cooked, they just won't eat them. I suppose if they were hungry enough they might, I don't know. Just thought I'd ask.