Home Feeding Ideas and Solutions Discussion Thread

[FireTigeris]

If you are killing small enough animals, break down the carcass, they can eat it ... If you have an industrial meat grinder even better...

 

[Lacy Blues]

They would pick the bones clean without grinding, if you don't have a grinder.

 

[Steemroo]

I tend to agree with the others - don't risk the nasty bacteria on the maggot thing. Bacteria can overwhelm even a tough digestive system, and what if it gets in their feathers and so on? Then it gets on you from handling them. I've read too many people warn against the maggot thing - though some say it's all right if you don't let the meat get "too rotten" - but that's work and still a risk.

If you're huntin critters - what the other person said might work better: feed that meat directly to the chickens. I'd cook it first (boil it outdoors, I suppose), but that's me. Grinding would be worth looking into.

I've worried about that with worms, too, that they just don't reproduce fast enough (our meal worm "farm" is a pain and not worth the effort). Well, if you had a really good, big compost pile and ignored it a while - you'd have a mess of worms. Just no idea if the work would be worth it as chicken feed.

Minnows reproduce and grow fast in good weather. They need no other predators in their pond. Do you fish? There's meat in fish heads, and if you fillet - there's meat that stays on the bones. Fish guts and even gills have protein. Trash fish that we don't like but that are plentiful - worth considering. Too much of strong, oily fish, they say, puts a bad fish taste in eggs - but a lower amount won't (many commercial chicken formulas have fish meal) - the worst fish tastes isn't caused by fish - it's that gene that some brown egg layers has that causes them to make fishy eggs when fed soy or flax or stuff like that (or so they say).

I'm in So Cal and have had veggie waste on top of my compost pile for months - yet to see one BSF (but haven't checked in a while).

A lot of people I've talked to, especially people from not-so-rich countries, have told me they made their chickens get by on scraps and foraging. They say it worked fine. They never bought chicken feed, ever. It made no sense (or cents)!

 

[SowdersHomestead]

What about rabbit innards? We process about 30 - 50 rabbits a month. I know alot of people feed innards for their dogs. I never thought of that. That would sustain our flock of 36 endlessly. I wonder if I could forgo store feed altogether?

 

[FireTigeris]

What about rabbit innards? We process about 30 - 50 rabbits a month. I know alot of people feed innards for their dogs. I never thought of that. That would sustain our flock of 36 endlessly. I wonder if I could forgo store feed altogether?

I'd do it, you'll learn really quick if there is something they -can't- eat

 

[Lacy Blues]

That would probably be good for them but I'm not sure it should totally replace regular food. Do you give them the intestines?

I'd definitely try it and see how they do.

 

[aggiemae]

So, it won't survive the winter? Well, I guess duckweed is out for a winter green feed. Still good for summer though. How does it get going each year?

You can overwinter duckweed indoors in a large bin or buy a starter batch every spring.

 

[FireTigeris]

If I had a source I'd feed it all, I'd open it up wide and take whatever I was using- stomach contents and intestines sounds like normal diet for the corvid avins if they (chickens) avoid it stop offering it.

 

[Steemroo]

I doubt guts would replace the need for feed. It would give them a lot of protein (maybe too much - there can be problems from this) and almost no carbohydrate.

The high protein would allow you to feed the cheapest, low protein feed - but be careful. I've read that chickens need lots of carbs - I have no direct experience doing this, however
(no direct experience feeding chickens high or all protein). I didn't mark the places where I read this stuff on the web - you can try various key words on google searches and see
what you can find.

Layer feed is what, 16% protein? Broiler is 19 to 21%? Something like that. Chickens do fine on these and seem to need carbohydrates.

 

[SowdersHomestead]

Alrighty, looks like I'm ready to give this a try. Obviously they will need to eat something else besides offal. I can pick up whole or crushed corn pretty cheap right now and grow it next year so i do not have to grow it. When we lived in Tennessee there was a local bakery that would sell their old bread for $10 a pick up truck. I need to see if there are any bakeries around here. That would be a good addition with the innards. They currently have a 1/4 acre to roam and eat under the rabbit pens.

Next spring when we get some hogs I was going to extend the chickens fence down to the pig pasture and put up 6" livestock fencing so they can go through if they like. This would give them an addition acre to roam and dig thru pig manure. I don't think I need to worry about the pigs eating them cuz they are just feeder hogs.

Thoughts on a diet of innards, bread, whole corn, kitchen scraps, and what they find on the range? I was also thinking of planting a bunch of sunflowers. So I could add that to.