Home Feeding Ideas and Solutions Discussion Thread

[ChickensAreSweet]

OK, I am struggeling with this one since it seems somewhat cannibalistic. I have WAY WAY too many eggs. They are small bantam eggs and its hard to give them away. I scramble some up for the cat once a day. Can I feed them to the chickens? Its protein right? Btw we pull weeds and give the kitchen and garden refuse to them as well.

Egg yolk is what fed the baby chick inside the shell. It is perfect chicken food, as it is what nature intended them to eat while developing. Literally that is why they can ship baby chicks to you with no food or water when they are day olds. They would die if it were done after that initial period when they are still digesting the egg yolk.

You can boil them and mash the eggs with the shells and all (for layers) and feed them to the chickens. For non-layers I'd peel them first. It is a little nicer since they get some calcium this way too. Just make sure the shells are crushed well so that they are not learning how to eat their own eggs.

Feeding chickens eggs is a prime way to return them to health if health issues arise as they are full of all existing well-known vitamins except for vitamin C.

Feed them with relish (pun intended)!

 

[ocap]

OK, I am struggeling with this one since it seems somewhat cannibalistic. I have WAY WAY too many eggs. They are small bantam eggs and its hard to give them away. I scramble some up for the cat once a day. Can I feed them to the chickens? Its protein right? Btw we pull weeds and give the kitchen and garden refuse to them as well.

Agh! My head is spinning!!! So much to know. Being a newbie, this is a great thread to follow. Too many pages on here to go through though. But so helpful. Sounds like chickens can eat just about anything? Not as fragile as I assumed. I have a list of toxic plants and foods for my bunnies, it goes on and on... I only figured the chickens would be similar.

eat anything reminded me of last summer when one of the partridge rocks found a sparrow nest in the spruce tree and ate one of the babies with mama bird chasing the hen across the yard. Yes they will eat eggs and the eggs are a great food source.

 

[Lacy Blues]

OK, I am struggeling with this one since it seems somewhat cannibalistic. I have WAY WAY too many eggs. They are small bantam eggs and its hard to give them away. I scramble some up for the cat once a day. Can I feed them to the chickens? Its protein right? Btw we pull weeds and give the kitchen and garden refuse to them as well.

Feeding eggs is not cannibalism. Feeding a dead chick to them would be, or eggs that were fertile and begun development. An egg is not a chick. Just hard boil them, by the potful and then crack and crush them into whatever you are feeding. You don't want them to LOOK like eggs, therefore the crushing part.

 

[suncatcher]

Quote: Just thought of this...... In some countries people eat those developing chicks few days before they hatch. Not sure how they cook them, and not sure I want to know!!!!!

 

[Lacy Blues]

Just thought of this...... In some countries people eat those developing chicks few days before they hatch. Not sure how they cook them, and not sure I want to know!!!!!

 

[suncatcher]

Quote: I totally agree!

 

[Kassaundra]

Just thought of this...... In some countries people eat those developing chicks few days before they hatch. Not sure how they cook them, and not sure I want to know!!!!!

Balut is boiled, and I think somewhere a little over half way through the incubation time. But I have never tried it, don't intend to either.

 

[nok13]

asians do, ive eaten them, not like the taste or the texture (like rubber),, they are pickled in lime (the chemical not the fruit) and its usually before the chick in side is totally developed... the thais like it with rice wine, as a snack (like a mens' bbq food item, like some places eat pickled calves hooves or pigs feet)...

duck eggs are the preferred pickled (rotten) egg; like the chinese 1000 year old egg (not really that old, usually a month)...
and besides, they think that roqufort cheese is revolting; to each his own.

 

[AcresofDestiny]

My chickens love dockweed. That is the natural greens they have been eating in the yard.

 

[echosrevenge]

So here's a question: my husband just started managing an organic bakery that grows all its own wheat locally, and they slice hundreds of multigrain loaves per day - leaving a bucket of around 30lbs or so of whole, baked grains going to waste daily (and a similar amount of cornmeal that they use for proofing dough, and is left unbaked). He's been told that both buckets - baked grains and unbaked cornmeal - are his for the taking if he wants them. What would be the best way to process these for chicken feed? I was thinking fermenting the cornmeal, and either feeding the grains straight or fermenting them too. He also has access to several HUGE trash bags of burned or otherwise wrecked bread every week - I need a pig!