Home Feeding Ideas and Solutions Discussion Thread

[luvs2ride1979]

You could make maggots using just fat, skin, bones, etc. Anything nasty attracts flies when the weather is warm!

 

[triplepurpose]

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Yeah, I've been doing a little more reading on this just now, I would like to rescind my earlier, more ignorant comment.

I suppose one advantage is that you can use meats or carcasses, or parts of carcasses, that the chickens might not actually be interested in eating, and the maggots could potentially be a more palatable (to them!) form of protein too maybe... Anyway, a clever, simple, and useful trick to have in your book, as it were! (Although personally, I think I'll stick with the BSF for now...

)

 

[BarredBuff]

I like the maggot idea......may have to keep that one in mind

 

[triplepurpose]

I read in his book that Harvey Ussery uses a solar box cooker like this to cook certain homegrown foods for the chickens that they couldn't eat raw (squash, cull potatoes). Seems like a really cheap, easy design:

 

[Elke Beck]

If I could not afford to feed my girls, I would go to local restaurants and ask them if I could take some of their trash. A lot of perfectly good food is thrown in dumpsters, and your chickens can benefit from that. Many restaurants will be more than happy to have you take out their trash because they pay by the dumpster, so if they can get rid of the trash another way, they can save $$ if they can reduce the number of dumpsters that are picked up.

Also, let your friends and neighbors know that you welcome their scraps and unwanted leftovers. Rather than having them throw away that box of moth-infested oatmeal, they can give it to you for your chickens.

the only problem with this is you may get more than your chickens can eat. Of course, the only solution to that problem is to get more chickens, right?

 

[galanie]

A warning on the maggot thing. There have been people that swore by doing this but later had chickens die from disease because of it. I can't give exact details but maybe a search for same on this site will bring the threads up.

One of the people that wrote years ago about his great idea of feeding maggots to his chickens ended up losing a lot of birds to botulism poisoning as a direct result of the maggots.

 

[MollyG]

Now that deer season is over i can get truck loads of field corn still on the cob from the food plots for the deer.... last week i shucked a 55 gallon drum full of loose corn

when i feed up i mix it 50/50 for everyone..... chickens horses and goat

jamie

 

[Greenskeeper]

I raise Dubia Roaches. My chickens love them!

 

[bj taylor]

i love this thread. so looking forward to the information. wish i had something to offer & not just soak up other's knowledge. maybe when i get my chicks & get on the learning curve, i'll bring something to the table.

 

[bj taylor]

love this idea. i could do this. who knew maggots could serve such a lofty role in life