How to feed your chickens for FREE!

[winginit]

I've only got 6 chickens how much veggies is ideal?

 

[Red-Stars-in-RI]

I can't speak to "ideal" but I have 7 full grown birds, and they get the better part of a five gallon bucket when I get scraps and typically have it cleaned up in 2 days.

 

[winginit]

I guess they stop eating it when they are done I have been giving them my kitchen scraps just produce no processed stuff they seem to clean it up

 

[brookePA]

Yes! I get 2 boxes a week from my local food co-op; basically an organic, back to nature type store. The girls love it. And I'm saving things from the landfill.

 

[wcbpolish]

I'm a "semi-freegan" and my chickens and other pets eat great from what I find! Send me a PM and I can give you a few tips. I've been a semi-serious dumpster-diver for ~5 years and have experience in 2 states.

 

[annagoodspeed]

My neighbor gets leftovers from the school lunch program.

What about approaching restaurants?

Tried calling three different breweries in the area today for spent grain, all is spoken for!

 

[mmelton63]

I don't know if you are like me and your chickens are cooped up all winter long as it seems that they consider snow "White Death." Normally my chickens free range my backyard all summer long. One of my egg customers commented that she loves how dark and rich colored the yolks are in "my" eggs. I noticed a change mid winter in the color of these yolks and after reading up on here about WHY they did this, I thought "I got to get more greens for my ladies" Sure, I feed my chickens the standard Layer Feed with scratch as a treat for them to dig for in the shavings. And yes, I give any Chicken friendly table scraps to my chickens daily. But that still wasn't enough.

Then I remembered back to my college days when I experimented with a "Freegan" life style. Check it out, there is a whole thing out there about it. Basically, people would get veggies and fruit out of dumpsters at grocery stores and clean and eat them. It's not as gross as it sounds. Supermarkets often throw away perfectly good produce because they got a new shipment, the greens are starting to wilt or something along those lines. One of my favorite examples of this is when supermarkets throw away a 4pack of pears because ONE pear is mushy. Is there anything wrong with the other three? Not at all. Or a whole BAG of apples gets tossed because of 2 rotten apples. Needless to say, a lot of good food is thrown away.

SO I thought I would apply this concept to feeding chickens. But now I'm married and my wife would never tolerate her husband dumpster diving for food! Even if it is for chickens. So I just asked the produce manager if I could have any produce they were going to throw out. I just had to sign a waiver that I would not hold them liable and that the food was destined for animals. Jackpot. Last night I picked up close to 25 heads of lettuce, a watermelon that had broken open, mushy pears, bags of salad mix that had expired yesterday, wrinkly tomatoes, etc. This isn't rotten food or recalled food or even buggy food. Most of it is just not cosmetically appealing (Oh yeah, and I got close to 20 pounds of brownish bananas).

Does anyone else do something like this?

Feed your chickens for free! They will be very happy! And so will your pocketbook.

Our fresh market has "Chicken scrap" you just ask and they gladly will give you all they have, from 1-3 boxes.

 

[moomoodiddy]

I am currently growing fodder with wheat seed I got out of field.

 

[Lazy Farmer]

I don't know if you are like me and your chickens are cooped up all winter long as it seems that they consider snow "White Death." Normally my chickens free range my backyard all summer long. One of my egg customers commented that she loves how dark and rich colored the yolks are in "my" eggs. I noticed a change mid winter in the color of these yolks and after reading up on here about WHY they did this, I thought "I got to get more greens for my ladies" Sure, I feed my chickens the standard Layer Feed with scratch as a treat for them to dig for in the shavings. And yes, I give any Chicken friendly table scraps to my chickens daily. But that still wasn't enough.

Then I remembered back to my college days when I experimented with a "Freegan" life style. Check it out, there is a whole thing out there about it. Basically, people would get veggies and fruit out of dumpsters at grocery stores and clean and eat them. It's not as gross as it sounds. Supermarkets often throw away perfectly good produce because they got a new shipment, the greens are starting to wilt or something along those lines. One of my favorite examples of this is when supermarkets throw away a 4pack of pears because ONE pear is mushy. Is there anything wrong with the other three? Not at all. Or a whole BAG of apples gets tossed because of 2 rotten apples. Needless to say, a lot of good food is thrown away.

SO I thought I would apply this concept to feeding chickens. But now I'm married and my wife would never tolerate her husband dumpster diving for food! Even if it is for chickens. So I just asked the produce manager if I could have any produce they were going to throw out. I just had to sign a waiver that I would not hold them liable and that the food was destined for animals. Jackpot. Last night I picked up close to 25 heads of lettuce, a watermelon that had broken open, mushy pears, bags of salad mix that had expired yesterday, wrinkly tomatoes, etc. This isn't rotten food or recalled food or even buggy food. Most of it is just not cosmetically appealing (Oh yeah, and I got close to 20 pounds of brownish bananas).

Does anyone else do something like this?

Feed your chickens for free! They will be very happy! And so will your pocketbook.

We have a local distribution center that discounts perishable food for tremendously marked down prices. We have a consistent fresh egg sales $ coming into the mix stomping out our need to spend person income money to fund this venture we kind of call a hobby that turned into a supplemental income.
Egg sale provide funds for feed for around 75 chickens and 25 goats including health care. Not saying it is a gold mine, just it keeps the program from turning the venture into a money pit.
A lot of hard work but not a burden in the least bit.
Since of accomplishment and peace of mind every waking day... Good topic.. Thank you.

 

[Lazy Farmer]

The main line grocers around here won't do that because of corporate policy -- it's a liability issue. (Mainly that someone might eat food that was supposedly destined for animals, get sick, and then sue the company).

Our big chains here on Ocala fl, donate it to church food banks. The semi ugly stuff is brought to us by people from the church who trade the over ripe produce for our fresh eggs.
Barter was around long before currency.