HYPOTHETICAL DISCUSSION: What to feed your chickens when we can't buy chicken feed anymore

[punk-a-doodle]

Ha, guess I need to elaborate...

In response to posts on pg 22, I will have mice on hand for reptiles and other animals also being raised. I'm trying to find a system where there is great overlap in what food items I grow/raise for my various creatures, and am trying to cut commercial feed out as much as possible. Mice fit nicely into that. Feeder mice are generally fed commercial blocks or feed mixes, but I'll be feeding them a different diet to fit with the goal of no commercial feed up and down the little food chain I'll have going. The bit about what to feed the mice was light humor. The above was not an attempt to replicate the wild red jungle fowl diet, and should not be used as such. There are websites, research, and books that explore the stomach contents of animals such as red jungle fowl that may be referred to for that purpose, though one should take care to take into account the seasonal and regional limitations of such data.

 

[centrarchid]

You will have volunatry production of rodents anywhere you have feed or grain stored. Couple efforts to control abundance of mice with their use as food. Problem is mice will ruin more feed than they consume.

 

[punk-a-doodle]

I don't have any desire or need to trap and feed out daily rations of wild rodents myself. Well designed food holders cut down or eliminate food waste.

 

[centrarchid]

I have never seen a rodent free chicken rearing site. If you are rearing poultry with any measure of predator control, then rodent populations will be elevated since food is present. The rodents may simply make nest around structures but forage for food out in surrrounding landscape. The control over spillage keeps the numbers from going even higher which is in practice very difficult.



Animals kept purely as pets would be in trouble. Anything that causes an interruption in feed availability will make keeping of non-essential pets impractical. People are very likely to be looking at surplus dogs and cats as food. If same animals are put out to make their own way then it will quickly become evident that the landscape will not be able to support them. Reptiles and amphibians pets will be just as difficult to justify. Most of us do not realize how much we live beyond the local landscapes ability to support us. Our current reality is that energy and feeds are cheap and easy to acquire but a change in either will cause great hardships where our pets will be given a lot less consideration as competition for resources becomes more intense. The ability to support pets is an indicator of affluence that we seem to have lost a feel for since currently almost anyone can do it.

 

[Steena]

To Centrarchid

I'm grateful for your serious knowledge of animals, landscape and daily existence (whether in extreme conditions or easy living) and
good practical sense. Yes, hard times require hard decisions and more importantly rational evaluation of what's "essential".

I live in New York State (Rochester) where it's cold, snowy and more gray than warm sunshine.
I will have to provide my chickens with everything they need during these winter months since the ground is frozen and non-yielding.
Lately, I have been buying parsley for them and putting it into the oatmeal I cook-up for a morning treat.
As for meal worms, they are too expensive to buy as a supplement for protein.
I have deer parts which I now know will suffice. Thank you for that information.
If i crush egg shells and put them back into their feed, will that encourage my hens to peck at their newly laid eggs ?

Thank you one and all - Steena

 

[RangingChicks]

To Centrarchid

I'm grateful for your serious knowledge of animals, landscape and daily existence (whether in extreme conditions or easy living) and
good practical sense. Yes, hard times require hard decisions and more importantly rational evaluation of what's "essential".

I live in New York State (Rochester) where it's cold, snowy and more gray than warm sunshine.
I will have to provide my chickens with everything they need during these winter months since the ground is frozen and non-yielding.
Lately, I have been buying parsley for them and putting it into the oatmeal I cook-up for a morning treat.
As for meal worms, they are too expensive to buy as a supplement for protein.
I have deer parts which I now know will suffice. Thank you for that information.
If i crush egg shells and put them back into their feed, will that encourage my hens to peck at their newly laid eggs ?

Thank you one and all - Steena

Mealworms are very cheap and easy to raise and require little care. I have a big tub of them that I raise for my leopard gecko and spend maybe 1 minute each day taking care of them. Plus mealworm poop is awesome fertilizer if you garden.

If the egg shells are finely crushed so they no longer have the appearance of a whole egg, you should be fine.

 

[Bumblefoot Bill]

I'm training the girls to free range for Zombies........

 

[punk-a-doodle]

I have never seen a rodent free chicken rearing site. If you are rearing poultry with any measure of predator control, then rodent populations will be elevated since food is present. The rodents may simply make nest around structures but forage for food out in surrrounding landscape. The control over spillage keeps the numbers from going even higher which is in practice very difficult.



Animals kept purely as pets would be in trouble. Anything that causes an interruption in feed availability will make keeping of non-essential pets impractical. People are very likely to be looking at surplus dogs and cats as food. If same animals are put out to make their own way then it will quickly become evident that the landscape will not be able to support them. Reptiles and amphibians pets will be just as difficult to justify. Most of us do not realize how much we live beyond the local landscapes ability to support us. Our current reality is that energy and feeds are cheap and easy to acquire but a change in either will cause great hardships where our pets will be given a lot less consideration as competition for resources becomes more intense. The ability to support pets is an indicator of affluence that we seem to have lost a feel for since currently almost anyone can do it.

I have no desire to have a wild-rodent free homestead, and no desire to trap and use them as food. They are fine to scuttle around out there to their little hearts' content.

My post was a response to the first post and the title of this thread. "What would you do if an undefined disaster (Hurricane? Tsunami? Gerbil stampede?) happened and you could not go to the store and buy animal feed"? I'm not personally interested in RPing doomsday scenarios, and my posts are not intended to be Apocalypse survival guides. I will save my "braised leg of Persian" recipes until we cross that bridge. Or at least until next Thursday. Mr. Whiskers should be plump enough by then.

 

[Aphrael]

To Centrarchid

I'm grateful for your serious knowledge of animals, landscape and daily existence (whether in extreme conditions or easy living) and
good practical sense. Yes, hard times require hard decisions and more importantly rational evaluation of what's "essential".

I live in New York State (Rochester) where it's cold, snowy and more gray than warm sunshine.
I will have to provide my chickens with everything they need during these winter months since the ground is frozen and non-yielding.
Lately, I have been buying parsley for them and putting it into the oatmeal I cook-up for a morning treat.
As for meal worms, they are too expensive to buy as a supplement for protein.
I have deer parts which I now know will suffice. Thank you for that information.
If i crush egg shells and put them back into their feed, will that encourage my hens to peck at their newly laid eggs ?

Thank you one and all - Steena

I toss all eggshells out onto the compost where they are promptly gobbled up by the chickens and ducks. I have never, ever had any problems with them breaking or eating the eggs in the nest. Usually, if you start having troubles with egg-eating it is because they are missing something in their diet and are trying to make up for it.

 

[centrarchid]

I have no desire to have a wild-rodent free homestead, and no desire to trap and use them as food. They are fine to scuttle around out there to their little hearts' content.

My post was a response to the first post and the title of this thread. "What would you do if an undefined disaster (Hurricane? Tsunami? Gerbil stampede?) happened and you could not go to the store and buy animal feed"? I'm not personally interested in RPing doomsday scenarios, and my posts are not intended to be Apocalypse survival guides. I will save my "braised leg of Persian" recipes until we cross that bridge. Or at least until next Thursday. Mr. Whiskers should be plump enough by then.

You are reading a lot very inaccurately into my post. The scenario is about interruption in feed to chickens and ways to compensate. The rodent bit is more off the playing field.