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

[centrarchid]

We forget.......dog food...until probably the 1930s dogs DID survive on table scraps and foraged.
There was no" dog food"
My grandmother even in 1950 gave her dog bought food... . raw .horse meat! and was some by then canned K-L Ration

Over 3/4 of all the ppl were farmers before the Great Depression and so in the country they were other things dogs caught themselves rabbit possum and such and plus inners fro m chicken cows and whatever else the farmers gutted. Im sure few were really heavy like today more thin or skinny dogs.

Number of dogs was not as high as today.

 

[Roxannemc]

Fro m what ive seen the shepard also had to go find young sheep etc that got lost The dog im sure helped in that but couldnt bring it back to the fold.
.
But I think it depends on the dog guarding
I have 4 English Mastiffs. all over 170 lbs One will guard my chickens fro m predators well and help protect me from the one mean roo.I have BUT My male will kill a chicken for sport in a heartbeat . !

I think if we look back people always had more farm animals than dogs.
I would think after millenium they would have found which is needed more. so since years back they lived off the land to survive i think it was more important to have the farm animals and a gun or guns etc to protect .... than a pack of dogs unless just one or 2 to warn of danger coming
Chickens are a fast resource . What animal will have eggs daily for you to eat... or if you want you can eat the grown chook in say 3 -4 months
A cow you cant eat a thing until it delivers a calf in a year or about
You could be dead by then...... OR you could have eaten 365 eggs or eggs and say 150 near grown chickens at let say 750 lbs of meat. and sustained for every week and month of the year
As far as dogs for guard the n meat ..same as cow ..wait 2 month to get puppies then wait 5-6 months for big ones to get eating size . (not a nice thought is it?)

.

 

[Allysha1990]

Has anyone thought about fodder?

I have (and still am) considering trying out the fodder system. I have attempted to do as much research as possible, some of it being contradictory, however it seems mostly positive. I unfortunatly don't really have a lot of room to try this little experiment out For now I have to stick to getting produce from my work

 

[Triple Willow]

Jake knows exactly how things go here....and he is expected to utilize our bodies in just such a manner if we are to fall dead in his territory.  Everyone and everything is food for someone else on this planet and we don't make much distinction about that.     He'd keep the buzzards off our bodies until the meat got gamey enough and he was hungry enough from not being fed, then he'd commence to eat us.  And if anyone out there doesn't think their own animals won't eat their dead bodies when the chips are down, they might as well think again.  Pets won't stay domesticated when hunger strikes,not if they want to survive. 

Same here.

 

[Roxannemc]

i did fodder last winter wotked well . put in 3 flats in a window plant each a few days aparts Small flock this would work well I used wheat a some BOSS lsome lentils i had in my pantry and they were 7years old! i read barley is best but sells in like Aug here. Oats i read got moldy.I stopped when i bought seed from another source and it kept molding at theplant base and roots. no matter how much irinsed and cleaned the flats.

I have (and still am) considering trying out the fodder system. I have attempted to do as much research as possible, some of it being contradictory, however it seems mostly positive. I unfortunatly don't really have a lot of room to try this little experiment out For now I have to stick to getting produce from my work

 

[Roxannemc]

Fodder is very easy and fast.No dirt no mess.I even used a few tv dinner trays for small amount poked holes in put seed in rnsed really welll..let drain then set in the othertv tray in window 2 days comes up a week go feed it.roots hold it together.Oh and you do have to rinse each flat of seed off in
the sink each day and drain well.6 days its about 3 inches tall.

 

[Aphrael]

I do sprouts for mine. The problem with that is, if something happens so you can't buy formulated chicken feed, it stands to reason that you probably couldn't get grains for sprouting or fodder either. I looked into trying to grow enough of my own grain, but to try to make that their main source of nutrition it would require far to much land to grow enough and be pretty labor intensive. I will still continue to purchase grains and do sprouts, but am planning many more sustainable food sources for them, most that they will be able to forage for themselves and so balance their own nutritional needs. I hope to reach a point where the sprouts and/or fermented grains are a supplemental treat and not their main source of nutrition/energy. Then if such bad times do come about it won't be such a hard thing to phase out the feeding of the sprouted/fermented grains.

 

[Allysha1990]

I had heard that it makes your house smell like fermented grain though? I seriously doubt my boyfriend would be OK with that, although he is learning to get used to my whirl wind ideas haha! It has only taken almost 4 years

 

[Roxannemc]

Mine adorre the mucked coops straw pile full of goodies[ warmer in winter so maybe even bugs. i havent dug thru myself...
quote name="Aphrael" url="/t/704335/hypothetical-discussion-what-to-feed-your-chickens-when-we-cant-buy-chicken-feed-anymore/180#post_12394174"]I do sprouts for mine.  The problem with that is, if something happens so you can't buy formulated chicken feed, it stands to reason that you probably couldn't get grains for sprouting or fodder either.  I looked into trying to grow enough of my own grain, but to try to make that their main source of nutrition it would require far to much land to grow enough and be pretty labor intensive.  I will still continue to purchase grains and do sprouts, but am planning many more sustainable food sources for them, most that they will be able to forage for themselves and so balance their own nutritional needs.  I hope to reach a point where the sprouts and/or fermented grains are a supplemental treat and not their main source of nutrition/energy.  Then if such bad times do come about it won't be such a hard thing to phase out the feeding of the sprouted/fermented grains.
[/quote]

 

[Allysha1990]

Mine adorre the mucked coops straw pile full of goodies[ warmer in winter so maybe even bugs. i havent dug thru myself...
quote name="Aphrael" url="/t/704335/hypothetical-discussion-what-to-feed-your-chickens-when-we-cant-buy-chicken-feed-anymore/180#post_12394174"]I do sprouts for mine. The problem with that is, if something happens so you can't buy formulated chicken feed, it stands to reason that you probably couldn't get grains for sprouting or fodder either. I looked into trying to grow enough of my own grain, but to try to make that their main source of nutrition it would require far to much land to grow enough and be pretty labor intensive. I will still continue to purchase grains and do sprouts, but am planning many more sustainable food sources for them, most that they will be able to forage for themselves and so balance their own nutritional needs. I hope to reach a point where the sprouts and/or fermented grains are a supplemental treat and not their main source of nutrition/energy. Then if such bad times do come about it won't be such a hard thing to phase out the feeding of the sprouted/fermented grains.

[/QUOTE]

My mucked out straw pile is currently frozen lol. I am sure they will love it some spring time, although we are planning on using a lot of it to build Hugelkultur mounds