I wonder how chickens used to lay eggs fine without a healthy diet..?

[All4Eggz]

I just had a question come to mind.
My family is from Ukraine, but I was born here in the U.S. My grandmother had chickens in UA, and ONLY fed them table scraps. They did not have chicken feed available, so she only fed them table scraps and human food.
My question is: If the hens had such a bad diet, compared to how people feed their hens nowadays, how come they were still laying at impressive rates? And how did chicks survive just off wheat? (My grandmother once told me that she only fed the baby chicks tiny wheat pieces)

It was just interesting to me that they could survive off a not-so-good diet.

@aart @U_Stormcrow @3KillerBs

 

[Tre3hugger]

The lay rates typically didn't come close to what is achieved today.
https://www.thehappychickencoop.com/a-history-of-chickens/

 

[All4Eggz]

The lay rates typically didn't come close to what is achieved today.
https://www.thehappychickencoop.com/a-history-of-chickens/

Yes, but my parents and I remember an impressive hen to egg count ratio: It was about 15 hens, and they would get at least a dozen a day, which is pretty impressive considering the diet they were fed.

 

[3KillerBs]

I just had a question come to mind.
My family is from Ukraine, but I was born here in the U.S. My grandmother had chickens in UA, and ONLY fed them table scraps. They did not have chicken feed available, so she only fed them table scraps and human food.
My question is: If the hens had such a bad diet, compared to how people feed their hens nowadays, how come they were still laying at impressive rates? And how did chicks survive just off wheat? (My grandmother once told me that she only fed the baby chicks tiny wheat pieces)

It was just interesting to me that they could survive off a not-so-good diet.

@aart @U_Stormcrow @3KillerBs

Did she keep records of how many eggs each hen laid per year?

Were the chickens ranging?

There is more food available on a diversified farm with other livestock than in a modern backyard. The chickens roaming such a farm eat spilled feed from the other livestock, they pick partially-digested grain out of manure, they eat the bugs in the manure, they eat mice and other vermin, they eat the bugs that infest the crops (and some of the edible parts of the crops), etc.

It was about 15 hens, and they would get at least a dozen a day,

Are there actual records? And was this sustained throughout the year or only in the spring when food was most abundant?

 

[All4Eggz]

Did she keep records of how many eggs each hen laid per year?

Were the chickens ranging?

There is more food available on a diversified farm with other livestock than in a modern backyard. The chickens roaming such a farm eat spilled feed from the other livestock, they pick partially-digested grain out of manure, they eat the bugs in the manure, they eat mice and other vermin, they eat the bugs that infest the crops (and some of the edible parts of the crops), etc.



Are there actual records? And was this sustained throughout the year or only in the spring when food was most abundant?

No, there are no written records. I know there is no evidence except what me and my family remember, but through the summer, fall, and spring, we would get about a dozen a day, which is something we can all agree on. In the winter months, obviously there were much less eggs.

The chickens did not free range. Their run was probably a little smaller than half an acre, but that's all the land they got to be on.

 

[Aunt Angus]

That's an interesting question. How long did the chickens live? I have a rescue hen who was fed broiler feed for most of her life. She lays like a champ, but she's had tons of health issues and her feather quality is atrocious. She would have died several times over if she'd stayed on that diet, and she still has health issues that I spend a lot of time treating.

I wonder if your elders slaughtered their chickens early or replaced them frequently. A poor diet = poor health, typically.

 

[aart]

I remember an impressive hen to egg count ratio

How do you remember the egg count in the UA if you were born in the US?

I was born here in the U.S. My grandmother had chickens in UA, and ONLY fed them table scraps.

I think there are a lot of mis-remembrances of grandparents flocks egg production, what all they were fed, and what the overall annual productions were.

 

[saysfaa]

I think they could have laid that well on that kind of diet. The Ukraine is very fertile, with a pretty favorable climate, and a lot of farming culture. In grandmothers time (maybe still for people there), tables scrapes could have been mostly wholesome foods. Plus a half acre for 15 hens could have produced a lot of forage for them.

Effects of some of the nutrient deficiencies are pretty subtle. Whose to know if an occasional hen was lost to stress when a dog chased her when she may not have if she wasn't selenium deficient? Or possible the yard happened to have the right kind of weeds (some concentrate selenium more than others).

I don't know if selenium is deficient in Ukrainian soils but the concept works for many nutients.

Or maybe the practice was to replace the entire flock every year - younger hens lay better and/or some imbalances take a long time to show up.

 

[3KillerBs]

No, there are no written records. I know there is no evidence except what me and my family remember, but through the summer, fall, and spring, we would get about a dozen a day, which is something we can all agree on. In the winter months, obviously there were much less eggs.

In the absence of written records and the presence of 100yo poultry science aimed at producing 100 eggs per hen per year from LEGHORNS, I suspect that the rosy mists of time have improved the productivity in people's memory -- just as fish grow with every retelling of the story of how they were caught and the summers of our childhood memories were always sunny and lasted forever.

 

[All4Eggz]

How long did the chickens live?

They would usually live for around 2 years, then they would be butchered. They would either hatch new ones with a broody, or buy some from other villagers.