Massive incoming grain and food shortages

[raingarden]

I typically find whole corn a bit cheaper than cracked, and I assume it retains nutrients longer than cracked corn, so I prefer it when I have only adult chickens. I've seen adult bantams eat cracked corn with no apparent problems (hatchery-quality bantams of several breeds, but I've never had tiny little Seramas.)

When there are chicks to eat it too, I prefer cracked corn, and the adults eat that just fine too.

Of course, if one kind is out of stock or takes a giant price jump, I get the other one.

I only buy whole corn (shelled corn) because it's the cheapest thing and there is absolutely no waste. The quasi-feral flock get only whole corn as their supplement to whatever they can find on their own. They will scraatch around and find every kernal. I throw it into spots where we want the chickens to break dwwn the leaf litter. Over time they will make it suitable for planting. I do think it is addictive though because once a chicken develops a taste for corn they eat it in preference to anything else.

For a while there I was making pasta with a rolling pin and knife. It was edible. Then my wife got into it with the Kitchen Aid machine. She doesn't need to add nearly as much dry flour to keep it from sticking compared to the rolling pin so it comes out a lot better. She makes a killer puttanaesca sauce too.

Feed prices and availability could take another severe hit if there is a prolonged railroad strike.

 

[NatJ]

I do think it is addictive though because once a chicken develops a taste for corn they eat it in preference to anything else.

In my experience, that is not entirely true.

I have had chickens with free-choice corn in a feeder for months on end, and they do eat quite a few other things (gamebird starter from the other feeder, grass and weeds, table scraps, bugs & worms, etc.)

When something really is available free choice, I find that chickens will self-regulate to some extent. I cannot say whether they manage a perfect balance of foods, but I have not yet found any single food that will cause them to ignore all other foods for more than a few hours.

 

[Ascholten]

I find that a chicken is most interested in what the one below her is interested in. she will want THAT FIRST... then move to the next thing someone else shows interest in

Ive actually seen them turn up snacks for regular chicken food in my flock. Ahh the dynamics of chickenry, or would that be chickenary or chickinnyism, or chickatarianism, or chickunism? Bird Politics, ...

and what do you call a parrot that continually tells lies? A Polly-tician.

aaron