Natural feed?

[ChickChic00]

Would homegrown variety of vegetables and homegrown mealworms be sufficient feed?
No chicken feed or anything.
Basically natural feeding like a while back, except I'm growing mealworms for them to eat too. Any help is appreciated!!

 

[Lemon-Drop]

Hmm, I’m not entirely sure that mealworms and veggies would be sufficient, but I could be wrong. Those kind of fall in the great category, I think.

Have you tried fodder?

 

[ChickChic00]

Hmm, I’m not entirely sure that mealworms and veggies would be sufficient, but I could be wrong. Those kind of fall in the great category, I think.

Have you tried fodder?

I've done tried fodder. I'm trying to have hardly any cost for feed. I save my seeds from everything I grow. The only thing that would cost is some oatmeal for the mealworms bedding

 

[Weeg]

If you and your hens lived back when there was no feed available, then yes, you could probably supply them with enough variety to keep them alive.
The big difference is that these days, poultry have been bred to lay way more eggs than poultry back then, so they have much more strict nutritional requirements.
Along with that, I wouldn't say that those poultry thrived back then either. They survived, but our poultry today thrive because of the nutrition we can supply for them.

There was a post a while back about a member who successfully fed her birds on a 100% forage diet. Note that she taught them from chicks to forage food on their own, I'd imagine it would be difficult to do the same for adult poultry. You would also need a lot of acreage, I'd say about an acre per bird.

The short answer is no. Its very very difficult to formulate a diet that would be sufficient for modern day laying hens. You wouldn't be able to do it with simply vegetables and mealworms either. It is so much easier and cost affective to simply purchase a bag of chicken feed. If your looking for a more natural option, you can go for an Organic Non-GMO feed. Even whole grain feed, just note you have to soak or ferment that before feeding.
This thread might interest you. It talks about temporarily formulating a diet for laying hens encase we get a feed shortage, or feed prices start to skyrocket.
I'll grab a link in a second.

 

[TheFatBlueCat]

The answer is probably not and it depends. I personally don't think feeding chickens is as complicated as some people think, but getting a fully nutritionally balanced diet is not simple. You would also have to grow a lot of vegetables all year, or grow even more during the growing season for storage.

The it depends part of my statement is, if you're willing to accept extremely variable egg production and chicken health. 'Back in the day' chickens were not expected or bred to be as productive as they are now. Maybe a small flock of active bantams could manage, but not a production red or a large breed like a barred rock or sussex.

 

[U_Stormcrow]

Would homegrown variety of vegetables and homegrown mealworms be sufficient feed?
No chicken feed or anything.
Basically natural feeding like a while back, except I'm growing mealworms for them to eat too. Any help is appreciated!!

No.

Homegrown SPECIFIC veggies plus SPECIFIC grains plus SPECIFIC legumes plus an animal protein source, yes.

If you want your chickens to thrive, they have specific nutritional needs, which you are **unlikely** to stumble upon accidentally and consistently.

"a while back", leghorns were famed for laying just over 100 eggs a year, on a diet considerably more rigorous than what you suggest above.

If you want to try and reinvent the wheel, that's all well and good, but first I recommend looking at the wheel and the history of its evolution, so you understand WHY it works. Same with chicken feed.

 

[Weeg]

I've done tried fodder. I'm trying to have hardly any cost for feed. I save my seeds from everything I grow. The only thing that would cost is some oatmeal for the mealworms bedding

I understand this completely. I love the idea of self sufficiency, and try to be as self sufficient as possible. Its very fascinating to me. Though you would have to put a lot of time and effort into formulating a complete diet. What you can do is supplement the diet, maybe this article will interest you as well.
It talks about using fresh vegetables to enhance poultry diets, and you could grow a lot of those veggies for your birds.

Thread about possible feed shortage-
https://www.backyardchickens.com/th...ns-if-there-is-no-scratch-or-pellets.1517127/

Parrot chop method-
https://www.backyardchickens.com/ar...hop-principle-to-improve-chicken-diets.77197/

 

[U_Stormcrow]

If you and your hens lived back when there was no feed available, then yes, you could probably supply them with enough variety to keep them alive.
The big difference is that these days, poultry have been bred to lay way more eggs than poultry back then, so they have much more strict nutritional requirements.
Along with that, I wouldn't say that those poultry thrived back then either. They survived, but our poultry today thrive because of the nutrition we can supply for them.

There was a post a while back about a member who successfully fed her birds on a 100% forage diet. Note that she taught them from chicks to forage food on their own, I'd imagine it would be difficult to do the same for adult poultry. You would also need a lot of acreage, I'd say about an acre per bird.

The short answer is no. Its very very difficult to formulate a diet that would be sufficient for modern day laying hens. You wouldn't be able to do it with simply vegetables and mealworms either. It is so much easier and cost affective to simply purchase a bag of chicken feed. If your looking for a more natural option, you can go for an Organic Non-GMO feed. Even whole grain feed, just note you have to soak or ferment that before feeding.
This thread might interest you. It talks about temporarily formulating a diet for laying hens encase we get a feed shortage, or feed prices start to skyrocket.
I'll grab a link in a second.

Addendum: Completely forage diet examples are in climates, on grounds, most of us don't have. Feral chickens in Hawaii, for instance. A few feral colonies in Florida, roughly two hundred miles south of me... They don't produce large eggs, they don't produce eggs often, its anyone's guess how much their 100% forage diet is supplimented by the presence of people (and their gardens, their trash, their pet food, etc) nearby, and GOOD LUCK catching one of those scrawny beasts for the dinner table.

 

[U_Stormcrow]

If you have the climate, and you have the grounds, then even without storage and heavy equipment, you can "bend the curve" some. My flock is in my sig. My chickens and ducks and goats forage about 1.75 acres of pasture, and a few more of virgin woods. I have deliberately scattered a broad range of seeds from a number of different "classes" of plants - in an effort to provide a varied diet at all times of the year. Best I can do is cut my feed costs about 35% at the peak (and only about 15% at other times). A not inconsiderate amount - I still feed 300-400# a month of commercial feed.

But I won't pretend I could go to a 100% forage diet without more land, and more effort on my part, for a flock my size - and I'm in one of the most forgiving growing climates in the US (8a), though my soil quality is "not good".

 

[arizona_chicken_noob]

I am a pretty big proponent of the idea that "those who say it cannot be done should get out of the way of those who are doing it". Even though from a researched standpoint it doesn't sound promising to feed them entirely off your land (and also maintain modern egg production).

Two thoughts as I play devil's advocate:

1) Take a look at the book Poultry for the Farm and Home, written 100 years ago, that talks about what they did and how they did it. The book does talk about feeding your chickens beef or milk to keep production up.

2) Examine colonies of feral chickens and see how they do it / how they fare. We have one in Phoenix that has been going on supposedly for decades, and from what I can tell, some neighbors do feed them.