new research debunks trad views on nutrition

[ManueB]

Exercise is surely a part of all this

I think that's a key point both for chickens and other animals. It could be that static postures and processed food may not go well together, like they don't for humans.
The way food is given out has an impact. Encouraging movement like @centrarchid.
I know it's beginning to be taken into account for horses with things like horse tracks and paddock pastures.

Animal feed concentrates (aka pellets, kibble, whatever it is that lets an animal - dog, cat, horse, cow, pig, chicken - get its day's requirements in much less time and with much less energy expended than it would if they were finding their food themselves) are upfs.

They also take much less time and energy for their owners to prepare. While I would like to feed my chickens like you, I haven't found a reliable source of protein sufficiently near (less than 2h30 drive away) or online. Peas or organic soy just aren't sold in 10 kilos bags here. I would love to barf the cats but we are 90% vegetarian and I would have to get a second freezer to do it. (They do half barf themselves eating out rodents and birds though.)

I wasn't aware obesity in domestic animals was such a problem. I can't help wonder it doesn't have as much to do with being sedentary/ confined as with the quality and quantity of food ingested. Health is a holistic thing.

 

[Sussex19]

In an older English self-sufficiency book we have, the author says he feeds is hens a hand full each of protein, like fish meal, in the mornings, and a hand full each of grain like wheat in the evenings.
Apart from that, to just let them free range all day.
He claimed they were all healthy, long lived and laid well.
I'm not going to try it, but could that work do you all think? In like woodland maybe?

 

[Perris]

Peas or organic soy just aren't sold in 10 kilos bags here

I get my peas in 20kg sacks - since they're dried, they are good for at least a year (I get through a sack in about 3 months in winter). They're marketed for pigeons; is pigeon-fancying a thing in France, or just one of those weird British obsessions?

 

[Perris]

In an older English self-sufficiency book we have, the author says he feeds is hens a hand full each of protein, like fish meal, in the mornings, and a hand full each of grain like wheat in the evenings.
Apart from that, to just let them free range all day.
He claimed they were all healthy, long lived and laid well.
I'm not going to try it, but could that work do you all think? In like woodland maybe?

That's how everybody did it in da old days; commercial feeds have only really come to dominate the market in the last 50 years. Of course you won't get 300 eggs a year from a hen this way, or have a broiler ready for the table in 6 weeks, but most backyard keepers of my acquaintance don't seek either of those things. They want happy, healthy birds, and this is a way to achieve that.

 

[Sussex19]

That's how everybody did it in da old days; commercial feeds have only really come to dominate the market in the last 50 years. Of course you won't get 300 eggs a year from a hen this way, or have a broiler ready for the table in 6 weeks, but most backyard keepers of my acquaintance don't seek either of those things. They want happy, healthy birds, and this is a way to achieve that.

And I guess if you have the breeds like Sussex, (and so many others, but that is what I largely have) which haven't really changed all that much since a long time ago, they do better fed like that? Compered to modern layer hybrids.
I dunno really, it would be nice to be able to feed them like that, but I'm not sure it would be very practical for me, in that there isn't really enough forage for them to be able to round out their diet.
I think I will stick to feeding them a base diet of commercial feeds, and just encourage them to eat as much 'wild' food as possible.
Also, I'm not sure where one could get meat or fish meal here...

 

[Perris]

I wasn't aware obesity in domestic animals was such a problem. I can't help wonder it doesn't have as much to do with being sedentary/ confined as with the quality and quantity of food ingested. Health is a holistic thing.

I'm sure you're right. I was trying earlier to make a distinction between grazing animals - walking over hills and fields, eating as they go - and confined animals fed concentrated food where they are.

 

[Perris]

I'm not sure where one could get meat or fish meal here...

it's illegal here to give meat to poultry; that's why I have a mealworm farm. Fresh mealworms are legal, and help supply protein, and in an easily digestible and minimally processed form. And the birds love them!

 

[Perris]

I think I will stick to feeding them a base diet of commercial feeds

Changes are afoot there that you may not be aware of.

You might find this interesting
https://www.theguardian.com/environ...mal-feed-could-harm-human-health-experts-warn

and this one notes that using former foodstuffs can introduce a lot of sugar as well as fat in animal feeds https://doi.org/10.1017/S1751731118003622 The former foods they typically direct into animal feeds are bakery products and confectionary products, neither of which are usually recommended for chickens (though I personally have no issue with bread).

 

[Sussex19]

Changes are afoot there that you may not be aware of.

You might find this interesting
https://www.theguardian.com/environ...mal-feed-could-harm-human-health-experts-warn

and this one notes that using former foodstuffs can introduce a lot of sugar as well as fat in animal feeds https://doi.org/10.1017/S1751731118003622 The former foods they typically direct into animal feeds are bakery products and confectionary products, neither of which are usually recommended for chickens (though I personally have no issue with bread).

I'm too tired to read it all now, but I'll have a look at it in the morning.
The feed I use is pretty good quality, and I have never see any bits of plastic in it. (which, come to think of, I have seen in some other feeds in the past, and didn't feed)
At the rate things are going, there is going to be plastic in all our foods soon anyway (I told you I was too tired!)

 

[ManueB]

I get my peas in 20kg sacks - since they're dried, they are good for at least a year (I get through a sack in about 3 months in winter). They're marketed for pigeons; is pigeon-fancying a thing in France, or just one of those weird British obsessions?

Oh thanks, that's very useful, I didn't think about pigeons at all though I did look at food marketed for other poultry types. They are a thing in France too, I think, but more in the north and north east. It seems like peas for pigeons would at least be sold online if I can't find them locally!