No corn fed chickens?

[amyquilt]

My sister was told she was allergic to chicken (and beef). Well, she's known for years she is allergic to corn. So after a couple of months, she finally put "2 and 2 together" and determined that the dang allergist was nuts. It looks as though it's not the chicken (or beef) that she is allergic to, but the corn that the animal consumes. She's found grass fed beef in her local health food store and is eating it with success!

I want to get this information together for her, so she can see she can eat chicken!

We are going to be moving to within an hour of her later this summer, and I want to either hatch some chicks for her or with her, and she'll be able to raise chickens she can actually eat.

So here's my question.

What can be fed to chickens (from day 1) that will give them all the nutrition they need, but not have any corn at all in it??

 

[pozarnsk]

Boy I don't know, that's putting alot of trust in whoever raised the meat she is eating. Especially since the FDA "organic" label could still mean organic corn has been fed. Thats a tough one. Probably be best if she could find a local "no corn farmer" and buy from him, but that could be tough to find.

 

[amyquilt]

What I'm actually trying to find out is if she &/or I raised the chickens for her to eat, what to feed them (with no corn whatsoever in it) so she can have them processed and eat them.

 

[Barnyard Dawg]

We feed our free-range chickens mostly steamed rice, (white, brown & wild), mixed with some crumble you can add flaxseed, barley, millet, quinoa, sunflower seeds, vegetables, figs, blackberries etc. It is more difficult with chicks you need to be careful early on with the steamed rice but they should be no problem at around 2-3 weeks, we let ours free-range at that age so it goes to the ground and attaches soil in the form of grit and they love the fresh grass we would start them off on a little uncooked rice but not much we never give our older chickens uncooked rice though.

 

[WoodlandWoman]

You'll need to mix up your own feed to do that. There have been quite a few threads on the forum that you can search for or you can just page back in this section. You'll just need to substitute a different grain, for the corn that is often used.

People use various recipes and may or may not include pasture or added fruits, vegetables or insects in their chickens diets. If you start off with a basic, complete diet recipe, you can always add to it later. It should have a protein source, as well as the grain for carbohydrate. It will also need a source of multiple vitamins and minerals. This can come from supplements and/or a wide variety of foods.

Chicks will need their food ground much finer than what a hen can eat. They also don't need as much calcium as a laying hen. Most of the work is in researching the diet in the beginning. After that, it's pretty easy. It's really nice of you to be doing this for your sister. Good luck on the project and I hope it works for her!

 

[Dennis1979]

For beef, I would agree with Pozarnsk and see if you can find someone nearby that raises 100% grass fed beef. That's the only way you will know for sure. If you just buy grass fed beef at the grocery store, you really don't know. It could be mostly grass-fed but finished on corn.

There are producers scattered around and you just have to see if you can find one close by. Another common set-up is a food buying co-op where several families join together to place a large order with the producer. Someone from the co-op goes to pick it up or the producer might deliver it. If you find a producer that you like, call them and see if there are any co-ops in your area. Here is a list of Texas Pastured Producers as put out by Eatwild http://www.eatwild.com/products/texas.html

Almost all chicken is fed at least some corn, even pastured chicken. I don't think you will ever find no-corn chicken sold anywhere. You would have to raise your own. The main issue you will have is that most pre-mixed chicken feed has corn in it so you will have to custom mix. This will necessarily drive up the cost of the feed. Option one would be to try and get all the necessary feed grains separately then mix them. If your lucky you can find these from a feed mill and still get them relatively cheap. Then, in place of corn, add something with similar nutrional value. Option 2 is to buy all the ingredients from specialty suppliers and mix them. This is where it gets expensive. Here is a link to a site where they mix all their own organic feed http://www.greenerpasturesfarm.com/ChickenFeedRecipe.html. I'm not sure if these people buy the ingredients online or at the health food store, either way, to me it is overkill and has to be really expensive but, it is what they want to do so who am I to question.

Dennis

 

[chicksinthemachine]

That is really nice thing to do for your sis. Chicken is soo good. But I agree with the others in the making of your own feed. You'll also have to keep a close eye on them so they don't get the other chickens' food at least I would think so.

 

[greyfields]

I grass feed and grass finish my beef.

As far as chickens go, though, most the packaging is vague on what kinds of grains are used to make up the energy/protein portion.

There is a farmer here who is committed to soy-free eggs and chicken meat. He mixes his own grains anyhow, so it wasn't hard for him. The only thing I cannot answer is what the mechanism is by which soy or corn passes along into the meat and then you as you consume it.

 

[hooligan]

I don't understand how, if an animal eats something that a human is allergic to it causes the human to be allergic to the animal the human is eating.

I am allergic to milk and eggs and I am sure before I became a veggie I ate some sort of cow or chicken that had consumed those things....

 

[kinnip]

I can't speak to the science or the expense, but you seem to know what you want. I've read of folks feeding quinoa to chickens. It would probably be a good, more nutritious, substitute for corn in a feed mix.