Paleo chickens

[animallover505]

Chickens live off corn and grain because it is a cheap thing to feed them not because it is ideal nutrition, and the idea of corn "warming" birds seems more like a often repeated wives tail than anything else. Do you have any actually scientific information about this? If so I would love to read it but I have never been able to find any. They certainly do not NEED corn.

I have definitely seen farmers at farmers markets selling "grain-free" eggs. They do this by feeding a pastured or fodder-based diet so they are being feed grains as grasses rather than as processed grains if that makes sense. The nutrition difference is huge and with fodder you can turn 1 lb of grains into 6 + lbs of greens/grasses.

I think that if you did enough research into nutritional needs/balance and worked it all out so they are getting the right protein, calcium and amno acids I think it could be an amazing diet. Likely much better than a standard commercial diet -- I am not sure what your costs would be. That could be an issue.

I feed a corn-free, soy-free organic feed and then grow my own organic wheat/barley/BOSS fodder and noticed a big different in feather quality and egg yolk quality versus commercial soy based feed.

I would love to know what you need up going with!

https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/713334/growing-fodder-for-chickens

That's just what I've been taught by the people that got me started in chickens, I don't have any scientific evidence.

 

[BantamFan4Life]

Welcome to BYC! Happy you joined!

 

[chooks4life]

Firstly:

Quote: Corn and grains are not commonly available for the wild ancestors of chickens. It's just convenient for us. From what I know (which is lots about some things and little to nothing about others) your idea should be feasible and in fact is already being done by some folks. However I have no further info for you there.

I suggest you perhaps research a few things including what people who avoid gluten feed their poultry, since some put them on the same sort of diet, and also research what chickens survive on in the wild (whether feral or wild). Jungle fowl don't have grains and corn available. There would be some seeds but from what little I know it appears more likely the majority of their diet is greens, insects, fruit, fungi, and such.

My chooks prefer a diet mostly comprised of greens, fruits, and insects along with small meat sources like snakes, lizards, rodents, etc. If enough of these basic staples were present they would entirely abandon grains and other feeds we offer them that don't occur naturally in the wild state.

 

[chooks4life]

I was reading through this very informative thread when I came across some info that might be useful to the thread starter. So here's the link to the thread, and here's the info in particular:
Quote: Quote:

 

[liz9910]

Welcome to BYC!