Poor chickens

[seann]

Due to conflict of belief, my spouse is not allowing me to purchase chicken feed (nearby ranch supply sells 25lbs for $12+tax which is real cheap imo). The chicks would be fed human scrape food only, because otherwise the "ROI" would be too small. Poor chickens.

Would this work?
If not then I'll have to abandon having chickens as a pet. Sadly.

Thanks.

 

[TOP KNOT]

They will become malnourished if not fed a balanced chick food. You will end up with very poor quality. Does he feed the dog and cat that way too???

 

[donrae]

Depending on the amount and quality of the scraps, your birds could live on that diet. However, most of us backyard folks want our birds to thrive and produce well, and that may not be possible. It's really not possible to say without knowing what type of foods and amounts you're talking.

yes, the birds our great grandmothers raised didn't get commercial feed, but they also free ranged and weren't expected to lay an egg a day for months on end. Today's hens require more nutrition to meet the production that's been bred into them.

If your spouse is that controlling, I'd say maybe chickens aren't the way to go for you.

Where are you? Your feed is quite high. Mine is $13 for a 50lb bag, half what you're talking about.

 

[seann]

We're in San Diego, CA.
We may be changing our mind and buying chicken feed (50lbs for $22+tax).

 

[aggiemae]

We're in San Diego, CA.
We may be changing our mind and buying chicken feed (50lbs for $22+tax).

Excellent plan. Do tell your husbands that as will all thing you will only get out what you put in. Fat sassy hens lay more eggs so your "ROI" would most certainly be negatively effected if your hens are malnourished.


You can reduce the amount of feed you need by fermenting it and boasting the available protein. Our hens eat about 20% less if the food is fermented but I have heard that just wetting the food will make it more digestible. But it does take more time since you need to feed them fresh food twice a day.

 

[pdirt]

To make for less work on our part, our birds get fed by us only once a day. I feed them fermented feed first thing in the morning, then unblock access to their dry feed. They fill up first on the fermented feed them eat a little of the dry feed throughout the rest of the day. When I lock them up at night, I block access to their dry feed so in the morning they don't fill up on it before I get them the fermented. I'd say we use 20-30% less feed doing it this way. And probably about a quarter of their daily feed intake is dry feed. They do get some kitchen scraps but not until after filling up on a balanced diet.