Rooster or Hen?

[Kiki]

Oh sorry alot of people here tell me I feed them too much cracked corn. The main feed is a layer feed and secondary is cracked corn. About 75 to 80 percent layer feed 20 to 25 percent cracked corn. I also supplement this main mix with a little scratch grains, meal worms, oyster shell, poultry grit, manna pro omega 3 maker, harvest delight treats (nuts/seeds/dried vegetables), and those treats with the fish in them.

Poor things. If you stop feeding all of this 20 to 25% cracked corn plus also stop mixing the main feed with all of these other treats... Your birds will thank you.

 

[ccoscina]

Poor things. If you stop feeding all of this 20 to 25% cracked corn plus also stop mixing the main feed with all of these other treats... Your birds will thank you.

Most of these other things are not simply treats. For example, poultry grit and oyster shell. Meal worms are very high in protein too.

There was another thread on this site which explains why cracked corn is much better for a chickens diet than what most people would consider to be treats. Also cracked corn is used as a main component in many layer feeds.

The thread was about feeding chickens cracked corn as the main food source. The thread may be found here:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/cracked-corn-as-the-only-feed.548657/

Here is an excerpt from the thread I am referring to:

Quote:
I see this a lot about corn bread, etc..., but it is not completely true of field or dent corn. Dent corn and soybean is in almost every type of purchased feed you use for animals and its protein value is figured at 9%.


Field corn and sweet corn are not the same.


From: https://www.usaemergencysupply.com/information_center/all_about_grains/all_about_grains_corn.htm
The whole article is good.

"
Corn has sometimes gotten a bad rap as not being a very nutritious food.

Like the majority of the other cereal grains, corn is low in lysine. And it's marginally low in Isoleucine and the amino acid combination Methionine and Cystine as well.

However, if you add just 50 grams of soybeans to 100 grams of yellow dent corn (dry weight) it more than rounds out an adult male's one day requirement for the essential amino acids.

For the weight conscious among us, this works out to only 565 calories.

Not bad! Corn also contains goodly quantities of many B vitamins and the minerals Phosphorus, Magnesium, Iron, Zinc and the essential Linoleic Acid. Corn's 72% starch content makes it a high energy food.

Corn contains adequate amounts of vitamin A, the highest of any cereal grain.

"

 

[ccoscina]

I should also note that many chicken experts suggest adding corn to the diet during the winter because it helps them produce alot more body heat. Here is an article which explains this:
https://www.thehappychickencoop.com...-to-keeping-chickens-in-winter-chapter-three/

 

[Kiki]

I should also note that many chicken experts suggest adding corn to the diet during the winter because it helps them produce alot more body heat. Here is an article which explains this:
https://www.thehappychickencoop.com...-to-keeping-chickens-in-winter-chapter-three/

I would like to ask you a serious question.
What makes you think the person that wrote what's written on the website you just linked above is an expert?


Are you aware that anybody with a few dollars can make a website and write whatever they want?

Not everything on the internet is real or true.

Corn does not make a chicken produce more body heat.

 

[RoostersAreAwesome]

Let me know your thoughts.

Pullet.

 

[NatJ]

Corn does not make a chicken produce more body heat.

Corn instead of starving would probably help a chicken produce more body heat.
(So "corn keeps them warm" might be true for some chickens of the past, who would otherwise go hungry during a snowy winter.)

But a properly balanced food should keep chickens warm just as well as corn, and will also provide all the other nutrients the chickens need. (Properly balanced food: probably contains corn, soybeans, other ingredients, vitamin supplements, etc.)

And one major benefit of providing ONLY a properly balanced chicken feed that is in pellets or crumbles: no chicken can take the "best" bits, and no chicken is left with the "undesireable" bits, because all the bits are the same.

 

[Kiki]

Corn instead of starving would probably help a chicken produce more body heat.
(So "corn keeps them warm" might be true for some chickens of the past, who would otherwise go hungry during a snowy winter.)

But a properly balanced food should keep chickens warm just as well as corn, and will also provide all the other nutrients the chickens need. (Properly balanced food: probably contains corn, soybeans, other ingredients, vitamin supplements, etc.)

And one major benefit of providing ONLY a properly balanced chicken feed that is in pellets or crumbles: no chicken can take the "best" bits, and no chicken is left with the "undesireable" bits, because all the bits are the same.

I know how important a balanced diet is.
I don't understand why people think that feeding just corn during the winter is helpful for keeping a bird warm.
It actually makes zero sense to me and I would like to understand why people think that....that's all.

I also want to remind that just because someone has a website and/or is a blogger that it does not mean that they are an expert.

 

[NatJ]

I know how important a balanced diet is.

I know you do. I agree with you there, but was re-stating it to make sure no-one else would get confused when they read my comment.

I don't understand why people think that feeding just corn during the winter is helpful for keeping a bird warm.
It actually makes zero sense to me and I would like to understand why people think that....that's all.

I think it must come from a time when people habitually let chickens forage for their own food.

If you compare "feed corn" with "feed nothing," then of course the corn helps.
But now, we are usually comparing "feed corn" with "feed a balanced food," so the corn does not help.

I also want to remind that just because someone has a website and/or is a blogger that it does not mean that they are an expert.

Yes! That is definitely true!

 

[NatJ]

Most of these other things are not simply treats. For example, poultry grit and oyster shell.

Yes, it is fine to let the chickens have as much grit as they want, and as much oyster shell as they want. Water is also fine.

As regards the excerpt you quoted from the older thread...
I agree that corn is a good INGREDIENT in chicken food. But it needs other things to fill in where the corn is deficient. The balanced chicken feed already has that: corn plus the right amount of other ingredients. If you take out some of those other ingredients, the food is deficient. Adding more corn has the same effect as taking out non-corn ingredients: deficiencies in some important nutrients.

And when it talks about corn and soybean meal providing almost everything a "male" needs: what species are they talking about? A male person had different needs than a male pig or a male chicken, and none of them are a good model for a FEMALE chicken, which is what most pet chickens are.

 

[Iluveggers]

I was just going to suggest if your chicken actually is a roo & begins to crow, why not put him on Craigslist or on here & see if someone would take him in if you don’t want to eat him.