Scratch and "hot chickens"

[frostbite]

Okay, so I'm not a chicken expert, but I do have a degree in animal physiology.

Calories in food doesn't raise a homeotherm's body temperature, but the calories available when the food is digested can be used for muscular activity, like piloerection, shivering, and voluntary skeletal muscle activity. This muscle activity does generate body heat. Therefore, it makes sense to me that in severe cold, they will burn more calories to keep warm, so feeding them more during cold snaps will help them maintain body weight while they maintain their body temperature.

That's the rationale for feeding our horses extra hay during severe cold weather. I don't see why it wouldn't work for chickens as well.

 

[A.T. Hagan]

Quote:
I see not to long ago you believed the myth also...
https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?pid=3059097

You misunderstood what I was saying in that earlier post.

 

[WoodlandWoman]

Coarse ground or whole grain takes longer to digest than a finely ground food, like commercial crumble is made of. The chicken has to grind up the food, in addition to the other digestive processes that it uses on all foods. A crumble just needs a little moisture to fall apart.

If you live where it's extremely cold at the same time the nights are long, having food in the crop longer can be a good thing. They can live without it, but I think it gives them an edge.

 

[Fred's Hens]

Quote:
That a chicken requires more feed and uses more calories, keeping warm, in cold weather is quite reasonable, logical and provable.

The feeding of corn or scratch in winter to "warm" them or avoiding it in summer because it will cause them to be too hot? That is the 12 times a day, oft repeated story line that I have yet to see any science to support the position. Quite open to always learning, but until I read the science, I don't buy it.

 

[Lollipop]

Quote:
This seems to me to be accurate. Old time cockers will tell you that a little whole corn on cold evenings will help fowl stay warmer, because of the gizzard action needed to grind it up. I can see where the bennefits of cracked corn, or scratch, would be less. To say that keeping the gizzard active while the bird is roosting does not help keep it warm would be an understatement. I`m aware that some fowl just flat out refuse to eat whole corn, but love it when cracked. Just spoiled, I guess.......Pop

 

[Fred's Hens]

https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=74876&p=1

Here is the link to Mac in Wisco (formerly Mac in Abilene) and Lazy J Ranch (PhD in Poultry) discussing this issues, along with others.

Yes, I feed in the late afternoon and up the calories in the winter. The questionable and possible mythology comes from "feeding corn makes them hot" issue.

 

[al6517]

A.T. Hagan :

This is one of the most persistent myths of poultry keeping there is in my opinion.

It's a misunderstanding of what a "hot feed" means. Corn is a rich source of easily digested carbohydrates which in the parlance of feed composition makes it "hot." What it does NOT do is make your birds hot. There is a certain amount of heat liberated during the digestive process but this is normal and it occurs with any feed component, particularly the fibrous ones. It's normal, natural, and your birds are quite capable of adjusting their internal thermostats to keep their body temperatures where it should be so far as the heat of digestion is concerned.

.

So true............... scratch or cracked corn does NOT !!! make your birds hot as in internal temp, so many people feed this in the winter thinking this helps keep them warm, when in fact it does no such thing. The term Hot feed is a term used when discribing a high carb feed. Unforntunately as often as we in the know mention it doesn't warm a bird, you will have 90% of flock owners who pay it no mind and still beleive it does.​

 

[frostbite]

Since clearly the word "Hot" can mean either "high temperature" or "high calorie" than perhaps the argument is just one of clarifying our definitions.

Corn can be "hot" feed without making chickens "hot". The chicken temperature doesn't go up, but they do get more "heat" in "calories"

The technical definition of a calorie (small "c") is the amount of heat it takes to raise one milliliter of water one degree in temperature, and the word Calorie (capital "C") means 1000 calories (small "c") then giving chickens more calories is indeed giving them more heat, if the burn the calories. But the chickens themselves don't get "hot" because they are homeotherms, and so they maintain a fairly consistent internal temperature.

So it really sounds like, but for the semantics, there is agreement out there that feeding chickens (and other outdoor birds and mammals) extra food in cold weather is a reasonable plan, and that feed like corn which is higher in calories vs other nutrients, can reasonably be called "hot".

Bottom line is, sounds to me like we're all right, unless there are some of you out there that think that chickens internal temperature can be raised high enough by feeding them corn that you can fry an egg on them.

Excuse me now, while I go put some kernal corn in my pellet stove....

 

[Oregon Blues]

Corn is high calorie and contains some oil, so it is higher in fat than many other types of poultry feed.

Those calories can be used to make body fat. Those calories can be burned as energy.

Actually food in the crop moves the blood supply to the digestive system, and lowers the blood available at the skin, so it has the opposite effect from providing body warmth. It actually cools the skin very very slightly. (your birds aren't going to get frostbite just because you feed them at bedtime.)

There is nothing wrong with the nutrition contained in corn, but it is not a balanced diet. It's better to give calories that contain proper nutrition. Same with kids. Nothing wrong with ice cream and it contains some nutrition, but it isn't a balanced diet, so you limit the amount eaten.

Birds will burn more energy in winter, using it to keep warm. Corn provides extra energy. But the corn is not burned directly, like a pellet stove. The corn is digested and the broken down components are used as body fuel, or stored as fat to be used later. The corn that the bird is using to keep warm at night was probably eaten for breakfast.

So yes, if your birds need more calories in the winter, you can add some corn to the diet. Me, I only feed corn before butchering animals that I want some fat on. When my birds need more calories during cold weather, I up their regular balanced diet, so that the amount of balanced food contains the number of calories that their metabolism needs.

The birds are pretty good at eating what they need. If they leave food, I am feeding too much. if they get fat (which isn't good for them), I am feeding too much. If feeders are emptied quickly, or birds lose weight, I need to up the feed a little bit.

Because corn is like candy, your birds might prefer to eat that over their balanced diet food. That's another reason to keep the amount of corn low. Because the birds will eat their dessert first and might not be hungry enough to eat their balanced diet. If you stuff a kid with ice cream, he isn't going to eat his veggies.

When corn is called "hot" all that means is that is contains a lot of calories.

 

[frostbite]

That's correct!

See? We're all brilliant!

Except, truth is, I don't have any corn on hand right now, and I don't actually have a pellet stove, but I wish I did...

Just like I wish I had chickens. Five more months....