Scratch Grain- Why it's useful in flock management and nutrition

[Miss Lydia]

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They still fight chickens in NC. too it is illegal here too but not enforced very well. I won't sell my roosters because of it, I'd rather process humanely than think of the tragic death they would come too.

 

[Resolution]

Chicken Digestive System

The digestive system of the chicken - general structure

The fowl's digestive system breaks down ingested food to basic components by mechanical and chemical means. These basic components are then absorbed and used throughout the body. A knowledge of the digestive process greatly assists in understanding the nutritive requirements of the fowl.

The digestive system begins at the mouth and ends at the cloaca. Intervening organs/parts include the oesophagus, crop, proventriculus, gizzard, duodenum, small intestine, paired caeca and large intestine. Other organs vital to digestion are the liver and pancreas.
Mouth

Armed with a beak for
1. gathering and pecking, subjugating live animals, breaking apart -
2. food is moistened with saliva containing a starch-reducing enzyme and then swallowed without chewing.

Oesophagus - crop - proventriculus - gizzard

The oesophagus is a flexible tube which carries food from the mouth to the crop. The crop is a temporary storage pouch at the base of the neck that sends the hunger signal to the brain. The oesophagus then traverses the chest cavity to carry food to the proventriculus where food is mixed with acids and other digestive enzymes. Retention time here depends on the activity of the crop and gizzard. Grit in the gizzard, combined with strong muscular action, grinds the food into a mash.

Small intestine

The small intestine starts at the exit of the gizzard with the duodenal loop and ends at the ileo-caecal-colon junction.


Food in the duodenum is neutralised by the addition of more enzymes excreted by the pancreas. These enzymes break down protein. Also added here is bile produced by the liver and stored in the gall bladder. Bile aids in fat digestion.


The products of digestion are absorbed from the small intestine and carried to the liver primarily for remanufacture into body tissue or to provide energy.


Caeca

The caeca are two blind-ended tubes which provide space for fermentation. Here undigested food particles are subjected to microbial breakdown. The caeca normally contain a mustard to dark-brown froth which is excreted about once every day.
Large intestine

This part of the gut is very small in the fowl and serves as a further absorption site especially for water.

Cloaca

The cloaca or vent is a chamber common to the digestive and urogenital systems. It is responsible for the elimination of faeces, urine and the passage of eggs or seminal fluid.

Pancreas

A yellow organ lying in the duodenal loop. Also produces insulin for the control of blood-sugar level.

Liver

The largest organ in the body, divided into two lobes, produces bile and is a major detoxification organ.​

 

[Miss Lydia]

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[triplepurpose]

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On this one point beg to I disagree. And I make a point of addressing it not because I want to be ornery, but because I'm really concerned that this also a dangerous thing to say since perpetuates the propaganda-driven myth that GMO agriculture the best tool too to feed the world.

It isn't. It simply doesn't work that way! I'm not going to write a book about it here, but the math and the scientific studies have been done to prove it. The yields usually aren't near as high as the GM seed company claims, and the high input costs of fertilizer and herbicide make it unprofitable, especially for farmers in poor parts of the world--which, obviously, is where the world most needs feeding. For example in India farmers are committing suicide because they can't repay the debts they have incurred by switching to GMO crops. And there are additional hidden costs in the damage the farming practices cause to the health of the farmers, consumers, the soil, and the local environment, etc. (And I'm not even going to get into the issues of the corporate ownership of the agricultural gene pool, and how that leads to the destruction of our right of access to and use of seeds, the threats to traditional plant breeding and seed-saving practices, destruction of genetic diversity, erosion of cultural and economic sovereignty, etc. etc.) It's true there is a lot of alarmist flag-waving these days, but with GM ag. there is indeed a lot to be alarmed about... More even than many well-meaning people are aware of, it seems...

Rather, it seems to be models of agriculture that are based on locally adapted varieties that produce consistent and stable yields under low-input circumstances that are going to feed the world--not GMO-based "conventional" production with it's heavy fossil fuel dependence and destructive practices.

But that quibble aside, I wanted to say thank you SO much Resolution for sharing so much wonderful information with us! I've found it really interesting, inspiring, and educational. And I will continue to follow this thread...

 

[triplepurpose]

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This is true. But Hawaii has also had Red Jungle Fowl since the Polynesia colonists brought them centuries ago... And some are escaped/abandoned layers and pets too... Their proliferation is mostly due to a lack of natural predators, not so much the cock-fighting tradition per se.

 

[speckledhen]

Please stop the talk of cockfighting, which is against BYC rules.

That is not the subject of the thread.

 

[giggleboxfarm]

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I think you said that all beautifully.

 

[cottagechick]

...

 

[Resolution]

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I think you said that all beautifully.

I've spent some time in refugee camps over the years and it's during these times that I've come to deeply appreciate those supplies of dehydrated eggs produced by chickens maintained on GM crops and dehydrated milk produced by cows maintained on GM crops. Of course I wish that this were not the way of the world. But I have to keep in mind that an alarming % of the planet's natural resources have been squandered. The poorest countries being those places that sold or had their resources stolen and sold to the wealthy nations. They have no topsoil. They have no water. Their local races of crops and livestock have been extinct or are rapidly becoming so.
This is a pattern that perpetuates itself. It's why people emigrate from their homelands to find resources elsewhere. The movement of sustainable agriculture is steadily pushing this topic to the fore and it will succeed. The world doesn't have to suffer so. We obviously can't afford to lose the tiniest bit of genetic diversity nor increase pollution from these chemicals, which GM crops grow in...

But in order to be objective I can't vilify the method that 79.9% of the people reading this thread feed their birds. A good many people have been taught that scratch grain is junk food. One influential forum writer went so far as to state that there is nothing worse to feed to birds -to the contrast of soft pellets and crumbles made from- GM crops.

Some folks are using organic feeds. That's fantastic. It's not always feasible or affordable to do so. The topic of this thread is the value of scratch grain- the hows and whys.

Primarily - slowing down the rate of digestion is key. Scratch grain does this for us. Processed soft feeds are designed to go straight through the digestive system.
GM crops make it possible for people to leave out hoppers of processed feed all day. It may not be something most people want to wrap their brains around but unless folks are willing to practice sustainable agriculture practices in their poultry farming, they are choosing industrial options.

Utilise scratch grain and keep the grain belt family farm tradition alive- keep the economy of these small rural communities alive- keep small grain mills alive-.

And let us remember that for thousands of years -this very productive human chicken relationship has been based on the chicken being capable of subsisting entirely on whatever they find in the dung hill and waste grain- that is what humans are not competing with them over-.

These wonderful lay pellets and crumbles are super convenient and designed for production. Using the two in concert -scratch and soft feed is going to be the most likely scenario for most people

 

[speckledhen]

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Wow...I don't really care because I have no reason to talk about "That Which Shall Not Be Named." But it seems a little extreme to not allow someone to mention that there are lots of feral chickens because of "That Which Shall Not Be Named." Or that it is illegal. Or that they won't sell their roos because of it.

I could see if they were fighting about it...but the very mention of it is verboten?....who knew? (they need a headscratching emoticon for here..)

It was a simple rules reminder not to get too far into that discussion because, as you should know, it is verboten here on BYC. No one was issued any infraction points/warnings, only a reminder in the thread. Again, I say, let's not get into a discussion of that subject. The subject is Scratch Grain- Why it's useful in flock management and nutrition. If someone has a problem with moderation, contact a moderator or administrator through PM, not in open forum. Again, another rule members should be familiar with.