I can get tons of bread from this warehouse where i used to work. i drove delivery truck to all the restaurants and grocery stores. Would 12 grain and 8 grain have all the nutrients for chickens along with scraps of carrot shavings and lettuce from our fridge??
It would be a fine snack but that would not be enough for proper nutrition if that is all you are planning on feeding them. Chicken are omnivores and need a good source of protein. Laying hens will need calcium and depending on where your chickens are living they may need grit. I would recommend buying chicken specific feed and then you can suppliment with other things to keep costs down. Breads, fruits, veggies, meat table scraps, meal worms, oyster shell. Without protein and calcium they will become ill and will not be able to lay eggs.
I would wonder about the protein & calcium content of it. I would certainly use old bread as a supplement to regular layer feed, if it were just stale - not moldy. But layers need something like 16% - 18% protein & meat birds more than that. Joyce
I've never gotten into the specifics of feed percentages or tried to make my own, but what I think about with that scenario is the additives in the bread. There are a LOT of other ingredients usually, except in a very small percentage of sold breads (b/c of the shelf life side of things) that I'm thinking might not be so good long term.
Canned sardines are cheap. Lots of protein and calcium in that. I've been just supplimenting the bread with their chicken feed and a friend brought up a big sack of oyster shells from the island when he came up to go hunting with my hubby.
Ya, probably organic bread is probably best. Amazing how society doesn't seem to have a problem poisoning us humans.
I've fed chickens lots of expired bread in the past and not had a problem with it. I think if you offer some balanced feed, they'll be fine. Bread does have some protein, not enough but you can supplement as you said. When folks ask about feeding non-commercial things, my thought is always try it and see how it works for your flock. If you notice illness, lethargy, drop off in production, etc then it's probably not going to work, right? If everyone is active and glossy, and you have enough eggs, you're probably okay. Chickens ate a lot of things before commercial feed, they just didn't have the high production we expect today.
My uncle has always fed his chickens expired bread. He had a network of places that saved him bread and other goodies for his chickens and he fed it to them for years. But he also always free ranged them as well so they were getting a lot of nutrition (one would think) from scratching around his 20 acres.. But he would tell me stuff he was feeding his chickens and I would shake my head and wonder why.. But he always had a very healthily flock other then losing an occasional bird to coyotes. He is getting too old now to take care of his chickens like he use to, fact is my next trip up I think I will bring back a few to help him out in decreasing his numbers.
I feed my chickens realy any scraps like not alot of meat but some and bread and corn vegetables etc.
Ya, I've been supplimenting their feed with whole wheat raisin bread and seven grain, 12 grain etc, because I'm trying to fatten them up for the winter. It gets cold up here in the yukon so the fat will help keep them warm.
