This is How They Fed Chicks 100 Years Ago

[they'reHISchickens]

Interesting that they recommend short cut alfalfa for bedding and discourage sand or wood shavings
Notice that all the ingredients were generally available on farms. They grew their own oats, wheat and corn and had meat scraps from their own butchering.

 

[Busybee1]

This is really interesting! I found a resource where I get organic chick feed. They grow the grains and mix it themselves. The chicks love it!!

 

[Ole rooster]

As hard as my grandmother cook for all her children, I just can't see her cooking for the chickens. They got table scraps and corn. They grew corn for a lot of things so that was a staple for the family and the chickens.

 

[they'reHISchickens]

I don't think Grandma cooked for the chickens either, but remember that refrigeration didn't exist, so I'd bet all leftovers went right to the birds outside the door. Looking at the ingredients to cook for the chicks, it sounds a lot like what we PA Dutchmen call scrapple: cooked from the scraps of butchered meat and thickened with barley and various other flours. Every family has its own recipe and I like it a lot!
Considering that the human diet was pretty darn healthy back then with basic meat, bread and veggies and no preservatives, I'd say the chooks got a good diet.

 

[bestpractice]

I'm guessing the poultry information here was directed toward "poultry men" raising and breeding very special chickens; chickens they wanted for bloodlines/breeding. I'm also guessing some people put a lot of time and effort into their breeding so they could sustain their flocks. The regular flock for meat and eggs probably did get food from the slop bucket (the garbage disposal of that time period) or the grain that had bugs, etc. It is my understanding that's the way it worked on our farm.

 

[slabcrappy]

My girls love eating charcoal and ashes left over from fires that I have. They go right into the fire pit and pick around (after the fire has died of course!!!)

Sal

 

[Fred's Hens]

I don't have to imagine chicken keeping 100 years ago. My grandmother, who in the 1950's taught me how to care for chickens, learned from her mother in the 1890's, a 120 years ago.

The hogs often got first choice on the scraps, what there were. Table scraps were themselves a rarity in those days. The chicken mash, ground at a local mill, (and no one was ever very far away from a local mill), has been widely used since the late 1890's. If you grew your own oats, wheat, or corn, you took it to the "elevator", you might sell some for cash, but also would have some ground into feed, blended, sacked and taken back to the farm.

By the 1920's, my grandparents fed a mash. The chickens might also get their mash soaked a bit with some milk from the milking parlor as well. The chickens were often below the hogs on the pecking order of things. The supposition that ordinary folks didn't feed their chickens well 100 years ago, only supposing the birds survived on found food and table scraps, is a flawed view. Some never did, and some still don't today, but most folks fed their chickens as well as they could.

 

[bestpractice]

I don't have to imagine chicken keeping 100 years ago. My grandmother, who in the 1950's taught me how to care for chickens, learned from her mother in the 1890's, a 120 years ago.

The hogs often got first choice on the scraps, what there were. Table scraps were themselves a rarity in those days. The chicken mash, ground at a local mill, (and no one was ever very far away from a local mill), has been widely used since the late 1890's. If you grew your own oats, wheat, or corn, you took it to the "elevator", you might sell some for cash, but also would have some ground into feed, blended, sacked and taken back to the farm.

By the 1920's, my grandparents fed a mash. The chickens might also get their mash soaked a bit with some milk from the milking parlor as well. The chickens were often below the hogs on the pecking order of things. The supposition that ordinary folks didn't feed their chickens well 100 years ago, only supposing the birds survived on found food and table scraps, is a flawed view. Some never did, and some still don't today, but most folks fed their chickens as well as they could.

I was being polite Fred. My farm is a historical farm and it has been in the family for more than 100 years. We have a chicken house that was used extensively; there was an egg route, a brooder house for hatching, and meat, of course for selling and making a profit. The quest for dual purpose birds was everyday life on our farm. The chicken house was built to utilize solar energy -- grandpa was well before his time on ideas about concrete. So, without sounding like "all that" I'm reasonably familiar with the history of our farm and caring for animals. We also have a hog house, a "crib" where grain was stored (and on a good year still used) and a seed house for the next years planting; coal house, smoke house, etc. The walnut tree was used to hang the hogs for slaughter -- the pulley is still in the tree. I'm not planning on slaughtering any hogs in the near future, but the buildings have all been well cared for and we could easily begin historic farming if the need arises.

I have some interesting ag books on poultry, original to our farm, that I would like to share but I can't seem to find a way to upload pdf files. Education, university education, was very important to the family. Feeding chickens so they would produce a profit was important then, as it is now. If you raised chickens to make money on a farm you looked carefully at how you fed your chickens, how the feed related to egg production, health, and overall flock management. Increasing your profit margin through good farm management was always factor on this farm. While, yes, there was a pecking order for animal feed, there was also the "bottom line" -- even 100 years ago. Thus, the "Poultry Handbooks" of the day. They didn't let the chickens run around the farm "free ranging" there was a strict flock management. Interesting enough, that deep yellow/orange yolk we try to get with natural free range chickens, they tried to get rid of -- strange how things come full circle.

 

[Fred's Hens]

I was being polite Fred. My farm is a historical farm and it has been in the family for more than 100 years. We have a chicken house that was used extensively; there was an egg route, a brooder house for hatching, and meat, of course for selling and making a profit. The quest for dual purpose birds was everyday life on our farm. The chicken house was built to utilize solar energy -- grandpa was well before his time on ideas about concrete. So, without sounding like "all that" I'm reasonably familiar with the history of our farm and caring for animals. We also have a hog house, a "crib" where grain was stored (and on a good year still used) and a seed house for the next years planting; coal house, smoke house, etc. The walnut tree was used to hang the hogs for slaughter -- the pulley is still in the tree. I'm not planning on slaughtering any hogs in the near future, but the buildings have all been well cared for and we could easily begin historic farming if the need arises.

I have some interesting ag books on poultry, original to our farm, that I would like to share but I can't seem to find a way to upload pdf files. Education, university education, was very important to the family. Feeding chickens so they would produce a profit was important then, as it is now. If you raised chickens to make money on a farm you looked carefully at how you fed your chickens, how the feed related to egg production, health, and overall flock management. Increasing your profit margin through good farm management was always factor on this farm. While, yes, there was a pecking order for animal feed, there was also the "bottom line" -- even 100 years ago. Thus, the "Poultry Handbooks" of the day. They didn't let the chickens run around the farm "free ranging" there was a strict flock management. Interesting enough, that deep yellow/orange yolk we try to get with natural free range chickens, they tried to get rid of -- strange how things come full circle.

Your memories and heritage is much like my own.

Our farm went centennial in 1959 or 1960, as I remember. My aged uncle and another aged aunt still live on the property. It is row cropped now, But whenever I close my eyes, it is still the subsistence farm of 1955. I am grateful for what I learned and the love that was shared there. Now, I share these things with my thoroughly modern grandkids. How much will they remember and apply to their lives? I don't know. Will they realize that through me, through my grandparents, they are only two memories away from the 1880's? I doubt it. Gives me pause to consider it though.

I have Barred Rocks today simply because they were Oma's favorite breed.

 

[Run-A-MuckRanch]

After well cooled of course, we have also saved up wood ash and charcoal ash (from fire pits, grills, etc.) and put out for the birds... they pick in it, but also do plenty of dust bathing in it...
We have never had issues from using it and all the birds seemed to be doing just fine....