What can I temporarily sub for chicken feed?

[Chickenclaude]

My dog eats his dry food, carrots apples and dog bone cookies. However, no one mentioned taking the feed you have, adding hot water to it and letting it ferment..takes 48 hrs but will double the volume of food and make it more readily available nutritionally.

 

[3KillerBs]

but will double the volume

Doubling the volume is meaningless since the extra volume is merely water.

 

[Chickenclaude]

Doubling the volume is meaningless since the extra volume is merely water.

The person asked for temporary suggestions. My chickens eat every drop of food when it’s fermented…and the fermentation has positive nutritional benefits. There is zero spillage. It’s a warm meal on a cold day. win win.

 

[3KillerBs]

The person asked for temporary suggestions. My chickens eat every drop of food when it’s fermented…and the fermentation has positive nutritional benefits. There is zero spillage. It’s a warm meal on a cold day. win win.

But it doesn't make a bit of difference to having insufficient food to last the amount of time in question.

 

[U_Stormcrow]

Doubling the volume is meaningless since the extra volume is merely water.

Thank you. My words were... "less kind".

 

[Zeoliter]

If I'm only looking at a couple days, mine will get table scraps (only from food made with no onions, and we rarely ever eat legumes, because they aggravate our own inflammation issues) and whatever gains I have on hand, cooked, with a bit of nutri-drench - an emergency goat health booster, I keep on hand (obviously) for my goats. But, my gravity feeder will hold 200# of their usual non-gmo layer feed, so it's a rare necessity.

Can chickens not eat onions? There are always onion scraps (raw) in the food scrap bin I feed to my chickens every 3 days.

 

[Nommie Bringer-Uvda-Noms]

I'd read they weren't good for them... somewhere. I could be wrong - it would be nice, considering how much we like onions.

 

[Zeoliter]

I'd read they weren't good for them... somewhere. I could be wrong - it would be nice, considering how much we like onions.

Looking at Google results, some say onions are fine, some say they are not....

 

[Jeri B]

Looking at Google results, some say onions are fine, some say they are not....

Google says a lot of things, some right, some wrong. Mostly I don’t give my chickens onions and garlic because they don’t like them much. But if there’s some onion in whatever they might otherwise like, I don’t worry about it and they don’t either. But when I’m cutting the tops and bottom off and peeling onions, I put them in the compost bin. Or I know that the chickens will likely kick them aside to compost in the chicken run. It’s like the weeds I give them. I know they like dandelions and grass and clover but if a few other plants get in the batch, they will eat them or not.

 

[Iluveggers]

@U_Stormcrow i appreciate your research & knowledge so much! Learn something new about nutrition every time you post.

One question, I usually feed leftover veggie scraps to the flock. Somehow after a few days I missed a small bowl of leftover roasted brussel sprouts, beets & carrots, all of which I would feed small portions of raw to them. (Usually leftovers only last a day in the fridge, we are very food efficient). This was roasted in olive oil. Can I dump the bowl for them? Rinse the oil off and then dump? Or just toss in regular compost bucket. We HATE waste in my house.