What did farmers feed their birds before commercial chicken feed was a thing?

[RoosterHuggerLiz]

Serious question, back before commercial chicken feed was a thing what would farmers feed their birds and their chicks? Anyone here any good at chicken history?

 

[gtaus]

From what I have read, chickens were mostly allowed to Free Range for food, along with kitchen scraps being thrown out to them when available. Chickens can survive like that, but the nutritionally balanced commercial feed we have for our chickens means we get healthier chickens that lay more eggs than our grandparents chickens running around the farm yard.

I have commercial feed available 24/7, but in the non-snow months, my chickens are free to eat everything and anything they can find in the chicken run. So, my egg production goes down in the summer months, but my commercial feed expense is also less than half. What I see is that the chickens eating a variety of fresh greens and bugs outside turns the yolk of the eggs a darker orange color. In the winter-time, on commercial feed alone, their egg yolks turn a lighter pale orange. I can't say I notice any difference in the taste, but I do prefer the looks of the darker orange yolks. Something in my mind just says the darker yolks are better eggs.

 

[CapricornFarm]

Cracked corn, and free range for insects, table scraps, mice, etc.

 

[RoosterHuggerLiz]

We've got about an acre and a half that we let our hens free range on but for some reason they never seem to have enough to eat so we have to give them the feed, do you think I should plant more fruit trees or something to help out on my feed bill? (I've got 12 hens and three roo's as well as 13 chicks[mostly cockrels that we're getting rid of] )

 

[Folly's place]

'Old time' chickens on 'old time' farms had a variety of foodstuffs available, both from other livestock feed and a varied environment. Also, those birds may have produced a few dozen eggs, at most; good laying Leghorns were mentioned who produced 100 eggs each year!
The same thing applies to modern dairy cattle! Old dual purpose cattle breeds could raise a calf and produce some milk, but modern Holsteins produce over 100 pounds (I forget how much) of milk daily! That also takes careful dietary management, as do our hens producing 300 or so eggs each year.
Small game type chickens run wild in Florida and Hawaii, and probable those hens lay 30 or so eggs each year; if that's where you live, and the type of birds you prefer, go for it.
Mary

 

[RoosterHuggerLiz]

'Old time' chickens on 'old time' farms had a variety of foodstuffs available, both from other livestock feed and a varied environment. Also, those birds may have produced a few dozen eggs, at most; good laying Leghorns were mentioned who produced 100 eggs each year!
The same thing applies to modern dairy cattle! Old dual purpose cattle breeds could raise a calf and produce some milk, but modern Holsteins produce over 100 pounds (I forget how much) of milk daily! That also takes careful dietary management, as do our hens producing 300 or so eggs each year.
Small game type chickens run wild in Florida and Hawaii, and probable those hens lay 30 or so eggs each year; if that's where you live, and the type of birds you prefer, go for it.
Mary

It's kind of funny you mentioned that, I live in Florida and a a good portion of my original birds were actually wild and lived in front of a cracker barrel. A lot of my birds are rescues

 

[Folly's place]

You are in the right location! Still, higher producing birds do need that balanced diet, and then can enjoy 'gleaning' outside.
Mary

 

[Happy hen lover]

It's kind of funny you mentioned that, I live in Florida and a a good portion of my original birds were actually wild and lived in front of a cracker barrel. A lot of my birds are rescues

Oh oh those were where the restaurant got their eggs! LOL just kidding. Good for you to rescue them! I agree they used cracked corn ( that they gave to all livestock) and kitchen greens and meat...no fridge, and garden scraps. Remember the huge gardens they had. Prolly never got eggs in winter just enough corn to keep alive and leftovers and bread that had dried out and meat scraps from butchering animals. . I'm sure they had lots of chicks each year to refresh the flock. IMO

 

[Perris]

Serious question, back before commercial chicken feed was a thing what would farmers feed their birds and their chicks? Anyone here any good at chicken history?

if you want to read old chicken manuals, a lot are available freely online now as they're out of copyright. For example, Lewis Wright's here
https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=hvd.hn4kga&view=1up&seq=39&skin=2021
and John Robinson's here https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/69879#page/98/mode/1up