What did people feed chichens before there was a feed store?

[dorkings]

Let’s say you could not drive downtown and buy your chick starter or layer pellets what would you feed your chickens? We always had chickens growing up and I don't remember feeding them anything but rolled oats and of course all the bugs, worm and grass they wanted to find. Any thoughts?
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[teach1rusl]

I can see free range chickens today doing fine in year-round warm weather areas, but I do wonder about how it's done in areas that get winters, since most bugs (protein source) die off or hybernate or whatever then. I think that's why many chickens "in the old days" were heavily culled by winter time, and only a few were kept over winter to hatch anew in the spring. I'm sure they made it through the winter on corn and barn leavings from horses or cows... Maybe table scraps included meat bits for protein???

 

[RollinWithTheStones]

That's a good question, I always wondered how animals did so well before their food was made scientifically.

I'm going to start buying several bags of stuff and mixing them in order to stretch it out a bit. Especially with my meat birds.

 

[vishnu kokareko]

answer

down

 

[vishnu kokareko]

all the chickens chicks are left to free rage in the open in the summer and when there is winter it trigers a reaction in the chickens to go broody and they stay on top of thier eggs as males also sit besides them in this stage they need only a few resources to survie got he answer

 

[vishnu kokareko]

i know

 

[A.T. Hagan]

So long as there is plenty of bugs and grass and stuff for them to eat then that is all they need beside perhaps a scattering of corn or other grain once a day. They should do well on that.

But unless you live in a tropical area there will only be plenty of bugs and grass and stuff in the warm parts of the year and maybe not even then if conditions are droughty. And that's for fully free ranged birds. For those that have to be kept in yards or otherwise partially or wholly confined the situation is even worse.

Historically from sometime in early spring (depending on what part of the country you're in) to sometime in mid-fall you'd have anywhere from enough to plenty of eggs. Along about summer you'd also have young cockerels to eat then in mid-summer or thereabouts older, non-productive hens as well when the new pullets came into lay. At some point in the fall eggs would begin to peter out and likely stop altogether once the cold weather set in. This is why folks put so much effort and ingenuity into egg preserving.

The old ways work still work as well as ever. Which is the problem. They still only work as well as they ever did.

 

[vishnu kokareko]

So long as there is plenty of bugs and grass and stuff for them to eat then that is all they need beside perhaps a scattering of corn or other grain once a day. They should do well on that.
But unless you live in a tropical area there will only be plenty of bugs and grass and stuff in the warm parts of the year and maybe not even then if conditions are droughty. And that's for fully free ranged birds. For those that have to be kept in yards or otherwise partially or wholly confined the situation is even worse.
Historically from sometime in early spring (depending on what part of the country you're in) to sometime in mid-fall you'd have anywhere from enough to plenty of eggs. Along about summer you'd also have young cockerels to eat then in mid-summer or thereabouts older, non-productive hens as well when the new pullets came into lay. At some point in the fall eggs would begin to peter out and likely stop altogether once the cold weather set in. This is why folks put so much effort and ingenuity into egg preserving.
The old ways work still work as well as ever. Which is the problem. They still only work as well as they ever did.

g

 

[Almost Broke]

I know it sounds gross but during the depression folks stopped and collected road kill to feed the chickens. Entrails from deer hunting were used for the chickens as well. A bucket filled with a dead carcass will produce a lot of maggots. With holes in the bottom of the bucket the maggots drop into a large pan where the chickens peck them right up.

 

[mong7769]

I have read that it was often the job of the younger boys on the farm to find/get protien sources for chickens in winter. Like racoons, opossims, etc.