What did people feed chickens in the old days?

[Winter]

Hmm, I called a ton of feed stores and no dice.
Good luck.

 

[morelcabin]

and none of them can order it in for you? My feed store will always offer to get me what ever I am looking for

 

[Beekissed]

My grandma only fed field corn. I remember her keeping a barrel of corn on the cobs and we would go out and shell a few to the hens...that was the feeding. I wonder what the biddies ate? I think I remember rolled oats at one time but not sure.

 

[LadySkorski]

Be car

I haven't got any yet but i am sure the local feed stores should have it. I have 4 different feed store here, one of them should be able to get it. Maybe the garden store? If it is the same kind...that you can feed livestock with

eful with feeding them worms. I read somewhere that it’s bad for them in abundance. Something about parasites?

 

[Tonyroo]

I will let you know how it goes, but I plan on feeding my urban chickens home made chicken feed rather than layer crumbles. My feed will be alfalfa pellets, dried peas, wheat, corn, barley, BOSS, seaweed, dried fish, flax seed.....basically grains plus alfalfa, BOSS and dried fish for protein. I also plan on giving them all table scraps.
I am using tiny dried fish from the asian market since I can't find a source of straight up fish meal. I am also using salt+mineral mix from the feed store as part of the pre-mix. Should be interesting....

I know what your talking about, I was feeding my chicken dried anchovies, that is normally used for making fish broth. They liked it.

 

[CoopsNPoops]

If you was a farmer, or could afford to grow, you fed your chickens corn and other various grains. Otherwise, most chickens just got table scraps and foraged outside. Alot strictly foraged. Stale bread and biscuits was a popular treat. Some people made worm beds or insect beds. Depending on if you were wealthy or poor, or sufficient & home steady, it was fairly simple. Alot of people still today dont use commercial feed and stictly free range or other methods. People "back then" didnt keep chickens for pets, they were strictly to eat and get eggs from. Their health wasnt much a priority as they were abundant and easily replaceable. The commercial feeds today focus on higher/faster/healthier egg production and balanced nutrition. Things were simple back then, and theres no rules that say you must use commercial feed today. There are lots of cheap and healthy alternatives.

 

[JacinLarkwell]

The thing is 100 years ago, birds were different. They weren't as extreme as they are now with eggs and meat as they are now. They need to have a balanced diet now where back then you could fudge the numbers a bit and still have it work our more often than not

 

[Tonyroo]

I get how you can replace sick and dying chickens, but it does become a chore integrating them every time a chicken dies.