What do you give your hens for protein?

[skeeeter]

I agree with meat and dairy. Especially if it's just a single hen. It's not just about protien. Its also about what protien is hugher in the aminos required.
Tins of sardines, dairy, silverskin/gristle trimmings.... little bit of fat from your own meat. Left over roast bones to peck at are also entertaining for them. They really don't need much. It's easy to overdo it.

Alternatively gamebird feed for birds like Guinea fowl and quail is often higher in protein.

I too, would consider gamebird feed or dried catfood as first choices over people food, even.

 

[NBchickenfarmer]

Fish. Low fat, high in protein, all the essential amino acids plus some.
Meat is also a complete protein and the right cuts low fat compared to eggs and mealworms.

Mine love the leftover fish. Quite a battle erupts when I put some out.

 

[JacinLarkwell]

My feeds are between 17-24 percent, give or take depending on what I can get. They also get eggs somewhat regularly and any pinkie/fuzzy mouse pups I find. Occasionally starling and sparrow chicks if a nest falls apart in the barn

 

[Magnumchicken]

Alfalfa, legume, and soybean leaves contain 30% protein. Just to add something different to the list.

 

[K0k0shka]

I feed them a 20% protein feed year round and don't have any problems. I don't add anything extra during molt. I use Purina Flock Raiser with eggshells on the side (but I don't care about organic, soy-free etc.)

 

[BDutch]

… I use Purina Flock Raiser with eggshells on the side (but I don't care about organic, soy-free etc.)

Maybe you will change your opininion a little after seeing the video below. You can see it with subtitles.

I posted this originally on another thread
Started by @Perris https://www.backyardchickens.com/th...bunks-trad-views-on-nutrition.1567953/page-87:

I watched a TV program about a Dutch research to find out wether organic food is more healthy than regular (not poison free) food.
It was paid for by our government, conducted by several well known institutes (WUR, TNO snd Louis bolk) several years ago.

The program starts with a veggie farmer who changed from common arable farming with poison and fertilizer to organic. And shows how much more vital the soil is. And what grows on it after 3 years.

The head researcher is now retired and didn’t dare to speak about it earlier. But she does now.

They used chickens for the test with ‘blind’ food A was red and B was blue in the outcomes.

Initially the difference between A and B was small. Just a little difference in growth. B - blue grew a little faster.

After several week the chicks were infected with a cold that stopped them from growing. Chicks A healed faster and their growth overstepped the B group.

The new minister and a person with influence from the WUR didn’t want this outcome to get public. And forced the head researcher and her team to write the conclusions in a way that the outcomes were not significant. The report was after it became public misused and the WUR person even told in an article the chickens who had organic feed had an overreacting inmunune system. Which was not true. The government didn’t want to spend more money on research.

The former minister said they shouldn’t have underestimated the power of the feed and agri industry.

I hope you can let youtube translate the spoken words with subtitles English. It’s a really interesting program telling what is better for your health (but without real proof) and how corrupt our industry and our research institutes are.

If you have any questions about the interview , I be happy to answer if I can.

 

[kengboss21]

leftover dairy products works for me, semi-bad cheese plain yogurt + mix milk into their feed to make a mash. I also give meat scraps such as crab shell so they can pick the meat off. baked shrimp shells works too as it's crunchy and breaks apart easy. Since they're molting they probably won't lay well so no need to care about how their eggs might taste due to seafood in their diet.

 

[K0k0shka]

Maybe you will change your opininion a little after seeing the video below. You can see it with subtitles.

I posted this originally on another thread
Started by @Perris https://www.backyardchickens.com/th...bunks-trad-views-on-nutrition.1567953/page-87:

It's not as clear cut as organic=good, regular=poison. There are a lot of factors at play and a lot of reasons why "organic" isn't a long term, large scale solution. But I'm not interested in getting into that discussion here, I'm just here for the chickens.

 

[Possum-Pie]

My girls hate fish (sardines) don't know why but they won't touch them.

I won't get into an argument here (I'm here for chickens) BOTH sides of the Organic/non-organic argument have serious misperceptions and inaccuracies. I took a graduate-level nutrition course and did doctoral-level research on "organic" foods. Let's just say that the biggest winners are the people who sell organic food at higher prices b/c of the word "organic" on the label. You receive more poisons inhaling the polluted air we breath on the way to the grocer than from the food sold there.
In 2012, a systematic review of data from 237 scientific studies conducted at the Center for Health Policy at Stanford University concluded there were no convincing differences between organic and conventional foods in nutrient content or health benefits. BUT in the end, my wife and I only use the absolutely necessary chemicals in our garden to get a good harvest.

 

[Cindy in PA]

Not many organic meat bird feeds on the market. Add soy free, and I don't think there are any with national distribution, for reasons related to cost, and I don't know of any in the US South East, locally.

Good advice above. The first two things you list are high protein, high fat. Sunflower seeds aren't high protein, they are about the same as your layer formulation(close to 16%, most likely) and also high fat - recommend you cut those. Eggs are good protein, lower fat, good source of lots of other benefits as well. In moderation.

Look for an organic "starter/grower" type formulation, you might be able to find one corn and soy free in the 18% crude protein range. You can also try sprinkling plain, unflavored, gelatin on the feed, or a sprinkling of nutritional yeast.

Nature's Best makes a 20% organic all flock that is available at my TSC. Not meat bird, but a good protein level.