what is the "natural" diet for chickens?

[CrazyTalk]

I'm intrigued by the threads on making/growing your own feed. I wish I didn't have to use any commercial feed - I don't even feed my dog commercial food (she's on a raw, prey-model diet). Anyways, being that I'm a total newbie to chickens and will have enough on my plate I'm going to start off using commercial feed until I feel confident enough (and have our land ready) to start growing and providing more of our own food to the chickens. This leads me to my question:

What would chickens normally eat "in the wild"? Heck, I'm not even sure if there is such a thing as a wild chicken. And if so, if such a creature could live in my region/climate. But hearing that chickens love meat (including chicken!) makes me wonder what a "wild" chicken will eat. Where would they get their protein and what do they do over the winter?

Commercial feed IS the wild food for chickens.

You mention dogs - dogs are much closer to wolves than chickens are to wild junglefowl. There are several species of junglefowl that chickens were selected from - some eat mostly seeds, some bugs, some eat mostly grains and legumes.

Chickens have been selected for thousands of years based on their ability to prosper on typical commercial grain based mixes. That is their natural food.

 

[DIMBY]

My husband was raised on a farm; his neighbor had more than 100 chickens, which were free range (really free range, not like today, they had the run of the place, nearby fields, etc.). Anyway, one of their cows died in a field and before he could dispose of the body, the chickens found it. Long story short: he didn't have to dispose of the body.

 

[HighStreetCoop]

My husband was raised on a farm; his neighbor had more than 100 chickens, which were free range (really free range, not like today, they had the run of the place, nearby fields, etc.). Anyway, one of their cows died in a field and before he could dispose of the body, the chickens found it. Long story short: he didn't have to dispose of the body.

Tiny velociraptors.

 

[Spangled]

What would chickens normally eat "in the wild"? Heck, I'm not even sure if there is such a thing as a wild chicken. And if so, if such a creature could live in my region/climate. But hearing that chickens love meat (including chicken!) makes me wonder what a "wild" chicken will eat. Where would they get their protein and what do they do over the winter?

I think chickens can only go feral in warmer climates, however, my chickens don't understand that and love to roost in the trees even when the temps are below 0. I about fell off my little stool trying to get chickens out of the tree last night before bed. I am not interested in dealing with frostbitten toes. Silly little chickens.

Cutest thing I've seen wild chickens eating was a coconut. The momma hen was keeping watch and the little 2 week old chicks were climbing in and out of a broken coconut, pecking, in Hawaii. It was just darling.

My husband wants to feed our new chickens meal scraps, including any beef or chicken

I feel like it's not the right thing but I can't logically justify it!! I don't want want to raise cannibals!! And they wouldn't ever overpower a cow in the wild so why would we feed them one? If a rooster kills another rooster, does he eat the dead rooster? I'm thinking no?

Well, last week we had a predator get into the chicken coop (for the first time ever!) and kill a hen, leaving a partial carcass behind. Not yet knowing what had happened, when I let out the hens, I opened the door and there they were pecking on the remains. My view is that if there is skin showing on the carcass, then hens will start eating. If the chicken carcass is covered in feathers, they won't start eating their pal.

I live in fear ... well, a little bit of trepidation ... that I will fall in the coop, knock myself out, and then be eaten by the chickens. They aren't choosy. It's just their chicken nature. It's part of why they have survived as a species all these years.

 

[pdirt]

You name it a chicken will eat it. They are some of the most omnivorous critters out there. That doesn't mean they get a balanced diet. Keep in mind wild animals tend to live much shorter lives, suffer far more diseases, starve to death, end up with nutrient deficiencies, and are far less productive than our domesticated versions. I've fed a lot of animals on non commercial diets and balancing the diet of an omnivore is actually the hardest to do reliably. True carnivores are easy. Feed the proper ratios of body parts with enough variety and you are good. They are designed to extract all the nutrients they need from a very limited food source. Herbivores aren't too difficult either. They tend to need fresher foods (drying or freezing vegetation destroys a lot of useful nutrients real quick) and a good variety but otherwise you can't go wrong unless you include too many carb or fat sources (most herbivores do not actually eat grains or many seeds). Omnivores have such a range and get their nutrients from so many different sources. They often seem like the least efficient animals at using their food sources and they often can't manufacturer much of anything they need from other sources. You need a little of everything, in the right amounts, with an extreme amount of variety to actually cover everything they require. There's a reason many resort to powdered supplements. Even zoos feeding omnivorous animals often resort to mixes with powdered supplements to get the right ratios. It really is a better idea to supplement a balanced poultry feed unless you have a wide range of scrap foods on your property already. There are some recipes online for mixing your own feeds from bulk sources but make sure they are quality recipes not something someone inexperienced made up. They also often lack the animal protein part.

I know this a is very old post, but thank you. It makes more sense than anything I've probably read before. I had never before heard about the inefficiencies of omnivores, but now you put it that way, it makes a lot of sense. I wanted to respond to as a thank you, but also in hopes that more people will read this.

That and what @Chris09 and others have said before about there never having been any wild chickens...that they've been so coddled and domesticated by humans over the generations that they no longer compare to what is assumed they were bred from (the jungle fowl).

 

[chickengeorgeto]

In short a chicken will eat anything that doesn't eat it first.

There is no such thing as non-commercial food of any kind. The very idea suggests that "non-commercial" food isn't worth the sack that it's sold in.

Chickens love wild as well as domestic grains, meat by-products, milk by-products, and seafood by-products, to include bone meal, blood meal, shrimp meal, and a product known simply as "tankage"
I still feed the occasional fresh road killed squirrel or rabbet. All tender green and growing grasses, forbs, legumes, etc are good chicken grub. If they are able they will first catch, tenderize, and finally kill, and consume baby birds, small snakes, mice, and baby rats. If your chickens are quick enough not even an English sparrow is safe. A chicken has an impressive excavating tool on the end of each leg and they use this tool called feet to dig in the ground and turn over dead leaves etc.in search of wee critters that are slower than your chickens. I have even seen hens snatch butterflies out of the air.

I think that so called wild onions or garlic seeds are a good chicken food because when they eat these seeds the chickens marinate themselves from the inside out.

I have personal experience with hens living 6 to 18 months in the wilds of the SE United States all by themselves alone, and never in that time laying eyes on a human or a human laying eyes on them.

Key West, Florida and Hawaii both have feral or wild chickens and both India, SE Asia, and the Pacific Ocean islands have 100% "wild" chickens living there in the form of the native Red and the Grey Jungle Fowls, the ancestors of our domestic chicken.

 

[Ol Grey Mare]

I have even seen hens snatch butterflies out of the air.

Yep! And there is a special kind of amusement in watching a hen chase a butterfly

 

[chickengeorgeto]

... there is a special kind of amusement in watching a hen chase a butterfly

You think that is amusing... wait till she gets after a June Bug.

 

[kingdomcats]

Mine vary by breed, but have seen them eat grasshoppers, crickets, moths, wasps, maggots, flies, grass, blueberries, tomatoes, mice (the cat caught and left for them) and anything I give them - they love watermelon, bread, macaroni, corn, oatmeal and just about anything you can think of.