What kind of (if any) spices do you add to your feed?

[Nicho]

I recently saw a comment on the BYC Facebook mentioning the spices (and health benefits) they add to their birds feed.

I’ve been reading up on this but would like to hear your experience with it. Red pepper, oregano, garlic, cilantro, thyme? What’s your take and how did it affect your chickens, if at all? Preventative spices? Taste preference? Let’s chat about it.

***I know not all keepers do this- it’s not necessary but can be beneficial. It’s an old method that keepers have done for ages***



Some photos from the Nichols Flock for tax

 

[Shabby Chic-Hens]

I get free vegetables from my local supermarket. Sometimes there’s herbs in the mix. The hens also free range, so get whatever wild herbs there are

 

[igorsMistress]

I give my crew whatever herbs they like, but not for medicinal reasons. Cilantro, parsley, basil, thyme and oregano are favorites. They also eat the lemongrass, weirdos. Also a small amount chopped garlic from time to time. These are healthy for them yes, but their feed should provide everything they need so I only give these as treats.

 

[Ikslo]

I have herbs growing by my house, and my chickens free-range. If they want them, they can have them. Usually they nibble and move on. Only occasionally do I have a plant completely decimated, and then I just plant more. Last year it was basil. So now I also plant extra basil in my enclosed garden for me.

 

[Al Gerhart]

There is no reason to give the hens anything other than clean water, a commercial balanced pellet or crumble, and a clean dry place to live.

Most of stuff you will read has no scientific basis but it does make the people feel better which is the only reason they do it.

 

[kattabelly]

There is no reason to give the hens anything other than clean water, a commercial balanced pellet or crumble, and a clean dry place to live.

Most of stuff you will read has no scientific basis but it does make the people feel better which is the only reason they do it.

I've only had time to skim a few abstracts right now but a quick search brings up plenty of studies showing various herbal additives had a beneficial effect when added to commercial layer or broiler feed.

There might be an argument to be made that some of those "benefits" (from a commercial POV) made no or negligible difference, or possibly were even detrimental, to the birds themselves. I don't think it's fair to write off anything other than a diet of nothing but unamended commercial feed as entirely pointless and having no scientific basis, though.

E2a - which isn't to say that comments by randoms on facebook should be taken at face value either, of course!

 

[Al Gerhart]

Educate me please. Post links to those studies. Always glad to learn something new, might change my mind.

 

[kattabelly]

Educate me please. Post links to those studies. Always glad to learn something new, might change my mind.

These are just the first few that came up in a search and like I say, only had time to skim a few abstracts myself right now. If you want I can look for more/better studies later when my own chickens have stopped eating nettles and dockens and gone to bed!

Effects of thyme and oregano on performance and egg quality characteristics of laying hens

The Impact of Herbal Additives for Poultry Feed on the Fatty Acid Profile of Meat

Immunomodulatory Effects of Natural Feed Additives for Meat Chickens

 

[Mrs. K]

Well if you only feed commercial feed, well your eggs will taste like commercial eggs. I feed in table scraps, and they peck at greens when they are out and about. I tend not to fret about feed. Mine is based on a commercial feed... but hey, I like a hot dog too. I have never bought human food for chickens. They get scraps.

 

[Al Gerhart]

These are just the first few that came up in a search and like I say, only had time to skim a few abstracts myself right now. If you want I can look for more/better studies later when my own chickens have stopped eating nettles and dockens and gone to bed!

Effects of thyme and oregano on performance and egg quality characteristics of laying hens

The Impact of Herbal Additives for Poultry Feed on the Fatty Acid Profile of Meat

Immunomodulatory Effects of Natural Feed Additives for Meat Chickens

Thanks for the links.

The first study did show a slight improvement in feed conversion, no difference in egg quality. But, there were only 5 birds per replicate, not a large number for a study. More so, there were wide swings in the feed conversion of the control group and the three groups of levels of spice given in the diet. Up to .25 points, from 2.068 to 2.3. This was in Egypt so the climate might have been more important than the spice in the feed. Super hot in one test, less not in the other, and they didn't report the differences in temperature or other factors in the weeks of testing.

But, say they are right and the test could be duplicated independantly, chicken feed is less than $1.00 per kg while spice on a wholesale level is $2.50 per kg but retail, the cheapest walmart great value brand is over $25.00 per kg. One kg would treat 33 kgs of feed at the 30grams per kg of feed level used in the study at the maximum level. 72 pounds of feed. Now the cheapest pellets I could find was $14.30 with tax. Make it easy to calculate, 1.5 bags is $21.00 and change, then add the $25.00 in oregano.

You more than doubled the cost of your feed if you are buying the spice from Walmart for a 1 to 5% feed conversion gain. Assuming the best outcome of the 12 different cadres in the test.

So using the best improvement in feed conversion from the test and the cheapest spice available to most of us, this is a dismal failure.

If you could raise your own or buy at a wholesale level somehow, $2.50 per kg added to $21 worth of pellets, roughly 12% increase in feed cost for a 5% feed conversion gain.

So, using that one study, and I did read the entire study not just the abstract, and I will read the other studies this weekend, one would have to be delusional to trade 12% cost increase for less than half that in the best possible feed conversion gain.

But, maybe the feed tastes better and maybe it makes others feel better to feed the spice. From this one study, those would be the only rational reasons to feed these two spices to your chickens.

Do the math people. Lots of well intentioned advice from good people is given without a rational or scientific basis. But it it cannot be measured it cannot be trusted.

I'll update by this weekend on the other two studies. Thanks again for taking the time and effort to provide the links.