What would you feed if you couldn't buy feed?

[IggiMom]

This is just something I have wondered about. I don't garden, we have a little farm here, but our neighbor uses the pasture and we don't grow corn and wheat and such.

What if there would really be an awful recession or something and it wouldn't be possible to buy feed, what would you feed your chickens? I would like to have eggs and if necessary meat but I have been wondering what I would feed them.

I have to say, in the summer, they go out and catch bugs and pretty much feed themselves, although I do supplement. And I have a scrap bucket in which I put things like cooked sweet potato peelings and potato peelings, apple peelings, that sort of thing, and they like them, but they couldn't live on just that. And during the winter there isn't much for them to forage.

I have read that during the depression people who were really hard up would even give the poultry road kill.

I like to think that we would survive but I wonder.

I wish I had a garden.

Catherine

 

[HEChicken]

I have to confess, one time I drove past a squirrel dead on the road that I knew had not been there 30 minutes before and I was tempted to stop and pick it up to take home to the chooks. I even pulled over. Then I started to wonder about what diseases I might introduce if I did that, and I passed but....if I were more desperate, maybe....Good questions. I would definitely put the word out to all my friends and family and ask them to save me all of their food scraps - anything they were going to be throwing away. What the chooks didn't eat, I could still add to my compost. Last summer DH and I went out to the vegie garden every evening and picked off all the caterpillars and beetles we found, saving them for the chooks breakfast next morning. This allowed us to have a garden without having to use any pesticides, and gave the girls some lovely treats. I suppose in more desperate times I would offer to do the same for any neighbors I knew had gardens - a big jar of bugs would go a long way to supplying the chooks their daily ration of protein, although it would be quite an investment in time gathering them.

 

[catdaddy66]

I know that vegetables are a good treat, but not as a main diet. Foraging in a pen/run or free ranging can supplement app. 30% of the nutrition they need. Chicks need some animal protein source and I have heard of feeding them boiled eggs/ chicken

I don't know what else could be used in a tight financial situation.

 

[25bengood2me]

Raw oatmeal, tuna or other fish, poached or boiled. Empty your fridge from all those forgotten foods before they get moldy! You know, that 1/2 sandwich, that 1/4 cup of yogurt, that dry slice of cheese. don't throw it away when you can feed 'em today!

 

[princess araucana]

i've wondered that too, but more like if I run out of food while the feed store is closed. I made them oatmeal when that happened once. I suppose folks have been raising chickens for longer than feed stores have been around......

 

[gsim]

This is a very valid question given our poor economic outlook. I keep over 6 months supply of layer pellets for the very reason of a sour economy and the failing dollar world wide. ( Crumbles would get stale too quick and could more easily take on moisture.) In fact that is the true reason for me getting into gardening and poultry, and a 6 month supply will give me time to prepare for whatever. We have done it for ourselves and our dog, so why not the chickens? Definitely ours will become free-rangers and we might even get an Anatolian shepherd dog. They even watch for hawks. Wintertime would be tough. Could come down to keeping the flock alive until springtime and bugs coming back to produce necessary protein. A goldfish pond/tank would produce protein for the chooks. They are easy to raise being they are carp. Could raise crawdaddies in a muddy area too. Another option is to raise mealyworms. They are protein and can be raised year-round. Not smelly and can be done indoors in a large jar. cheap to feed and just save 50 or so for re-breeding and feed all the rest to the chooks each time. Could do several jars at once. I think they like bran or oats, but not sure. I have several types of weeds that chooks love, and a clump cloverlike weed too and I can find them all winter around here. Hay is good, as is dried grass which can be put away inside, AFTER DRYING. I also thought of raising red worms, but do not want to do it indoors. They could be fed to chooks year round. Decaying manure is a thing that redworms like, as do crickets. Crickets are more complicated to raise than mealyworms or redworms tho.

I have given thought to goats as well. 6 meaties and one for milk. Have to put up fence and build a shed for them, and run water to their area. The fence is the biggie though. Would require clearing away brush, undergrowth to put up and the darned T-posts are now at $5 apiece. But the good raw milk and the clean , no-additive meat would likely be worth it. Have to learn to butcher tho. Not too hard to do goats. You can expect 20# meat from a 50# goat I am told. The refuse would definitely go to the chooks, and the butchering should be done in wintertime anyway, so there is a good shot of raw hi-nourishment protein for the chooks during the winter that would be repeated 6 times every winter. I figure by the time I feed them, I am looking at having $3/# in the goat meat when I butcher them, at current prices of goats ($50/billy) Have to have security for the goats, (coyotes) so may need a donkey, male llama, or anatolian shepherd to stay out with them.

None of this was a thing I dreamt of for my retirement, but here it is anyway. Then again, if our main job every day is to eat and stay alive, what better use have we for our time? Shall we do like they did after Katrina and wait for FEMA to save us, or did we learn from that debacle?

 

[TinyBirds]

I have thought about this too. We have a field where we grow wheat currently. But I think corn is supposed to be the most nutrients per acre (not sure - can't remember). Right now our chickens just get whole grains ($8/50-lb bag of sorghum, wheat, corn) as a supplement to their foraging. If we lived next to a lake or something, I know the chickens could be fine eating fish if there was a situation like you describe. Maybe you could grow a small plot of wheat in your yard, and/or corn.

 

[gritsar]

I would continue to do what I do now, let them free range every day. That's how my chickens get most of their nourishment. The layer pellets in the summertime are just a bit of insurance. In the wintertime they do feed off the pellets more.
DH's mother raised many backyard chickens on this farm and they did just fine on table scraps, some scratch now and then and what they foraged for. Laid just as many eggs as my flock does too.

There is an article in this month's issue of Mother Earth News about growing your own chicken feed. Unfortunately I just checked and it's not available to read online. Interesting reading.

 

[sonew123]

My chickens would get every leftover-like they do now-but I would fish my but off! I live on a big pond and would fish for an hour or two just to get them food ( I love fishing anyhoo). I would stock up on fish all Spring summer and Fall to suppliment threw winter-I would keep enough eggs for us to eat and sell and cook the rest back to them-Id make alot of soups for them with rice to thicken it up-I would grow veggies for once for all of us-I think thats good for starters

 

[IggiMom]

Gosh, Gsim, I am so impressed. You have obviously given this some thought. I like the idea you have for having six months of pellets on hand. I am not sure where I would store it, but I am going to give this some thought. I have a root cellar, but it is pretty damp, so I don't suppose that would be good.

Nope, I would not sit around and wait for FEMA. And I truly think they do a pretty good job, but that isn't to say that they would always be able to, right? A catastrophe could happen that would make it impossible for anyone to help.

We were flooded in 1980, and we started cleaning up right away, and a lot of people did not. They thought they should wait until someone came around to see how bad it was, and the result was that by the time they started to clean up, it was impossible to clean up.

What is it Mom always used to say? God helps those who help themselves!

It is true that little goldfish multiply fairly rapidly. I don't know anything about crayfish, though.

Now that I think of it, cow manure also has a lot of undigested corn and stuff in it, so probably the chickens peck around in it, also.

Thanks so much for all the great thoughts guys. I am truly going to think about this more.

I have a wonderful English Shepherd who does help guard the chickens, but there is a problem, in that the coop is outside the fence. I guess we need to fix that up, if possible.

Of course, there might be a problem with feeding the dogs, too! My little dogs, the Italian Greyhounds, eat more than you might think.

Catherine