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

[Kung Foo Chicken]

I second or is that 3rd feeding the chickens and ducks extra smaller fish.
I chop them up and throw to the chickens and ducks. They love it and eat everything.
Crayfish, Mussels (from the local stream).

I also feed them Kudzu leaves,sprouts, and ground roots. (Nutritious) I've also experimented on
making a Kudzu casserole and it tastes divine. Not many know this plant is good for you
and really doesn't taste bad either ( green pea flavor).
Kudzu is around 15%-16% protein and is about 60-70% digestible by chickens.

 

[prairiepearls]

Well, I certainly am in the right place at BYC! Worries about our economy led me to plant a good-sized garden last year for the first time in many years. I did sort of a slap-dash job of raised beds from the old garden dirt, which had had compost & grass clippings, etc., just thrown on it for years. Even tho the site was a little shady, the garden did great! This year, I plan to move the garden to a sunnier spot with well-made raised beds (lots of spade-and-wheelbarrow work, but it's better than paying to exercise at a gym!)

And the economy is what got me thinking about raising chickens, too. I figure if it goes well, next year I might add a milking goat -- my SIL says she'd love to try making goat cheese! We need to plant a couple trees to replace a huge cottonwood we had to have taken out (now I wish I had saved the firewood), and I'm thinking fruit trees are the way to go -- hopefully would produce some food for us, and the chickens could eat what falls to the ground. Also want to plant a grapevine. We live in a typical suburban area with nice-size yards, so why not put the land to good use?

I think of my dairy-farming grandparents in northern Wisconsin -- during the Depression, they never wanted for food; in fact, my grandfather was intellectually curious and an avid reader and educated himself about agricultural advances (fertilizer! crop rotation! soil erosion!) and was able to remodel their farmhouse (indoor plumbing!) in 1932, and had enough left over to make some small loans to some of his neighbors.

My biggest worry worst-case-economic-scenario-wise is a loss of reliable electricity and water supplies in the city. That and the security of the food we provide ourselves. My husband says we should consider getting a gun. OK, maybe I'm going off the deep end in the paranoid fantasies dept! But still.

Great thread. Lots of great ideas!

 

[farmerwnb]

Awhile ago I read about a guy who lived arround New England who would trap/ obtain small criters for this purpose. He did not feed the carrion to the chickens, but set up buckets with critter portions in them. The buckets had holes drilled in the bottom and the creepy crawlers would fall to the ground. Bear grylls has stated that eating the rotten meat of an animals is unsafe, but that the fresh crawly wormy things are loaded with protein and healthier to eat. I have long considered this as alternative soucre for my flock, but I have not yet put it to use.

 

[Chickie'sMoma]

fowltemptress, i'm assuming you're talking about the hissing roaches and not the little ones that run rampant in usually filthy conditions? (thinks of the movie Joe's Appartment' eewww)

i guess after reading about giving the chickens the local fish i will see about getting a fishing license this spring to fish the brook behind my house. i already do quite a bit of gardening but this year i hope to not have as much rain at the beginning of the planting season to get things started in the ground for my flock. i'm hoping to expand it a lot more than i've done before. i didn't let my girls free range last year so this year i might allow them to do that to cut down on the food costs, they seem to be good at doing that around the areas of the garage they aren't supposed to be getting into. they seemed to love the broadleaved weeds found all over the yard so i'm sure they would run out of weeds eventually. we've been getting so many eggs from my girls that some i've been feeding back to them and i've been keeping the eggshells to cook up and feed back to them as well. my parents also help by giving us veggie scraps they have left over. i haven't tried to give them meats other than fish and part of a turkey after Thanksgiving.

 

[PaulaJoAnne]

Lots of good things in this thread.
Some things that came to mind as I was reading through.

In the event of a serious downturn, if you rely on antibiotics, commercial fertilizers and the like, you will be in a bad spot.
Your soil and animals will be reliant on these things, and if all of a sudden you do not have access to them, your system will fall apart.

Using manure and compost as your fertilizer, free ranging the chickens and goats, so their natural insitincts are well bred, and having a good knowledge on the
use of natural probiotics, will put you far ahead of the game.
We have never used antibiotics or vaccinations for our chickens.
I use probiotics to uphold and obtain good gut health, both for our animals and ourselves.
Our meat chicks never get medicated feed either. All that does is set them up for problems later.
If a bacteria invades, and they do not have natural defenses, you are cooked!

We are planning to get away from Cornish Xs, and go with red Cornish. There is potential that we will work towards using them crossed with RIRs for egg laying as well.
I firmly believe in keeping my flocks ( and herds when we get them) self sustainable as much as is possible for where we live.

I am praying for a huge run of Hooligan this summer, as I will galdly feed them to our chickens throughout the next winter to suppliment.

 

[fowltemptress]

Chickie'sMoma :

fowltemptress, i'm assuming you're talking about the hissing roaches and not the little ones that run rampant in usually filthy conditions? (thinks of the movie Joe's Appartment' eewww)

Nope, I got rid of the hissers because I was getting too attached to them as pets. I raise goldies, lobsters, and false death heads. You can actually buy the regular roaches that everyone gets squeamish about, though, and if I weren't so concerned with them escaping and taking up residence, I'd be tempted to get them, as well. My goldies actually look a lot like the wild ones, except for the coloring and the fact they give live birth rather than laying eggs. As it is, I'd still be more comfortable allowing a roach to wander all over me than having to deal with mosquitoes or fleas, even if they do get access to filth. As far as I know, roaches have never been the direct cause of any people illnesses or death. Sometimes I wish I hadn't been brought up in a culture that's so disgusted by bugs, because I've often been left with no meat in the house and a craving for something extra in the macaroni. Can't make myself do it, though.

 

[Wifezilla]

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 have ducks and quail. I give them both game bird feed, but try to give them as many fresh greens as I can. They get all our kitchen scraps. I also supplement their diet with foraging time in the yard (they take care of all my dandelions and platains), feeder fish, and worms.

This year I am adding red wigglers to the compost for a more reliable source of worms. The garden is increasing. I am also overseeding the lawn with white dutch clover. Pasture grass is being planted in their pen (fenced off until it can get established of course).

If TSHTF seriously, I would just take my ducks down to the river nearby and let them forage. They love duckweed and other aquatic plants. The duckweed is high in protein. I would still have to round them up at night, so I will have to keep worms with me for bribes

 

[feathersnuggles]

OMG, Fowltemptress! That's fantastic. Where did you get your roach varieties? And where did you find out how to raise them?

I farm mealworms for my chickens, in a plastic tub with bran and either turnips, apples, or carrots for moisture. I recently tasted one. It's pretty bland, but the insides are gooey. I feel safe eating those worms because they've never been with anything contaminated.

Plenty of cultures around the world eat insects. There's no reason to be phobic. In fact, some might be phobic about certain of OUR eating customs.

 

[feathersnuggles]

Quote:
In my experience, thawed is fine. My girls go ape over super fresh raw fish. They are less crazy about eating it raw when it's been frozen for a while. So, if it's been frozen too long or is freezer burnt, I steam it for them and they love eating that.

 

[messianicmom]

First a question:When you give fish, do you partially cook it?

Comment on topic: In a ddition to all comments here, grow your own sunflowers and harvest the seeds; other quasi-grains that don't take up alot of space, like Amaranth that can climb your fence. What about millet and buckwheat in a raised bed? I'd recommend reading a book on small-scale grain growing for more answers. Corn takes up alot of space and I think doesn't give the bang for the effort and space. How about growing lentils or peas in a raised bed, too? If you sprout in the Winter, they will get more protein and vitamins as a result.
Don't throw away organ meats from grass-fed animals, they pack a nutritional punch.
Vermicomposting can be done outside in some locations with proper insulation. That is my goal over the summer; to build a wooden bin and grow the worms up; then through the Winter they will have a strong protein source.
Those of you with a real milk source (and others, but the real is better), make curds and whey. It will strengthen them, gives extra calcium and protein, among other things, and they love both.
Grow a Fall/Winter garden w/extra greens to share. Many greens will last through the winter and can be shared. Mine have loved their Winter Greens.

Just a few ideas