What's a more natural feed? aka: what did my grandparents feed their chickens?

[centrarchid]

Between the changing nutritional needs of chickens and there being a lot fewer large, integrated farms (Meaning various types of animals and crops raised) around, I think there are a lot fewer places the old way would “work”...especially places that have winter seasons with limited insect activity and plant growth.

Are there places it’d work? Probably. Are there more places that’d require some supplemental feed (be it chicken feed, grains, food waste, or “other”)? Probably. Is much of that within the reach of your average backyard flock owner? Probably not.

A big chunk of people on this site are not straight up backyard poultry keepers. I am an example of that and have capacity to do some limited integration with livestock that are grazed.

 

[Red-Stars-in-RI]

A big chunk of people on this site are not straight up backyard poultry keepers. I am an example of that and have capacity to do some limited integration with livestock that are grazed.

Absolutely. By summers end I’ll be north of 80 chickens myself and likely will have outgrown the distinction. But MOST on a site called backyard chickens will be smaller scale than “grandma’s farm”.

Some people have good success with grazing chickens behind cows or sheep. The chickens dig through and spread the mammal manure, eating undigested grains and fly larvae, and spreading it out to speed decomposition/fertilization. The chickens also get shorter grass to eat, since it’s been trimmed by the larger animals.

Most of the places I’m aware of doing that are in the south, as northern winters would obviously not accommodate the growing of pasture year round.

The most well known example is Joel Salatin, but I’m sure others do the same.

 

[centrarchid]

Absolutely. By summers end I’ll be north of 80 chickens myself and likely will have outgrown the distinction. But MOST on a site called backyard chickens will be smaller scale than “grandma’s farm”.

Some people have good success with grazing chickens behind cows or sheep. The chickens dig through and spread the mammal manure, eating undigested grains and fly larvae, and spreading it out to speed decomposition/fertilization. The chickens also get shorter grass to eat, since it’s been trimmed by the larger animals.

Most of the places I’m aware of doing that are in the south, as northern winters would obviously not accommodate the growing of pasture year round.

The most well known example is Joel Salatin, but I’m sure others do the same.

We did the integrated approach with games in southern Indiana and I am certain it could be done further north. Salatins approach is intensive requiring a lot more inputs than OP may want.