Wheat/Corn Bad for Chickens?

[Lilorp14]

So I am looking through a local mill's feed catalog and I'm coming across a lot of Wheat-Free and Corn-Free feeds. Is corn/wheat bad for chickens? Why would they be omitting it unless there was something 'wrong' with it? I cant seem to find any info on that. Do any of you know?

 

[Wolfefarmyard]

Idk about wheat, but I do know that corn is mostly used as a filler.

It has very little nutritional value, the only this it’s useful for is adding weight onto birds during winter.

 

[Morrigan]

I believe this is more of a reaction to the gluten free and non-GMO movements, rather than these foods being intrinsically bad for chickens.

From this article (https://articles.extension.org/pages/68432/common-feed-ingredients-in-poultry-diets)

"Corn is the grain most routinely used in commercial poultry diets in the United States because it has a good energy content and is easy to digest. The amino acid profile of the protein in corn complements the amino acid profile of the other ingredients, such as soybean meal, typically used in feed."

"Wheat is often used in poultry diets in western Canada and parts of Europe. The husk of wheat detaches from the grain during threshing (unlike conventional barley and oats where the husk remains attached) reducing its fiber content."

If you fed these in exclusion to everything else, you would have problems, but mixed as parts of an overall feed, I think they are fine.

 

[Perris]

Wheat-Free and Corn-Free feeds

so what is in it? If soy, chances are that's GM, though the marketing gurus might not stress that. I'm with Morrigan on this; there's nothing intrinsically wrong with wheat or corn.

 

[Folly's place]

@Morrigan has said it all.
Mary