white bread for chicken

[HappyClucker7]

Bread is fine as a treat, but definitely not as the main diet. It lacks in too many nutrients that chickens need.

 

[abdiro]

You’ve come to the wrong place if you want your actual theoretical questions answered...this is the land of “chickens can only eat chicken feed”. I think the place is sponsored by feed companies er something.

As you mentioned, you’d need to supplement protein and calcium. Probably some trace minerals as well (although a lot of the added minerals in commercial food are found in meat). Fresh produce would probably supply a number of the remaining nutrients.

It’d take some research for sure, and it’d certainly be more work than feeding commercial feed. It’d likely cost more unless you can source everything free/cheap, and you may see less than optimum egg production if something is missing...but can it be done? Absolutely!

i like your answer especially the first part
i ask that questions cuz i like breeding chicken and want to create the most effecent and smart way to do that .it is easy to get bread or west-food or compost(cheap) also the worms can be under hands if you know how to breeding them so basicly could get avry thing free

 

[MissE]

Lack of protein alone is enough reason to not make white bread the primary food source. On rare occasion, mine get a couple stale pieces of bread, but I usually save it for bread crumbs and stuffing.

I see no benefit in trying to make a poor food choice better. I would just rather start with something good.

 

[NatJ]

i read alot of articles about using bread as a main feed of chicken some of them engourage to feed adult chicken (one or two even say it is safe for baby chicken ) .and other researches prevent that (note: A starter diet is about 24% protein, grower diet 20% protein, and finisher diet 18% protein) .i conclude some ideas and i well be happy if you support or correct me :
1-white bread contain 7.3 percent P so what if we add worms (much protein) and eggshells (calcuim) .can that be a dailly food
2-one of the problems of give bread to chicken that will make them fat and lead to decrease production .if we pastured the flock that will help to reduce the fat or not
3-the bread can made digestive problems ( bread can quickly form balls inside your chicken’s crop) .the water can fix that
4-whats the other problems can bread create
*thank you*

I think bread would be fine as a source of just plain calories, but it's not well balanced for a total diet.

But you might be able to feed chick starter (24% protein) to adult chickens, along with some bread, and have them end up with a total amount of protein that works. I don't know whether the chick starter also has the right amount of vitamins and minerals to make this really work right, or not.

I've seen articles from a long time ago, that suggest bread as feed for baby chicks--but that was before complete chick starter existed, so the bread was probably better than whatever other options they had. And I'm pretty sure they were talking whole-grain bread, not modern refined white bread.

I saw a more recent article that recommended giving hens free-choice access to a complete chicken feed, and also free-choice access to whole grains or bread or any kind of cheap calories. That author asserts that chickens can balance their own intake of complete feed vs. other calories, to meet their own needs:
http://www.plamondon.com/wp/save-money-on-chicken-feed/

 

[Red-Stars-in-RI]

i like your answer especially the first part
i ask that questions cuz i like breeding chicken and want to create the most effecent and smart way to do that .it is easy to get bread or west-food or compost(cheap) also the worms can be under hands if you know how to breeding them so basicly could get avry thing free

I’m a big sustainability guy, and with the amount of food we waste in the US (up to half of what we produce), finding ways to divert that waste from landfills and repurpose it is going to be increasingly important.

On the USDA food waste pyramid, “feeding animals” is listed as higher value than even composting.

 

[alwaystj9]

I think bread would be fine as a source of just plain calories, but it's not well balanced for a total diet.

But you might be able to feed chick starter (24% protein) to adult chickens, along with some bread, and have them end up with a total amount of protein that works. I don't know whether the chick starter also has the right amount of vitamins and minerals to make this really work right, or not.

I've seen articles from a long time ago, that suggest bread as feed for baby chicks--but that was before complete chick starter existed, so the bread was probably better than whatever other options they had. And I'm pretty sure they were talking whole-grain bread, not modern refined white bread.

I saw a more recent article that recommended giving hens free-choice access to a complete chicken feed, and also free-choice access to whole grains or bread or any kind of cheap calories. That author asserts that chickens can balance their own intake of complete feed vs. other calories, to meet their own needs:
http://www.plamondon.com/wp/save-money-on-chicken-feed/

I cannot get this link to work

 

[NatJ]

I cannot get this link to work

It works when I click on it, so I don't know how to fix it.
Anyone else know what I did wrong with it?

 

[21hens-incharge]

It works when I click on it, so I don't know how to fix it.
Anyone else know what I did wrong with it?

It works for me so .

 

[alwaystj9]

I guess my computer just doesn't like it...I'll try the tablet later.

 

[NatJ]

I guess my computer just doesn't like it...I'll try the tablet later.

Sometimes it works to do a google search for the website or the name of the page. It depends on how my computer's feeling that day, but it occasionally lets me get around links that don't work right.