white bread for chicken

[Red-Stars-in-RI]

I agree, but there's a different between giving your old bread scraps to chickens, and purposely going out and collecting tons of it to give your chickens as their daily regular main source of food. There are plenty of different types of food waste that can be repurposed for feeding chickens. I generally say give them whatever's in your kitchen, and any other food scraps you can get your hands on, provided they're either moderately healthy OR part of a varied diet. But if you're going to seek out a single type of food to buy in bulk for the purpose of feeding your chickens, white bread is not worth it imho.

Yeah, and I think the answer lies in the middle. Feeding NO bread or very little is obviously not a problem (but doesn’t get rid of any/much stale bread). Feeding ONLY bread is a bad idea.

There’s a big range of “some bread” that people seem to ignore. If someone says “can I feed x to my chickens?” Folks here tend to jump to “feeding chickens ONLY X”. It’s crazy.

Yesterday I picked up some food waste for my flock. Probably 3 wheelbarrows full, or a tad less. There were a couple bags of stale bread in there. When I fed it, some of the flock went for the greens first, some for bread first, some fruit first. Nobody ate only one thing, everyone ate some of everything.

I consider that “food”, not treats. Feeding a chicken lettuce is NOT like feeding them candy, it’s like feeding them (or us) lettuce. It’s fine as you compensate for the nutrients that aren’t in lettuce.

 

[Tilhana]

We've always fed bread to our ducks and chickens with zero problems at all so yeah if you wanna feed em bread go for it. Alot of this information people get now comes from feed companies saying that without their products all animals will die. Theres been thousands of chickens raised off grandmas old scrap bowl before Purina came around.

Grandma's old scrap bowl probably had a lot more in it than just processed white bread, especially in the days before wonderbread. I don't think anyone is saying that a little bit of bread will hurt chickens, although something made with whole grains is surely the better form, but making processed white bread their main source of feed is a bad idea. And fyi, I don't use commercial feed. I make my own mix of fermented grains and supplement it with daily kitchen scraps, and also let them free range on pasture. So I'm not advocating commercial feed as the best solution.

 

[Tilhana]

Yeah, and I think the answer lies in the middle. Feeding NO bread or very little is obviously not a problem (but doesn’t get rid of any/much stale bread). Feeding ONLY bread is a bad idea.

There’s a big range of “some bread” that people seem to ignore. If someone says “can I feed x to my chickens?” Folks here tend to jump to “feeding chickens ONLY X”. It’s crazy.

Yesterday I picked up some food waste for my flock. Probably 3 wheelbarrows full, or a tad less. There were a couple bags of stale bread in there. When I fed it, some of the flock went for the greens first, some for bread first, some fruit first. Nobody ate only one thing, everyone ate some of everything.

I consider that “food”, not treats. Feeding a chicken lettuce is NOT like feeding them candy, it’s like feeding them (or us) lettuce. It’s fine as you compensate for the nutrients that aren’t in lettuce.

I agree, I think stale bread is fine as long as it's mixed with other types of food. Especially if a lot of that stale bread is made from some kind of whole grain. But OP was talking about having specificially white bread be the "main source" of food, with a few other additions to supplement the missing nutrients. I don't think any one ingredient in your wheelbarrows full of scraps would be considered a "main source of food" since there's such a mix.

 

[Red-Stars-in-RI]

Raw egg is actually okay.

I agree, I think stale bread is fine as long as it's mixed with other types of food. Especially if a lot of that stale bread is made from some kind of whole grain. But OP was talking about having specificially white bread be the "main source" of food, with a few other additions to supplement the missing nutrients. I don't think any one ingredient in your wheelbarrows full of scraps would be considered a "main source of food" since there's such a mix.

Yes, it’s all about variety I find. In addition to the food waste mine eat a lot of bugs and worms from the compost pile. They also have layer pellet at all times and I try to supplement protein whenever I can.

 

[alwaystj9]

It seems like you are going to feed them bread anyway because you get it for free and don't mind if some of the birds die. You have already made up your mind to do this so why ask the question?

Why would you deliberately twist someone's request to put them in the wrong and defensive?
In the first post, OP states:

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*

In the third post of the thread, OP answers the second post with:

Artichoke Lover said:
It would be best just to get a balanced feed. Why would you want to feed large amounts of bread anyway? It seems expensive. Especially if you are also paying for worms.

firsteval it's the curiosity that make me post. also i can get alot of bread easly

I don't see any conclusions there. It looks to me like OP is trying to see if a possibilty would work.

 

[spartacus_63]

If your birds free range, they would survive if you didn't feed them anything. Birds, even chickens have lived off the land for centuries.
Bread is very high in carbs, but birds have a very high metabolism. My birds eat a lot of berries & fruit and I've never noticed any of them getting fat.

 

[writerskramp]

We've always fed bread to our ducks and chickens with zero problems at all so yeah if you wanna feed em bread go for it. Alot of this information people get now comes from feed companies saying that without their products all animals will die. Theres been thousands of chickens raised off grandmas old scrap bowl before Purina came around.

This is true but bread hasn't been bread since before I was a child 68 years ago.. expect at Grandma's house where she baked her own..

 

[Chris2018]

I also spoke to a person who works in a mill for animal feed. And he says that if chickens free range the amount of proteins don’t need to be that high as what the farmers feed the chicken in the factory farms (industry). The organic free range chicken feed has a lower protein level for organic farms because they free range. And this is optimised (costs/health/egg production) for these chickens.

I have to disagree with this person you talked too.
The minimal amount of protein that a chicken needs to intake is the exact same (just like all Macro and Micro nutrients). It does not matter if the birds are in a cage in a barn in a coop, free range or pasture raised.

The organic free range chicken feed has a lower protein level for organic farms because they free range. And this is optimised (costs/health/egg production) for these chickens.

This is also not correct, Organic poultry feed will still range from 15 to 20 percent protein just like non-organic poultry feed. Just because a chicken is Organic or is free range don't change there nutritional needs at the end of the day.

 

[NatJ]

I have to disagree with this person you talked too.
The minimal amount of protein that a chicken needs to intake is the exact same (just like all Macro and Micro nutrients). It does not matter if the birds are in a cage in a barn in a coop, free range or pasture raised.


This is also not correct, Organic poultry feed will still range from 15 to 20 percent protein just like non-organic poultry feed. Just because a chicken is Organic or is free range don't change there nutritional needs at the end of the day.

I thought it meant "the protein in the prepared feed can be lower, because the chickens find some protein while free ranging." So the chicken gets the same amount of protein, just from different sources.

 

[writerskramp]

I have to disagree with this person you talked too.
The minimal amount of protein that a chicken needs to intake is the exact same (just like all Macro and Micro nutrients). It does not matter if the birds are in a cage in a barn in a coop, free range or pasture raised.


This is also not correct, Organic poultry feed will still range from 15 to 20 percent protein just like non-organic poultry feed. Just because a chicken is Organic or is free range don't change there nutritional needs at the end of the day.

If you want High Protein.. Share your cockroach milk meal worm breakfast with em'.. with the occasional GMO lab grown meat and nondairy eggs.. Bill and Melinda. 'WE' own all the farmland.. You will be happy owning nothing.. That is a sunny side up order.. Hard boiled and a little scrambled thinking.