Does anyone else feed "unconventional" feed?? Tell your story.

[Kenya Mwangi]

Hello The feeding narrative pushed so hard by people, that I think don't even know why, is that only "nutritionally balanced complete commericial feed" (which is crumble or pellets) should be fed to your backyard chickens.

In society there are always a couple of dissenters allowed because of the irrefutable results they provide, but for any and all newcomers asking about feeding naturally or growing there own feed they are told NO! NO, I HIGHLY RECOMMEND YOU DON'T TRY THAT!!!!

Why not, I ask. Because they want you to be a consumer zombie forever, I think. I understand people have strong opinions about things, but when it comes to feeding chickens, it's not really rocket surgery, especially about methionine. Methionine is so easy to give to your chickens. Just give them meat.

Tell your story, do you feed real meat to your chickens? More importantly, are they still healthy?

 

[chickengr]

Hello The feeding narrative pushed so hard by people, that I think don't even know why, is that only "nutritionally balanced complete commericial feed" (which is crumble or pellets) should be fed to your backyard chickens.

In society there are always a couple of dissenters allowed because of the irrefutable results they provide, but for any and all newcomers asking about feeding naturally or growing there own feed they are told NO! NO, I HIGHLY RECOMMEND YOU DON'T TRY THAT!!!!

Why not, I ask. Because they want you to be a consumer zombie forever, I think. I understand people have strong opinions about things, but when it comes to feeding chickens, it's not really rocket surgery, especially about methionine. Methionine is so easy to give to your chickens. Just give them meat.

Tell your story, do you feed real meat to your chickens? More importantly, are they still healthy?

my chickens free range. they find meat themselves. I feed them whole grains, mostly wheat, corn, barley and/or oats. my heritage breeds are healthy with that. it seems that hybrid layers need some commercial feed as they are not as tough as heritage breeds. I'll butcher all hybrids and never get them again. it is sooooooo nice to have healthy birds who forage. just to mention, waterfowl are even easier to keep than chickens.

 

[Penpal]

I am giving a little meat because I have Cornish X and they need it. I give ground beef, little bits. I also have a worm bin and soon they will be getting worms.

 

[BigBlueHen53]

@chickengr, what heritage breeds do you have/ recommend? I am thinking about going that route...

 

[RememberTheWay]

Hello The feeding narrative pushed so hard by people, that I think don't even know why, is that only "nutritionally balanced complete commericial feed" (which is crumble or pellets) should be fed to your backyard chickens.

In society there are always a couple of dissenters allowed because of the irrefutable results they provide, but for any and all newcomers asking about feeding naturally or growing there own feed they are told NO! NO, I HIGHLY RECOMMEND YOU DON'T TRY THAT!!!!

Why not, I ask. Because they want you to be a consumer zombie forever, I think. I understand people have strong opinions about things, but when it comes to feeding chickens, it's not really rocket surgery, especially about methionine. Methionine is so easy to give to your chickens. Just give them meat.

Tell your story, do you feed real meat to your chickens? More importantly, are they still healthy?

While I definitely agree with you on consumer zombies and things always being recommended to NEVER "do that" types of mentalities, I do want to add something.

I do a LOT of research. Like literally endless hrs on hrs. No joke. I have a hyper focus type of personality and it gets poured into my poultry. Personally, I agreed with you in the beginning of my journey and probably would still one hundred percent support/recommend that any backyard flock owner explore alternative feed options. Where I start to swerve away from that stance is when I consider breeders or growing meat birds. They simply require very specific nutritional needs and if they are not met the quality of your birds, fertility, disease resistance etc is seriously compromised. Providing the right nutrition is also just a smart business investment in my opinion as it ensures that I have excellent fertility, hatch rates, and healthy vigorous chicks. There are so many nutritional deficiencies that can be easy to cause unknowingly and your business suffers directly because of it. Higher chick mortality, failure to thrive, unfertilized eggs, low production, pale yolks for table eggs, feet, toe and leg deformities and problems. Fixed joints can happen on your chicks. It's literally endless the problems one can see as a result of using inadequate nutrition in your breeding stock. It's not worth the gamble in my opinion. And this is actually coming from a holistically minded natural medicine/living type person. I'm a home birth/natural birth doula and a certified permaculture designer. I also love raising pasture raised eggs and meat- BUT I also provide a high quality (actually quality not just an organic label) feed and supplement for my breeders and pastured birds. They live on pasture but also have free choice feeds available.

So to sum it up- if your a backyard hobbyist - I say go for it! If your building a business from your birds - maybe try a little of both?

 

[bearcreekbees]

I just put up a lengthy post the other day about my feed recipe. You can pop over and read it here if you like-

https://www.backyardchickens.com/th...n-animal-protein-based.1645034/#post-28123243

My take on your post is this though- I have been a member here for years, and while I rarely post I am pretty sure that I have read every post that has been put up here regarding DIY layer rations. My reaction on reading most of them is to cringe. Sad fact, I think that too many people simply grab a bunch of grains/seeds and throw them together willy nilly with no real idea of either the nutritional needs of their birds nor the nutritional content of their "feed mix".

I am all for people making homemade diets for their birds, provided that they have a clue about what they are doing and can at least put together a ration that meets the most basic needs of their flock, but all too often here that is not the case. Luckily there are some very helpful members here and other good resources- so hopefully people will take advantage of those to increase their understanding of the dietary needs of their flocks. This is why some people, sometimes, respond negatively when people ask about homemade diets. When properly done I think they are great, but done improperly it is the birds who will suffer.

I put a lot of time and energy and research into chicken nutrition to come up with my own ration, and even now I am not 100% satisfied with it. I know that I need to do some more tweaking, and I also need to go back over my spreadsheet to double check that it is doing what I designed it to do, without errors. In the meantime, I am using it and feel pretty confident, but will put in some more time and effort just to be certain. And as time and resources permit there are things that I already know that I will be changing to make it better. Having said that, as we all know, no matter how conscientious we are about creating a ration for our birds, the minute we allow them out to forage much of that careful planning goes straight out the window! But I try to get the best ration I possibly can to start out with and then trust that the birds will self-balance while foraging. Also, because I am feeding organically grown and transitional whole grains and seeds I know that the quality is already higher than that of store bought feed simply because my feed is so much fresher and retains so many more nutrients than feed which has been ground into mash or that has been ground and pelleted and might not be very fresh on top of that. So there's that.