I'm not that far from Italy - 100 km driving by mountain road to vinadio but much closer to the frontier walking. People in my village feed chicks with a mixture of egg and crushed bread. Never heard of the wine though !
Most people here feed adult chickens the traditional way. Giving whole grains, usually wheat and corn, letting them scratch in cows and sheep manure. When they have various animals, many cook cheap pasta, add the left over from last night's dinner which usually includes some form of meat, discarded fruit and vegetables, and all the animals including the chickens get fed that
My closest neighbour has something like ten cows. In winter she brings down her cows at her home, and she says the chickens spend hours scratching up the cow's dungs.
If people feed commercial layer feed, they give it as a supplement like people on BYC do for scratch, never as the main food basis.
I couldn't say how their chickens are faring on this diet and whether they lay a lot or not. I know that the chickens of my close neighbour with the cows are very healthy. I gave her a rooster and he is thriving.
The first year we were here, a 97 years old neighbour got us into growing specific fodder beet for the chickens. He said chickens used to be fed on this through winter when he was young. At the time our flock consisted of six ex-batt's : they took a taste and firmly made it clear they would not eat it, either cooked or raw. We had grown about a 50 kilos ! Luckily another neighbour rabbits were not so difficult!Unfortunately I am now old enough to refer back to my great grandmother who was born over a hundred years ago (my grandmother was born in 1920)
I remember playing (chasing) her birds as a child and she had big frightening dogs which protected them (maybe) I have a child’s memory of her stirring something on the hob (in her pinny) for her hens which smelt awful (however that could’ve been for me and my great grandad
) it had its own special pan. Except she would boil the beetroot in it too. I recall it looking like slop (not the beetroot) and had bits on top that looked like carrot. She used to put stuff from the veg plot into it. Leaves and stuff.
My grandmother did the same but I used to feed them the wild blackberries nanna and I picked (without telling nanna) because they had lots of pips. I remember Nanna discuss the strange hen poop with my mother.
I remember lots from my youth but have no idea what I did yesterday
Just to say the difference isn't only in the years gone by and the type of chickens but also the way people live. Where there are small farms, or people living in that type of fashion, I think in many cases chickens will still be fed traditionally.
