FARM Raising chickens when theres no feed at store

[Old as dirt]

Raising chickens with little or no store bought feed.
When survival is the name of the game, think chickens. During the depression if you had a large flock of chickens you had eggs, and once in a while chicken and dumplings. Now I cannot remember ever having fried chicken as mom never killed a young chicken. It was always a very old hen. So she popped it in a pot of water and slowly cooked it on the back of the old wood stove. Then she either made home made noodles or dumplings. Did you know that dumplings will really fill you up. Anyway lots of times we did not have feed and we resorted to lots of things.
Now I get a mag called Back yard poultry www.backyardpoultrymag.com
This last one Aug and sept issue is leaning towards hard times and had a good article about The challenge of high food cost. Or can I add no feed maybe. One of the things I gleaned from the article was is pick the right kind of chicken . Get Australorps, Buff Orpingtons, Wyandottes, Rhode Island Reds. Traditional farm breeds that were valued for their ability to hustle their own living on the farm, rather than hanging around the feeder waiting for handouts.Do not get Red Sex links or superlayer whites.
The article talks about a compost pile, Big one of course and fenced in on three sides that the chickens can get to. Put everything possible in it, all garden waste, weeds, grass, some chicken poop, pile it high and let the chickens stir it for you. You can put grass with weed seeds, weeds with seeds and not worry as the chickens will eat all the seeds. Dump all household waste in it, peelings, etc. But no raw meat. This will be a continue source of food for your chickens. As the compost heap becomes more biologically active, earthworms,pill bugs, crickets, slugs, etc. As in any compost heap of course, the microbes driving their decompostion produce vitamin B12. And other vitamins and immune enhancing substances, which the chickens ingest along with other goodies. And in the process they turn and aerate the heaps, speeding up composition.
Sounds good to me folks, Tom says he is planning this now, and will fence off our compost pile. We always have huge ones.
Also in the article you will have to free range if you do not have food, or very little food. Then may only lay a egg every other day, but hey that is alright a egg is a egg, even if not to many.
Now this is something that I know that was not in the article, If you plant kale which grows anywhere and can get huge and is one of the healthest foods going, you can dump this out for chickens and they love it. And you can eat it also. It will produce right up to frost.
And if you go to feed store someday and they are out of feed or it costs so darn much you can't afford it, look at cheap bird seed, I have done that many times
Old as Dirt

 

[Filas are Prima]

Cooped chickens go hog wild over alfalfa leaves, left in the wheelbarrow from feeding the other stock.
Somebody has been posting details on how to mass produce maggots to feed the chickens with.
Chickens also love dandelion flowers.

 

[O2BNOK]

I can vouch for the compost bit...our chickens love the compost bin. our most active pile is in an old refrigerator and they keep it scratched up pretty well. Sometimes they get so busy there that they don't notice you've come near them so when they do spot you they squawk and jump and run like they think they in trouble... kinda comical... but I doubt there's a worm left in there.

 

[pkchicken]

Thanks Old As Dirt.
I read that last issue. Lots of good info. I especially liked the part about putting your scraps in the orchard to get the chickens to go there and eat bugs and scratch up the soil.

I've taken that idea and used it to get the chickens to forage where I want them to instead of in my garden, It's working.

I turn logs for them and they have a feast. They follow me anywhere as long as I am carrying the scrap bucket.

pk

 

[Nuthatch]

I get the magazine too and pulled it out of the mailbox today. This is the article that caught my eye first.

Too many predators here for me to ever go free-range. But I do get creative including each morning shaking the sleepy japanese beetles onto a sheet/tarp and then giving them to the chickens. They love them. And I pick greens from areas that need weeded or whacked several times a day too. Add kitchen scraps, overripe fruit and it gets to be a variety. They do seem to love any green even tough ones like overgrown chard or kale.

 

[CountryboyinGA]

Two words:

"game chickens"


CB

 

[SarahLynn]

What could you feed them in winter if there was no commercial feed?

 

[Nuthatch]

You are going to have to buy or put up something.

I do have sprouting grains for them for winter. And the kitchen scraps. Plus, we often can get to grass/field greens year-round even if they are small. But I imagine I will continue supplementing store-bought feed as much as possible to make it go farther.

 

[buttie]

I posted a question a while back about gathering and feeding acorns, we've got lots of them. Are they ok for chickens? How would you crack them efficently?

 

[Nuthatch]

Buttie and others:

Here is a great article in three parts re: feeding chickens from the homestead's own resources. Great info. Includes discussion of acorns.

http://www.themodernhomestead.us/article/Growing-Poultry-Feeds-1.html

I disagree with feeding earthworms however, as they can host gapeworm larvae. Read about it here: http://msucares.com/poultry/diseases/disparas.htm

 

[SarahLynn]

Thanks Nuthatch.

 

[UncurledA]

If you cut wood, you can also spread the pieces of bark out in a grassy or brushy area, and they will continually scratch it, as sowbugs like to live there. We are shaking and drying our prolific mulberries into raisins for winter. We waited to mow until the grass was about 6 inches high, cutting it when conditions would be favorable for drying, then raked it up as loose grass hay. Very good for winter, as well, as chickens need 15-30% of their diet as grass or green hay. We will also be gleaning ear corn this fall, and did buy some wheat, the soft winter kind that is $6.20/bu right now. Finally, we broadcast-plant brooder greens, which are canola, rape, and mustard, for summer and fall browsing. We just don't want to pay that $14.00/50lb. mash price any more. Son is an ag major, so he helps us with the nutritional needs, such as mineral supplements, but these are covered in any good ag book on chickens. A little dicalcium phosphate, a cattle supplement, seems to do them lots of good, but just a little !

.

 

[Garryowen]

We used to stop at the produce department of the local supermarket and ask for the culled produce. We frequently got boxes of lettuce leaves, etc, and the hens loved it. They were also fond of watermelon rind. Crickets were always popular, but I got tired of lifting up boards around the barn for them.

 

[Kook]

This will not work everywhere, but me and my Granny used to do this in Louisiana during the hot and humid southern nights:

We put a 3# washtub out in the late evening with about 3" of water in it. Then we hung a 25 watt light bulb over it all night. (About 6" above, so the light would reflect up from the water) The next morning a LOT of bugs had flown into the water and drowned, along with some half alive ones as well. I cannot say for sure how much was in there, but hey, for almost no electricity costs we got a lot of free chicken feed in the summertime. I'd go out there in the early AM, dump out the washtub, then open the chicken coop. MAN did those birds go wild! And the HUGE eggs they would produce. The whole family still remembers the 'bug eggs' we'd eat each summer. Along with the composting and other ideas above, you can feed the yardbirds cheap!

 

[CountryboyinGA]

What could you feed them in winter if there was no commercial feed?

The same thing the wild birds eat.

Chickens eat about anything. table scraps, meat scraps, acorns, etc. In the old days they had to get by. My granddaddy used to turn the cows and hogs loose in the winter to fend for themselves for the most part. This is why I said "game chickens" most of the hatchery birds have had the "chicken" bred out of them. Same as hogs.
Speaking of hogs, there's an old saying "ROOT HOG OR DIE"....

It ain't an idle threat. It means "get your food on your own, or die, cause I ain't gonna feed you".


Folks, a lot of ya'll are gonna have to get past worrying about what the animals are gonna eat, cause in REAL hard times, you're gonna be scratching for something for you to eat. They lived a long time without people feeding them, and were better off, IMO, and the tough ones will make it, the weak ones won't, and the species will be better off for it.


CB

 

[Old Futz]

We also fed pumpkins and squash into winter, surplus/frosted/over mature ones, along with seeds and pulp from processing them.

 

[Hermit]

I don't know much of anything about chickens except how to eat them, but every time I read an article about them it seems like Rhode Island Reds come up. Must be quite an all-purpose bird.

This will not work everywhere, but me and my Granny used to do this in Louisiana during the hot and humid southern nights:

We put a 3# washtub out in the late evening with about 3" of water in it. Then we hung a 25 watt light bulb over it all night. (About 6" above, so the light would reflect up from the water) The next morning a LOT of bugs had flown into the water and drowned, along with some half alive ones as well. I cannot say for sure how much was in there, but hey, for almost no electricity costs we got a lot of free chicken feed in the summertime. I'd go out there in the early AM, dump out the washtub, then open the chicken coop. MAN did those birds go wild! And the HUGE eggs they would produce. The whole family still remembers the 'bug eggs' we'd eat each summer. Along with the composting and other ideas above, you can feed the yardbirds cheap!

Sounds like a cool idea, and it might work with those cheap little solar lawn lights from Walmart!

 

[Publius]

We also fed pumpkins and squash into winter, surplus/frosted/over mature ones, along with seeds and pulp from processing them.

Old Futz beat me to it but yes and our forebears did it that way and pumpkins and winter squash was grown and used for livestock but winter squash needs to cooked some before using it as feed.

 

[Y2kO]

Grow some heirloom corn for your chickens. Then you have to pick it, shell it and crack it. Or take it to the feed mill and have them crack it for you. (Stay away from that GM stuff.)

Some heirloom corn has very small kernels. So you might not have to crack it.

Yes, Kale is one of the best greens for your salad. We can eat it ten months of the year because it is so winter hardy. Protect it from the wind and eat it in January. It's loaded with calcium, potassium, vitamin C, etc.

 

[Pass Go]

Dear OAD, thanks for another great thread. I wish I could do chickens, but I'm stuck with rabbits. I'm glad you're here. I'm only half as old as dirt, but I'm gettin' there.

 

[Barry Natchitoches]

I have plenty of big cabbage leaves, left over from when the cabbage was growing back in the spring. I never actually pulled the cabbage roots out of the ground, so the roots are still sprouting small heads inside these big cabbage leaves, even in our 100+ degree heat.


If I wanted to give my eight chickens (4 Rhode Island Reds, 4 Buff Orpingtons) these big cabbage leaves (they are over 12 inches in diameter), would I need to shred them first, or just let them chew at the big leaves?

 

[frazbo]

Barry,

Just cut it into halves or quarters and let them peck at it, it'll keep 'em happy for hours and they'll keep pecking at it over time until it's gone.
I planted an extra row of turnip greens just for mine and they love it.

 

[OldMan]

DW and I have been discussing the high cost of chick feed for several months.

We decided to convert an unused corral that is adjacent to our chicken coop into a large (prolly 50 ft x 100 ft) chicken yard. We will install tall chicken wire on the perimeter and maybe crossfence it into four "chicken paddocks" for "pasture rotation" (think cattle). The corral already has a yard hydrant so it would be a simple matter to promote plant growth. I was thinking of putting a compost "worm factory" in the center so as to be accessible from all four paddocks.

I'm still in the process of putting up a 24 ft x 48 ft green house which will generate a lot of good stuff for the chickies throughout the greater part of the year.

We have a young header+heeler dog that we have been trying to train to guard the chickens so we can free range ... but the damn dog keeps trying to kill/eat them ... maybe over time he will come around.

OldMan

 

[Old as dirt]

Old man, We have two hot house's where we grow lots of food for winter, and will give the chickens the scraps. We have tried growing sunflowers and they are ripening now, and will use that for winter also. Our chickens have a acre to free range all fenced.
The problem with game hens or bantams is they fly into trees at night, and the racoons and possum's are sitting there waiting for supper. I guess I could clip a wing, but that puts them at a disavantage if something was on ground chaseing them. I have buffs, and black something [ Big hens] and wydottes, and Rhode island reds and Dominics. I think the best all around hen is the Buff's, I call them my golden girls. They are healthy and will go broody and raise a bunch of baby's. They scratch and scrounge all day long. I have some leghorns and they don't seem as healthy. I think its true some of the good old hen is bred out. I also have had several Rhode Island reds die on me. What do you think is the healthest breed now for the coming hard times?
Old as Dirt

 

[Thyme]

Thanks for posting this thread, great information! Now I'll know what to do if we cannot get feed and what they like to eat on otherwise.

Here is a pic of my little future laying hens. Araucana's and Rhode Island Reds.

 

[SarahLynn]

This thread has been giving me the "itch" to get back to my farmgirl roots! LOL! Seriously, I think these skills are going to come in handy one day, maybe sooner than we think... and I've appreciated reading here and refreshing my memory on a few tricks of the trade.

 

[Nuthatch]

Backyard Poultry magazine also addresses the comfrey controversey this issue. FYI my birds choose it over other scraps.

Don't forget that the scraps in the hayfield not picked up by the machines makes great bedding. Mine love it. I added more today.

 

[OldMan]

Old man, We have two hot house's where we grow lots of food for winter, and will give the chickens the scraps. We have tried growing sunflowers and they are ripening now, and will use that for winter also. Our chickens have a acre to free range all fenced.
The problem with game hens or bantams is they fly into trees at night, and the racoons and possum's are sitting there waiting for supper. I guess I could clip a wing, but that puts them at a disavantage if something was on ground chaseing them. I have buffs, and black something [ Big hens] and wydottes, and Rhode island reds and Dominics. I think the best all around hen is the Buff's, I call them my golden girls. They are healthy and will go broody and raise a bunch of baby's. They scratch and scrounge all day long. I have some leghorns and they don't seem as healthy. I think its true some of the good old hen is bred out. I also have had several Rhode Island reds die on me. What do you think is the healthest breed now for the coming hard times?
Old as Dirt

Old as Dirt,

You definitely have more experience in these matters than we do! We also have the buffs (I "think" they call them "Buff Orpingtons") and black somethings (our blackies have almost blue legs/feet, and a few irridessant [sp, too lazy to look up] feathers on their backs). I think it should be me asking you "what is the healthiest breed for the coming hard times?" !!

BTW, we have been getting our chickies from the Randall Burkey Co ( see http://www.randallburkey.com/departments.asp?dept=2 ) ... recently, just for the heck of it we got their "suprise special" which is a grab bag of whatever they have extras of at a low cost. Next door neighbors bought some exotic breed chicks from them last year and we were hoping to snag a couple of em.

OldMan

 

[jed turtle]

time to bump this thread i figure. just in case there's anyone else in the same boat as i am...

 

[forfreedom]

What could you feed them in winter if there was no commercial feed?

My grand-grandma culled most of the flock before the winter and canned them. The only ones left were a rooster and a few young hens, preferably the ones that proved themselves sitting. Then in the spring the flock started again.

 

[Satanta]

Good bump Jed. If we manage to hold onto the place FL and I have talked about chickens and maybe a goat.

Can chickens free roam in a garden or will they destroy it?

If they free roam in a garden would they keep things like rabbits or crows at bay?

 

[Melodi]

Cooked potatoes and cheap oatmeal on sale work too

 

[Green Co.]

Good bump Jed. If we manage to hold onto the place FL and I have talked about chickens and maybe a goat.

Can chickens free roam in a garden or will they destroy it?

If they free roam in a garden would they keep things like rabbits or crows at bay?

No chickens in the garden... until you have harvested all you want! Mine love tomatoes, all types greens, they even discovered the beans while eating the pretty leaves, so now they'll poke around to find the green beans. LOL

For winter feeding, down here I plant rye grass in many places. In the garden, to keep down nematodes, I plant cereal rye. Chickens love both, and both grow from fall to spring.

 

[bbbuddy]

Don't forget Mangel beets for winter feed too.

 

[Cardinal]

Two words:

"game chickens"


CB

I got em, but got tired of chasing them to find where they hid their eggs.

 

[BadMedicine]

paging china connection & the maggot thread! Farming maggots! I'm going to get lots of experience at this this year!

 

[Flippper]

Thanks for resurrecting this thread Jed, I'd love to have chickens but worried about what I would feed them in winter. There is still time to plant lots of winter squash and pumpkins, kale too. Kale will stay green through much of the winter.

 

[China Connection]

A few tips. Chickens do a lot better on sprouted seed. By this I mean when the seed has swollen and started to send out a root. This takes one to three days. Leave in water until swollen then rinse seeds once or twice a day for a day of two. Corn takes longer than other seeds.

Being nice mix shit up with dried plant growth in warm weather and let it get fly blown. After a couple days let the chicken go through it for maggots. Then compost the stuff again for worms and let the chickens do the same job again when the worms are up to size.

 

[imaginative]

Good bump Jed. If we manage to hold onto the place FL and I have talked about chickens and maybe a goat.

Can chickens free roam in a garden or will they destroy it?

If they free roam in a garden would they keep things like rabbits or crows at bay?

I let my chickens free range in the gardens usually in mid august- never in the Spring. They will find every bug & I've never seen them eat a tomato or pepper. But they will get your Brussel Sprouts & your grapes

 

[Loon]

Our chickens free range over many acres and hunt their own food. Their favorite seems to be protein in frogs or crawdads or mice............whatever they can find. They love bugs too. Our barn cats will go in the woods and find a mouse and come up and give it to the chickens who go crazy and fight over it. I wouldn't have believed it if I didn't see it myself. I think the cat was amused watching them. Maybe since they sleep in the same barn they think of them as family. I send out scraps of veggies when I making up a big salad and anything leftover. They pretty much eat anything you eat. The nice thing about free range chickens is they don't need as much store bought food.