4m x 3m Omlet pen, cube, new auto door still boxed and coop light

[merlina]

I was thinking (when I should have been concentrating on something else ) that there doesn't seem to be an equivalent to the natural foods movement when it comes to feeding chooks?

 

For eg, there are passionate advocates of raw food diets for cats and dogs.

And there are lots of people who never, themselves, eat processed foods and lots of adages such as 'never eat anything your grandmother wouldn't recognise'

 

But there seems to be no equivalent for hens? Everyone seems to accept that manufactured pellets are a 'good thing' and I haven't noticed anyone talking about feeding their hens anything different as their core diet.

[Daphne]

There are people who advocate a different approach to feeding, although you could argue they are still processed as the grains are mostly transformed in some way. Have a look on other forums like Practical Poultry if you are interested Its all about combining different quantities of grains/oils/pulses etc. Some of us are old enough to remember chicken feeding regimes pre-pellets, especially when money was tight, and those principles still hold good. My grandmother fed warm bran mash with boiled veg s"Ooops, word censored!"s for example. Here in Portugal, fowl are just fed maize and cabbage as far as I can tell

 

The other thing to remember is, that if your birds free range, they get a wide range of foods and depending on the time of year and where they are foraging, they don't eat that much human-provided food in any case. I use pellets because I find them convenient and balanced but I do sometimes use short-term alternatives in early winter when my birds aren't laying, mostly straight wheat plus some maize, rolled oats, micronised peas, oils plus some greens as there isn't much goodness in the grass or leafy weeds.

[Jenthelibrarian]

This is an interesting thought....

 

Once I started looking at the various brands of pellets I have settled on Dodson & Horrell [spelling?] on the grounds that they are vegetarian and non-GM.

 

Of course hens are not vegetarian [unless you keep them shut in and they never forage] but I didn't fancy mine eating processed animal by-products, or GM cereals. I see no point in paying extra for organic feed considering that I can't stop mine eating non-organic slugs, bugs and my precious plants!

 

A friend did ask if they'd survive just let loose in the garden and fed kitchen s"Ooops, word censored!"s, as she imagined hens are kept

 

I just assume that commercially prepared food from a fairly decent brand contains a balanced diet for optimum health/egg production without me doing long hard sums about vitamins and trace elements...

 

I'm sure I recall someone here posting about Indian hens living on a lentil-based feed as that's the local common cheap crop, and American friends have interesting thoughts about 'emergency' chicken-rations if they are snowed in or cut off from feed deliveries.

 

Would love to hear if you learn more

[Lavenders_Blue]

I can't for the life of it remember who it is, but there is an Omleteer who feeds a home mixed grain diet - wheat, barley and maize and then grit and oyster shell to supplement. There is a ratio of grains that make up the mix, but I can't remember what that is either

 

If I had the room to store 3 massive sacks of grain, then I might well have a go at this myself.

 

ETA - I found a thread on this subject, it gives the ratio for mixing the grains.