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ALMOST BEEKEEPING - RELATED TOPICS => FARMING & COUNTRY LIFE => Topic started by: Frantz on May 28, 2008, 01:03:09 pm

Title: Feeding the chickens table scraps and such.
Post by: Frantz on May 28, 2008, 01:03:09 pm
Hey guys & gals,
My wife is having a fit that we are starting to feed our chickens table scraps and such. I feed them a wonderful diet of regular chicken feed, flax seed and vitamin E. I also love supplementing that with table scraps etc. My business has been doing weekend bbq's lately and I have been taking the left overs to the chicks. Anything wrong with that? Its just left over potato salad, hot dogs, pulled pork etc. Nothing wrong with that right?? I am more that willing to admit when I am wrong, so let me know. I think that her biggest worry is that we are feeding chickens stuff that we wouldn't eat (old potato salad) and such and then eating the eggs.
Give me something to calm her down a little and I will be eternally greatful.
F
Title: Re: Feeding the chickens table scraps and such.
Post by: poka-bee on May 28, 2008, 01:15:43 pm
Isn't that one of the perks of having chix?  As long as the food isn't spoiled it's ok.  I have been doing it for 20 years.  Don't give em potato peels or avacado (avacado isn't good for birds or many animals) It's amazing how they can pick bones clean! They eat bugs = protein like meats.  They will even eat each other if too crowded.  If you don't get organic veggies or out of your own garden you will have to wash the greens, tops, yada of salad things.  They can clean a watermelon or cantaloupe down to the very outside rind.  As long as you are feeding them a quality food for the main staple, the scraps are a treat, much like if they were free ranging! Jody
Title: Re: Feeding the chickens table scraps and such.
Post by: Frantz on May 28, 2008, 01:31:09 pm
Ok, but if the potato salad is old should I not feed it to them then?? Its old enough that I don't want to eat it. I guess that is my main question. We used to feed the hogs and chickens anything and everything. Rotten or not, maybe I am just taking it a little to far??
Frantz
Title: Re: Feeding the chickens table scraps and such.
Post by: poka-bee on May 28, 2008, 01:35:19 pm
Their systems can handle more than ours but I wouldn't push it too far, how old is old?  Has it been refridgerated??  I have given mine some questionable stuff & they are ok, but it's always been refridgerated the whole time.  I eat things I wouldn't give my kids....I would just use common sense, no mould, no smell, no off colors...  Jody
Title: Re: Feeding the chickens table scraps and such.
Post by: danno on May 28, 2008, 01:44:04 pm
We feed everything except fish and potato skins.  In fall they get all the deer carcasses and scapes and  they just love chicken. 
Title: Re: Feeding the chickens table scraps and such.
Post by: Kathyp on May 28, 2008, 02:30:56 pm
feed away.  they are great garbage disposals.  look at it this way....you are recycling.  you'll get the scraps back  :evil:
Title: Re: Feeding the chickens table scraps and such.
Post by: Frantz on May 28, 2008, 03:09:38 pm
10-4,
Thanks guys, got it.
F
Title: Re: Feeding the chickens table scraps and such.
Post by: Vetch on May 28, 2008, 03:29:12 pm
We feed everything except fish and potato skins.  In fall they get all the deer carcasses and scapes and  they just love chicken. 

You might get away with that for years, but eventually, it could cause problems with prion diseases. Mad cow disease was multiplied massively by feeding cows to cows, and kuru (laughing disease) in people is linked to people eating the brains of their deceased family or enemies in New Guinea.  Maybe its an emotional reaction on my part, but cannibalism (even among chickens) is just not right.  :-P
Title: Re: Feeding the chickens table scraps and such.
Post by: SmokeEater2 on May 28, 2008, 03:46:26 pm
We feed our table scraps with the exception of potato peels,fish and onions. They love it and I like the fact that less is going to waste. :-D
Title: Re: Feeding the chickens table scraps and such.
Post by: danno on May 28, 2008, 04:57:38 pm
I only feed cook chicken scraps.  When I loose a bird they are quickly taken away and desposed of
Title: Re: Feeding the chickens table scraps and such.
Post by: Vetch on May 28, 2008, 07:09:07 pm
Prions are not destroyed by cooking.

Title: Re: Feeding the chickens table scraps and such.
Post by: danno on May 29, 2008, 08:51:50 am
well if your right I guess we've gotton away with it for 50 years.   
Title: Re: Feeding the chickens table scraps and such.
Post by: ooptec on May 29, 2008, 10:33:46 am
Hey,

The way I see it now I have chickens they have become the intermediary step between scraps in the kitchen and the compost bin. A great step too as they poot out eggs and then their effluent and straw end up as compost anyways.

BTW why not potato parings?? Just curious as mine won't eat them or citrus rinds anyways. Favorites are

1 - Meat scraps and bones (dogs just hate that but when my dogs start laying eggs they can have the first shot again   lol)
2 - Pasta
3 - Everything else    lol

They love it too as one catches me going out w/their tin loaf pan they come tearing over from far and wide. I don't even have to call them anymore.

Took brooder off chicks and they promptly scurries to a corner of the coop and haven't budged, I guess to them it's a suddenly scary big world out there. Knew any of the hens wouldn't have anything to do w/them but was surprised when went out this AM and a guinea was setting on them keeping them warm as they obviously didn't move under the heat lamp at night.

cheers
Title: Re: Feeding the chickens table scraps and such.
Post by: Jerrymac on May 29, 2008, 10:52:37 am
Yeah... Why not tater peels? My wife said her dad always fed them to their chickens.

Title: Re: Feeding the chickens table scraps and such.
Post by: danno on May 29, 2008, 11:22:26 am
I really cant answer the tater skin thing it is just been the family rule forever. The pasta thing is the best to watch.  I think they think they got a nice fat worm and run with them so they dont have to share
Title: Re: Feeding the chickens table scraps and such.
Post by: Vetch on May 29, 2008, 12:13:44 pm
well if your right I guess we've gotton away with it for 50 years.   

And might get away with it for another 50 more, maybe longer.  It took a while for the mad-cow epidemic to hit the UK ... decades of feeding a bit of chopped beef to live beef.  Eventually, the prion load went way up, and cows and people got rather sick. The shorter life-cycle of chickens probably reduces the risk compared to cows and sheep.  Still, I worked in veterinary research at a lab that did a lot of scrapie work, and am convinced that animal cannibalism is the best way to multiply certain diseases and is not generally a good idea.

Title: Re: Feeding the chickens table scraps and such.
Post by: danno on May 29, 2008, 12:55:00 pm
This kinda brings up another point that I was wondering about.  Our chickens are replaced every two years if the neighbors dogs stay away
Title: Re: Feeding the chickens table scraps and such.
Post by: dpence on May 29, 2008, 01:18:45 pm
We clean out the fridge routinely and the chickens get everything except potatoe peels, onions, and stuff that has a green tinge to it.  LOL.  I don't feed them egg shells either, I have heard both sides on the argument it will increase the possibility of them starting to eat eggs. 

David 
Title: Re: Feeding the chickens table scraps and such.
Post by: ooptec on May 29, 2008, 01:38:52 pm
Hey,

Yea I saw that too about egg shells but I have to say I do feed mine back to them but I do crush them and put them thru a kitchen sieve so they are so fine I don't think they even notice them..... so far so good anyways.

cheers

peter

Title: Re: Feeding the chickens table scraps and such.
Post by: danno on May 29, 2008, 01:41:38 pm
egg shells rinsed and crushed are a great calcium suppliment
Title: Re: Feeding the chickens table scraps and such.
Post by: reinbeau on May 29, 2008, 08:41:58 pm
I have no idea if prions are a problem with chickens as they are with cattle - the difference is chickens are omnivores, they can and do eat meat, whereas cows are herbivores.  They are not supposed to eat animal protein.  I think that has more to do with how things like mad cow disease gets started.  Not that I think it's a good idea to feed chickens other chickens, but I know their gut processes things differently than a cow's does.
Title: Re: Feeding the chickens table scraps and such.
Post by: ooptec on May 29, 2008, 09:20:18 pm
Hey,

Danno.... I wish I could find it again but it was how much less productive layers are every year they get older, and I was surprised it wasn't as much as I thought it would be. Something like 70% of the previous year is stuck in my head. All I have observed as a neophyte is that I bought 6X year old layers and get 5-6-5-6-5-6-5 ginormous eggs a week, were laying right out of the box so to speak and were cheaper than the chicks by a long ways as they were $1/ and the chicks were $1.80/. However the chicks are mainly for eating as they will be laying maybe a month before the end of the season. But as I only have 6 layers now, they are pretty spoiled so I wonder what the correlation is between productivity and diet??  As mine eat better than I do and even the dogs nose's are out of joint as the chickens get left overs before they do    lol

cheers

peter
Title: Re: Feeding the chickens table scraps and such.
Post by: Brian D. Bray on May 30, 2008, 02:37:51 am
When I was a kid back on the farm in the early 50's when fed table scraps to various animals.  Most went to the chickens or, if sloppy, pigs.  Light greens and grains went to the rabbits.  Goats will eat just about anything except slop.  Hogs were the only ones that would consistantly gobble potato peels.  A chicken running with a strand of spaghetti is a sight to see.
Title: Re: Feeding the chickens table scraps and such.
Post by: danno on May 30, 2008, 09:12:25 am
I wont ever buy chicks again.  For 6 bucks a bird I can get 15 week old started pullets.  No more heat lamps, dust and the hole mess.  Mine will be due for replacement next spring.  I have been useing Isa Browns and will continue.  They are laying machines!! With free range and scapes they dont eat much feed and I get  a egg aday
Title: Re: Feeding the chickens table scraps and such.
Post by: qa33010 on May 30, 2008, 03:12:22 pm
I never heard of not feeding fish or potato peels.  We did it all the time when I was a kid.  Along with food made from grains as well as oyster shells, corn, wheat, oats, ect. from the fields.  The peels were from our garden and the fish were carp caught and other fish left overs.  They seemed healthy and layed well until they got old, then the table.  We never fed them chicken scraps.  They didn't eat all the peels, the pigs liked them the best.  That was the 60's and 70's.
Title: Re: Feeding the chickens table scraps and such.
Post by: Michael Bush on May 31, 2008, 02:46:03 pm
The only reason raising chickens is popular world wide is that they can turn garbage into eggs and meat.  If you want to turn grain into eggs and meat many other birds are more efficient.  It is never a good idea to feed RAW meat to any animal intended for consumption.  But every thing else works fine.  Just cook the meat.
Title: Re: Feeding the chickens table scraps and such.
Post by: Gerald Boggs on June 01, 2008, 09:15:51 am
The reason I don't feed table scraps except fruit and veggies, is because I live near a national forest.  My neighbor used to put out lots of scraps for the feral cats, the result was she also started attracting bears.  Bears and hives :-(   
Title: Re: Feeding the chickens table scraps and such.
Post by: Jerrymac on June 01, 2008, 07:50:50 pm
If you want to turn grain into eggs and meat many other birds are more efficient.

What birds are those?
Title: Re: Feeding the chickens table scraps and such.
Post by: Michael Bush on June 01, 2008, 09:32:14 pm
Quail and pheasants are both more efficient at turning grain into eggs.  Particularly quail.
Title: Re: Feeding the chickens table scraps and such.
Post by: reinbeau on June 01, 2008, 11:13:21 pm
Quail eggs are tiny.  They're a pain to use in cooking - baking, specifically.  Chicken eggs are more 'efficient', and standard, for that matter.  If quail eggs had potential to be as 'efficient' they'd be the norm.
Title: Re: Feeding the chickens table scraps and such.
Post by: johnnybigfish on June 01, 2008, 11:16:20 pm
   We dont have scraps.....We eat everything (oops,.."I" eat everything)..Oh yeh, thats right...I ate all my chickens too :)
 Actually, a nabors dog killed them all :(
Well,....Thats all.
your friend,
john
Title: Re: Feeding the chickens table scraps and such.
Post by: poka-bee on June 02, 2008, 08:59:34 pm
I had the family over for the 5 birthdays in May & June.  Burnt a turkey on the BBQ.  After stuffing ourselves & cutting off all the good meat I gave it to the chix..oh my,  what little piranha!!!!! :shock:  The family couldn't believe what they were seeing!  (Sat night in Buckley)  Everyone got a good chuckle, specially the one little hen that had the wishbone & was running around trying to hide it!  The carcass looked like it had been boiled after 1/2 hr! They also had all the leftover salad bits, rolls, chips etc.  The chicks now about 9-10 wks old, are beautiful & healthy.  Now they really come running when I go out & sing bok bok chickens!  They are so fun to watch, they still do the "cannon ball" thing, 1 will run & jump into the middle of a bunch, just like someone doing a cannon ball into the pool.  They did this from the 1st week on.just so weird!  Cindi, I too love my farm animals, they all have differrent personalaties.  I'm looking into getting a Dexter cow, hopefully w/steer calf A side & bred. Then we will have nummy good for you beef!  ***homer simpsons doughnut voice** steaks**MMM** :-D :-D  Jody
Title: Re: Feeding the chickens table scraps and such.
Post by: Frantz on June 04, 2008, 10:28:42 am
Yea, I agree. The best part of having these little Piranhas is watching them. For sure!!!
F