I have rather mixed feelings about this one......I went to get more chicken food from the .....

J

joanietoo

Well-known member
chicken man to find yet again he has no feed.

I usually give the hens "layer" as it does seem to increase the egg production but every time he has none there is an interesting "Island" excuse...this time he said the boat arrived with all the feed onboard but the crane on board was found to be defective so the boat just turned around and went back to Puerto Rico with-out off-loading!!!!!

I asked about the crane on the dock and he said that crane is not long enough to reach on board this boat???

So heaven only knows when we will get more feed on the island.

In the meantime the poor birds are hungry so he offered to mix me feed of corn and pig- pellets.....

NOW, I'm not sure that I like the idea of the eggs having been created using pig-pellets!!!!

I don't actually suppose it will change the taste....... but??! you know.

 
This isn't in my food chain--but I put out squirrel suet blocks for the birds and the squirrels--

because they are bigger. They have exactly the same ingredients.
Both are about 6" x 6", the bird one is about
1 1/2" thick and was lasting maybe a day and a half. The squirrel block is about 4-5" tall.
Funny, the first time I put one out, this silly little squirrel hopped out of the tree, saw it and backtracked, went close again, and back again, did this for about 2-3 minutes, I went to answer the phone or something, came back, he was chowing down right on top. Thought he won the lottery!!
OK who is going to comment if they eat pig pellets, you might save on bacon??
Love the comment about "island excuse", think I commented on the fact that a few years ago, in addittion to the island I live on, I was, with work, on Guam, Deigo Garcia, Iceland. But funny no matter the latitude, some things a island specific, you know, "island time"?

 
It's considered taboo (at least) to feed chickens anything but grains here Joanie. In fact, I would

not be surprised it is now legislated.

Coudn't you give them some grains available otherwise? Popping corn, flax....??

I can sure appreciate the 'island thing' though. After Ivan blew through, the transformers we ordered were confiscated by a politician when they arrived. (It still didn't get him enough votes) So we went without electricity for another 3 weeks. The excuses were endless in that situation, but we eventually got proof of the 'rerouting'.

 
Marg & joanie, didn't mean to make light of question. Know that what critters eat is very important,

 
Consider this: Chickens are "garbage eatin' machines"

FRESH leftovers (salad, meat,raw or cooked veggies, milk, cereal, bread, tortilla. . . ), cut grass . . . Clean out your cupboards and give them old bread crumbs, noodles/pasta (I recommend cooking those for the chickens), old dried fruit. . . Give them anything except citrus fruit, onions or moldy stuff. They won't eat the citrus or the onions (at least ours won't) and you don' want to make them sick/kill them with mold, keep the stuff fresh.

Chickens are very omnivorous--they will eat just about anything. They love bugs and once when I was cutting some brush in our chicken yard, all the chickens were following me to get at the earwigs that I was stirring up (I was moving cut brushpiles also) and I saw on chicken go into what looked like a fit. She was whipping her head back and forth like she had caught something in her beak that was annoying her. As she moved off, and the other chickens started to chase her, I saw that she had a (now)dead lizard in her beak and she started to run so she could eat it in peace, but the other chickens wanted it too! She had been whipping the lizard back and forth to kill it.

At our old house we moved a compost pile and my kids had a grand old time picking out fig beetle grubs (about the size of your thumb) from the base of the old pile, piling them in a bucket. We must have had about a gallon's worth, which were fed to our hens. At first the hens would not touch them as the weather was cool and the grubs didn't move, but at soon as a few of them moved, the "girls" were on them. Those hens ate soooo much that their crops were almost on the ground, dragging. Chickens love any bug which moves! They will fight for tomato worms.

Chickens will eat dog foood, cat food, whatever. Pig pellets and corn should suit them just fine, especially if you feed kitchen discards and green stuff as well. Bonus: lotsa green stuff will make eggs with bright yellow-orange yolks--very pretty and tasty too.

Laying pellets (or mash) usually has a higher protein content which encourages the chickens to lay more. Pig pellets, I betcha are at least 18-22% protein, which is what our lay pellets run around here.

 
We'll try it again: If'n you have lots of earwigs. . .

Don't try to run chickens in your garden WHEN you are growing crops; the chickens will destroy a garden looking for, digging for and finding bugs, grubs and the like.

Run the chicken in the whole garden between plantings or in beds between plantings; use them like little garbagemen to get rid all of the left over edible trash, bugs and other assorted chicken "nummies" in your garden, after you have grown and harvested your food/plants.

They do like to "dig to China".

 
Well, they love cockroaches as well as all other bugs that come their way. I do give them greens but

never let them out of their run as the mongoose/geese will have them for breakfast. Their absolute treat is brown bread, I have never seen any bird go quite as crazy over anything as brown bread.
I give them cheese rinds too, (cleaned of the wax) they love those.
We dont eat much bread so I keep that as a lure when they have squeezed through the open gate out into the garden.
I buy bags of spinach etc just for them but I dont think that would be enough until the next boat arrives.
And after all I would eat pigs fed on pig pellets BUT still......

 
I've fed wild and tame chickens for 20 years and agree with mistral

The dears will eat anything. You should see them take "out" giant centipedes! Amazing to watch. Bugs of all sorts- earwigs, cockroaches, they even love geckos and other small non-buggy critters.

I make homemade dog food for our dog, homemade parrot food for our parrot. The chickens get leftovers of these- so lots of cooked veggies, beans, some cooked brown rice, some meat, fruit along with their chicken scratch. Don't forget beans- edamame, kidney, garbanzo- anything cooked. Chickens love 'em. I have six just outside my window right now beaking a lovely over-ripe papaya.

Once in a while the island runs out of scratch and there are bizarre excuses for why the boat didn't come in- but never as bizarre as the one you heard, Joanie....that was a good one.

 
I can swear that occasionally we ate eggs fed with fish meal. I can taste it...horrible.

Now I have this image of eggs going fishin.

I meant that the chickens eat the fish.

Off for a walk in the cold to wake up my brain.

 
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