Feeding the chickens

I have a cyber-friend in Maine who has a small flock of chickens. “How do we feed chickens if no commercial food is available?” she asked. “I’ve been doing some research on it, but I’m discouraged as I don’t grown grain or corn.”

I thought this was a legitimate concern, and one that could become increasingly pressing as threats of grain shortages loom.

I’m big on providing chickens with “biota” – insects, worms, grubs, and other goodies via compost piles where they can scratch to their heart’s content.

However in northern climates (such as Maine), compost piles aren’t a practical source of biota for the six months of the year when snow is on the ground.

Kitchen scraps, garden scraps, hard-boiled eggs, stale bread crumbs, and even meat scraps are all popular choices to feed the ladies. Garden produce such as squashes, cabbage, and lettuce are also common. Mangel beets (which can grow huge – more than 20 lbs.) were a frequent choice to feed chickens a century ago. Another common method was to boil up a mishmash of fruits and veggies such as small potatoes, apples, turnips, carrots, beets, parsnips, beans, peas, squashes, pumpkins, celery tops, etc., then mash the results and feed it to the birds.

In short, in years past people often fed the chickens anything they had on hand, in a manner that was digestible. The best combination is grains, greens, and proteins. Ground-up eggshells are also used as a calcium source. Additionally, chickens are more carnivorous than most people give them credit for.

During warmer months, free-range chickens which have access to a compost pile often do quite well on this kind of diet, but it takes some planning for winter months. A future project I’d like to try is raising larvae – black soldier flies or mealworms – for chicken treats and a protein source, but this requires an indoor setup (at least during the winter) and I’m not sure we have the room.

Anyway, I thought this would be an interesting topic to open up for discussion. What advice, experience, or recommendations do you have for feeding chickens (in both summer and winter conditions) without commercial feed?