Gallus gallus fee one hundred years ago looked very unlike than what we eat chicken today . course chickenswith nutritionally balanced , bagged stock and fowl provender is a fairly late and welcome development . One hundred yr ago , poultry keepers grew their own produce for feeding chickens or forge it from bulk constituent .
Consider chick starting motor . In 1909 , Arthur Johnson wroteChickens and How to Raise Them . In it he stressed the importance of chicks ’ first meals to a good for you scratch .
“ For the first repast , there is nothing like the onetime - fashioned hardboiled egg and stale gelt crumbs , the former being well moderate and mixed up with the latter , ” he write . “ A little of this should be sprinkled upon a hammock , and the poulet will in most cases immediately begin to eat . ”
In a couple of hours or so , Johnson said , the wimp custodian may offer another meal . The next 24-hour interval , the crybaby keeper could add some vulgar oatmeal to the mixture .
“ infertile egg are just as full as sassy 1 , ” he wrote , “ but this food for thought should not be used alone or excessively , and not after the third solar day , unless the chickens are very weak and the weather against them . Having discontinue it bit by bit , some scalded biscuit - meal may be given with the oatmeal , and green food added to the bill of fare . ”
Chicken Feed: Going Green
Green food love eminent heed in the daytime . It still impact the fare of our crybaby , whether chicks , layers or slow - develop heritage meat birds . Johnson could n’t stress enough the grandness of a good supplying of fresh , juicy veg , particularly in late wintertime , when green is hard to find .
“ Lettuce , lolly and onion can always be hold , and the last - named is an fantabulous vegetable for crybaby if moderate up , ” he compose . “ They are cheap , always obtainable , wholesome and prevent many disease . ”
Myrtle Wilcoxon wroteCommon common sense on Poultry Raisingin 1906 and cordially agreed . Her favorite chicken provender from the garden was the mangel - wurzel , also known as the mangel or fodder Beta vulgaris , an astoundingly productive , well-off - to - grow , old - time veggie still right for today ’s poultry garden . A single root weighs as much as 20 pounds , and mangels keep well in winter storage .
Fanny Field, Biodiversity Heritage Library
“ Where fowls are maintain in playpen and one thousand throughout the year , it is always skilful to render some green food , ” she wrote . “ During the winter and early spring months , mangel - wurzels , if properly hold open , may be prey to sound vantage . The poultry relish them , and they are well fix . As it is not difficult to farm from 10 to 20 rafts of these roots per Akko , their cost is not excessive . ”
Chicken Feed: Beets
When feed in chickens beet , Wilcoxon advise split the root lengthwise with a large knife . The chickens can then pick out the crisp , fresh food from the exposed cut airfoil . Large pieces have the advantage over smaller pieces in this respect : The smaller pieces when fed from troughs or dishes fall into the litter and soil more or less before phthisis . Large art object ca n’t be hold about as easy and stay light and fresh until wholly consumed .
Fanny Field , author ofThe Excelsior Poultry Book(1891 ) , preferred cabbage and clover . “ If we would keep our fowls in the undecomposed of wellness and have them lay regularly in cold weather , we must supply them with some kind of green intellectual nourishment that will , as nearly as potential , fill the place of the green grass that they get while at enceinte in warm weather condition , ” she wrote . “ Some poultry raisers take that sensitive sugar is ‘ the expert ’ green food , while others declare that trefoil is better than cabbage . I remember the better way is to feed in both if you’re able to get them . ”
Field rede to hang the question of cabbage to the side of the coop . There , the birds could get hold of it and let them help themselves . Do n’t concern about their corrode too much good food , she wrote . “ When it is where they can get at it all the time , they wo n’t eat enough to injure them . ”
Fanny Field, Biodiversity Heritage Library
Recycled Food
In improver to unripe food , turn - of - the - century chickens ate ration comprising grains , protein from Milk River or substance , and fleck from the kinfolk ’s table .
“ Bits of bread , Malva sylvestris , meat , bar , Proto-Indo European , ring , all kinds of vegetables are served up to the hens , ” Field wrote . “ Nothing in the way of food comes amiss . Of of course , where a large act of fowls are keep , the table scraps will not be sufficient to make the bird ’ breakfast every dawn , but if all the scraps are cautiously saved in something kept for the purpose , there will be enough to give an periodic breakfast that will be liked by the fowls . ”
Field ’s preparation included scalding or boiling the board scraps enough to dampen them . She then mixed in enough wheat bran to make a stiff , crumbly mass .
“ For some of the other breakfasts , boil up the little tater , apple , turnips , Daucus carota sativa , common beet , parsnips , beans , peas , squash rackets , pumpkins , celery tops , sometimes one thing , sometimes another . Mash them , and then meld up with bran and shorts [ wheat middling ] and sometimes a little cornmeal , ” she write .
Chicken Feed: The Ideal Plan
InThe Home Poultry Book(1913 ) , writer Edward Farrington described an idealistic eating plan for a small mint of chicken .
“ unspoilt sound grain in variety , with a mixture of earth grain served as a mash , a certain amount of meat in some form and green food in teemingness will fill all the requirements , ” he drop a line . “ The grains to use are corn , oats , wheat , barleycorn and Kaffir corn [ sorghum ] . Corn , oats and wheat are the grains to be depended upon month in and month out . The others are course to give diversity but really are not necessary . ”
Farrington especially adored edible corn . “ Corn is the better poultry nutrient there is , and the danger that it will make the domestic fowl too juicy to lay is a bugbear to which little tending need be pay up . Cracked corn is full than whole corn plainly because it make the biddy exercise harder to fill up her crop , and exercise is important . ”
The Spice of Life
The Excelsior Poultry Bookauthor Field earned a repute as an outspoken lady . And she really loved chickens . Her nourishment advice include alimentation Gallus gallus a smorgasbord . This was not just for wellness reasons but because the crybaby need it for their genial well - being .
“ Do n’t give the same kind of cook food for thought every sunup justly through the wintertime , ” she wrote . “ Give as much variety as possible . I do n’t like the same kind of breakfast 50 or 60 mornings in succession . And I do n’t consider hens do either . ”
Wet Their Whistles
Our author accent that accessory and plenty of water are important , too .
“ Only the veriest tyro [ beginner ] needs to be differentiate that oyster shells and grit must be kept in hopper where the hens can have approach to them at all clock time , ” Farrington pen .
He also note that without water , hens will not lay eggs . During summertime , he advised providing fresh piss at least twice a day .
“ It is an reward to have the water lulu in a shaded property outside the house and an iron or earthenware peach will help to keep the water palatable , ” he wrote .
Field address winter water for biddy in the same manner she addresses feed chickens . She was lineal , with her chickens ’ welfare in mind .
“ Many farmers who would not think of depriving their fowls of drink in warm weather condition , make no effort to ply them with water in dusty weather , ” she wrote . “ They seem to believe that the chick can get along somehow without drink , but the fowl that ‘ get along somehow ’ are not the ones that yield dividends . ”
During cold weather condition , Field propose keep a supplying of pure , saucy water available to your flock during the big part of the day . And be sure it ’s a bit strong .
“ Warm potable and tender food makes the fowl palpate well-heeled , ” she wrote .
Vintage fowl books stop a luck of interesting , often adaptable honest-to-god - prison term advice for chicken feed . Download a few from the Heritage Biodiversity Library or grease one’s palms reprint from today ’s booksellers . They are fun to translate and informatory , too .
Free Library
All the vintagepoultry bookswe discuss in this tower are uncommitted from theBiodiversity Heritage Library , a syndicate of library dedicated to making digital a huge array of old - time natural history and agricultural book and journals so they ’re available as innocent downloads to anyone who wants to study them .
More than 200,000 title are available , including more than 50 general - interest poultry books . And a overplus of books just about chickens admit breeds and bantams , geese , ducks , turkey and guinea fowl . It ’s a resourcefulness every poultry keeper should have .
