Talked to my neighbor about his grandpa's chickens and it got me thinking

The old guy next door was telling me about his grandfather's flock from the 1940s. Said they never bought feed, never vaccinated, and the birds lived 8-10 years easy. My Rhode Islands are lucky to hit 3 before something goes wrong. He mentioned his grandpa just let them free range the whole property and they stayed healthy on their own. Now I'm wondering if all this expensive feed and constant intervention is actually making my flock weaker. How many of you have gone back to more old school methods and seen better results?

2 comments

2 Comments

corad8415d ago

Have you actually tried just locking the feed away for a week and seeing what happens? I did that last spring with my mixed flock, gave them nothing but what they could scratch up in the yard and garden, and they actually started laying better after a few days. The older hens especially perked right up, like they remembered something I forgot.

patricia_rodriguez14d ago

Oh did you actually notice any change in their behavior too? I did the same thing last fall when I got tired of buying bags of layer pellets and my girls were getting fat. I gave them kitchen scraps, weeds from the garden, and let them loose in the compost pile for a week. They went nuts for it, dug up all sorts of bugs and worms. The eggshells got way harder too, like they were finally getting the right calcium from eating their own shells and oyster shells they found. Those older hens really do perk up when you take away the convenience food and make them work for it.

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