Scratch + sunflower seeds

[gila_dog]

For years we've fed our chickens scratch mixed with black sunflower seeds in the shells (2 parts scratch, 1 part sunflower seeds) as their basic feed. There's also a pan of oyster shell available for calcium. They get out to free range for an hour or 2 almost every day. And they get kitchen/garden scraps. They stay healthy, don't get fat, and lay well. The egg yolks are more orange than store bought eggs and people say they taste better. We also give the chickens their egg shells. The only times I've ever seen them eating their own eggs in the nests is when they didn't have any oyster shell.
If there's something wrong with this feed, someone please educate me on why.

 

[Mo_fawaazzz]

For years we've fed our chickens scratch mixed with black sunflower seeds in the shells (2 parts scratch, 1 part sunflower seeds) as their basic feed. There's also a pan of oyster shell available for calcium. They get out to free range for an hour or 2 almost every day. And they get kitchen/garden scraps. They stay healthy, don't get fat, and lay well. The egg yolks are more orange than store bought eggs and people say they taste better. We also give the chickens their egg shells. The only times I've ever seen them eating their own eggs in the nests is when they didn't have any oyster shell.
If there's something wrong with this feed, someone please educate me on why.

As long as they lay well and can get a lot of food from free-ranging, they would not need a staple chicken feed. Please do not feed them too many sunflower seeds daily, as they are just a treat (really high in oil). However, at winter they will need a staple source (bagged chicken feed) as their basic feed since its harder to find food in the winter.

How long have they survived on this diet? I would love to know what breed they are. My pampered RIRs don't want to go a single morning without non-GMO chicken feed.

However, OEG, fayoumi, and other active breeds can do well with barely any feed at all and just scratch (depending on the free-range environment).

 

[gila_dog]

We've had mostly barred rocks. The last flock lived about 4 years on this diet, then quit laying, and wound up in the freezer. We kept one of the old hens, and she's been teaching the new ones the ropes. And after the "chicken chop" that doomed all her sisters, she started laying an egg every other day or so. I agree that winter makes a difference because there's almost nothing to eat when they are out free ranging. So I just give them more of the basic recipe. Why is the oil in the sunflower seeds bad? Too much fat?

 

[nuthatched]

It's high in carbs and fat, low in protein and general nutrition. Adding the boss is drastically raising the fat content.
I estimate that your mix is about 15% protein and 48-50% fat.
Typically, you want to feed about 16-20% protein and about 3% fat, not to mention, vitamins and minerals.
Any eggs not from the store are hung to taste better than store eggs.
This diet causes obesity in birds, fat gathers around their organs and causes failure, it makes it hard to lay and hard to recover from molting. This, unfortunately, is a very poor diet.

 

[gila_dog]

It sounds like what we are feeding them is so bad for them that they should all be obese and die young. But they aren't, and they don't. They are beautiful, healthy, don't pick on each other, and they lay lots of eggs. Maybe the free ranging overcomes the bad food.
When I butchered the last old hens (3-4 years old), they were not fat, their livers looked healthy, and they were still strong and healthy. But they hadn't laid any eggs in several months, so it was time to for them to be replaced.

 

[Penpal]

If they are free ranging they are using the fat in the sunflower seeds for energy. So, you can feed more BOSS to your flock than a flock that is in a run all day. Also, you don't know how much of what they are getting while ranging. I suspect insects and plant life, this changes the ratio of fats, protein, etc.