Chicken and Duck Total Food Programme

Alot of people here keep chickens and ducks, so I thought it might be an idea to share what we can grow to feed them there complete meal.

It would be nice not to have to buy extra feed for them, Does anyone know a total diet crop for them, or mixture of plants etc that would cover it ALL.

If you dont please put anything you know they eat below maybe we could orchastrate a diet plan for our feathery friends.

Post below

Thanks

Id be interested in this as well. Thank you.

Have you given this thread a look? All sorts of great info. https://permies.com/t/845/critter-care/forage-chickens

Ive seen that one, Im more interested in ducks at this point. Pekin specifically.

also, ducks are really going for slugs and chickens are crazy for maggots, there is post on both subjects here too.

muscovies can eat butcher waste:
http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&ved=0CCMQFjAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.fao.org%2Fag%2Fagainfo%2Fresources%2Fdocuments%2Ffrg%2Fconf96pdf%2Famici2.pdf&ei=mEkgT6nQJOGQ0gH6gtEH&usg=AFQjCNE5ZoNoCnhI-8yulZ9JqR9_xSpbBQ

Hi Yeah I heard that if a fox gets a chicken or if you have a corpse of anykind even road kill, hang it above the chicken pen then the flies lay its eggs in it and the maggots come out anf fall into the chicken pen free protien!!!

what we want by the end of this thread is a list of plants and things one can do that can complete sustain chicken and ducks ie no bought food, I know there have been other various threads with what forage etc, But what I want to achieve in this thread is a total noob like me or our other new members can buy there birds look here and then know what to do.

We need also to take in consideration what time of years these plants and opportunitues are about, so we can sustain them all year round.

I heard if you boil the shells from chicken eggs you can grind it up and feed it to them and they get calcium from it.

ok I think we need a format to ge tthis started so, Ill start, and when you want to add some things copy and paste what i wrote and add yours on the end, then the next person copy and paste what they worte and add a bit more, if poss write abit about the food what it gives etc.
please gather anything you know or have seen on other forums and threads.

Start:

Maggot harvesting using dead animals, Protien ( in permaculture this classifies as an opportunistic resource)
crushed boiled egg shells to provide calcium
Slugs, for ducks, Protein

Duckweed http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lemnoideae

Have been growing it for biomass/composting but take some to a friend with ducks. They can't eat it fast enough.

Very fast growing/replenishing. Also seems to make a great thermal mat if allowed to grow thick...

Chickens and guineas don't care for it, but might try dehydrating it and adding to meal.

Can also freeze blocks of duckweed then toss into fish tanks for feed.

ape99

So far, my chickens have not shown any interest in eating duckweed....I think I might have to feed the duckweed to earthworms or Black Soldier Fly larvae and then feed them to the chickens....

Im not sure about this but I wonder if ducks will eat mosquito larvae? I know fish do, but duck you get loadsa that in ponds here

Peter Fishlock wrote:Im not sure about this but I wonder if ducks will eat mosquito larvae? I know fish do, but duck you get loadsa that in ponds here

ye they will quite happily..........also black soldier fly larvae

do you get black soldier flies in England>? that sounds pretty good