• Post Reply Bookmark Topic Watch Topic
  • New Topic
permaculture forums growies critters building homesteading energy monies kitchen purity ungarbage community wilderness fiber arts art permaculture artisans regional education skip experiences global resources cider press projects digital market permies.com pie forums private forums all forums
this forum made possible by our volunteer staff, including ...
master stewards:
  • Carla Burke
  • Nancy Reading
  • John F Dean
  • r ranson
  • Jay Angler
  • paul wheaton
stewards:
  • Pearl Sutton
  • Leigh Tate
  • Devaka Cooray
master gardeners:
  • Christopher Weeks
  • Timothy Norton
gardeners:
  • thomas rubino
  • Matt McSpadden
  • Jeremy VanGelder

Anyone ever use deer guts for Chicken feed?

 
Posts: 32
Location: Finland, Minnesota Zone 4a
7
forest garden hunting trees food preservation solar woodworking
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
Hey folks, thanks for looking at my weird topic....

So I often feed my family on fresh roadkill deer.  This winter we've gotten 6 deer this way.  I used to always just leave the guts out by where I hung the deer to butcher it and without fail, the guts would be gone within a day or two.....  Obviously some lucky critter is getting a free meal on me.  This got me to thinking... Will my chickens eat deer guts?

So I threw a couple small piles in the coop to see what they's do.  It seems like they will do some pecking at it and eat whatever is easy for them to get at, but a lot of the guts seem too stringy and maybe difficult for them to break down with their beaks...  that's my guess anyway of why they are not eating so much of it.  Seems like if I had some efficient way to puree the guts maybe they'd be able to eat em up....

Main thing I was wondering is, if anyone else has ever tried feeding large animal guts to your chickens, is there a simple efficient way you've found to do it?  By that I mean like a simple way to make the guts into something the chickens will eat right up.  Any other experiences with feeding chickens guts?  

I got a lot of frozen guts in a bucket and bin out in the shed right now but they won't be frozen too much longer.....
 
pioneer
Posts: 549
Location: North-Central Idaho, 4100 ft elev., 24 in precip
60
9
hugelkultur fungi trees books food preservation
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
I would just toss them in the run with a bunch of carbon like wood chips or straw and let nature take its course.  Eventually the guts will be no more as either chicken food or compost that can be spread on a grow bed.....
 
gardener
Posts: 3073
Location: Central Texas zone 8a
818
2
cattle chicken bee sheep
  • Likes 1
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
It's not quick, and probably smelly. Ive heard of hanging the stuff. Flies lay maggots. Maggots fall to ground. Chickens eat the maggots.

Should work over ponds also to feed fish.
 
pollinator
Posts: 2143
Location: Big Island, Hawaii (2300' elevation, 60" avg. annual rainfall, temp range 55-80 degrees F)
1064
forest garden rabbit tiny house books solar woodworking
  • Likes 2
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
I don't have the opportunity to get deer guts, but I do get plenty of pig, sheep, and goat offal from the local hunters. The rumen and contents go into the compost, as with the major amount of fecal material. Some is still in the guts but I don't worry about it. I cook my chicken food in a large turkey deep fryer pot over a rocket stove. All the guts go into the pot. Once cooked and cooled, it goes directly to the chickens. I save the juice to cook the next batch, but when it gets pretty thick I'll throw in some grains to cook and they absorb all the liquid. It goes to the chickens. Once the guts are cooked, things break apart easy enough for the birds to eat every scrap. If the birds can't peck it apart, it wasn't cooked long enough

By the way, it's not a weird topic in my book.
 
pollinator
Posts: 454
Location: Western Kenya
64
  • Likes 1
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
I second what Su Ba wrote, we don't have deer, but any time we butcher, nothing is thrown away.  We like to give everything a boil, or throw it straight on the fire to roast a bit before we feed it out to dogs, chickens and ducks.  Sometimes I give it a rough chop with the machete, more so that I can spread it around more and low ranking animals get a chance at it too. Nothing is thrown away here except the gall bladder!  
 
Steven George
Posts: 32
Location: Finland, Minnesota Zone 4a
7
forest garden hunting trees food preservation solar woodworking
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
Hey thanks for the replies!  

Su Ba and Maureen,

About how long do you boil the guts?  1 hour?  4 hours? all day?  

Also....  Hows the smell?  It would be more efficient for me to cook it inside since my woodstove is going all the time this time of year, but I'm just a bit reluctant to do so as you might imagine....  Although my family is not too squeamish about smells.  

Thanks again everyone who posted!
 
Maureen Atsali
pollinator
Posts: 454
Location: Western Kenya
64
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
We usually make a fire outside anytime we butcher a large animal... So the smell has never bothered me.  But if the carcass is fresh, then there shouldn't be a lot of smell.  My in-laws and neighbors EAT most of the intestines and innards of the animal if its a ruminant.  Even when we butcher a chicken, the kids will grab the intestines, give them a wash, wind them around a stick and roast them over the fire.  That being said, a quick cursory wash in a 10 gallon bucket, throw whatever is deemed inedible for the human population in a big pot, and just leave it to boil until the fire goes out.  We don't really time it.  Maybe Su Ba can nail it down better.  The smell as it cooks has a slight manure scent, but pretty much smells like meat and blood.  Not horrible.
 
Your buns are mine! But you can have this tiny ad:
GAMCOD 2025: 200 square feet; Zero degrees F or colder; calories cheap and easy
https://permies.com/wiki/270034/GAMCOD-square-feet-degrees-colder
reply
    Bookmark Topic Watch Topic
  • New Topic