Homemade Feed Mix Questions for our livestock

[tortoise]

I am failing at home grown bird food at the moment.

Also updating that we no longer bother making suet for the chickens. We just freeze fat/tallow after butchering and throw chunks to the chickens when the weather is cold (real winter, not @frustratedearthmother winter. )

 

[milkmansdaughter]

My chickens free range year round. I do deep litter, and throw all the tomato vines and all garden waste in the coop, and let the chickens munch on what they want. Some eat green tomatoes some don't. Some eat raw potatoes, some don't. Some like okra, some don't. Moldy stuff gets thrown in with everything else. All kitchen scraps get thrown out. They take what they want. I've been feeding them fermented feed through the winter which significantly cut down on how fast the layer pellets are used, but as soon as it started getting warmer, they barely touch it. I'm getting ready to plant sunflower seeds and comfrey. I'm looking for Milo seed. And my whole back yard is covered with clover.
I do throw all meat and fat scraps to the chickens, including chicken carcases, bones, and guts. The only time I don't is if a chicken died from a possible illness. They LOVE chicken carcases, pork, fish, and any other meat scraps that get thrown out. Beans are supposed to be deadly too. It gets thrown out. I find some chickens will ignore them, others eat them with no problems. I haven't had any problems with "canabalistic" chickens. They already eat small lizards, mice, worms, and bugs. My guess is they're going to be canabalistic only if they don't get enough in their diet. Egg shells are crushed and thrown outside for calcium. The neighbor cuts up melons for them, throws out bread, and they steal dog food. They love pumpkin in the fall. Cracked eggs can be scrambled and given to chickens (my dog usually gets it first.) I do throw out a little black oil sunflower seeds for them most days.

 

[Britesea]

I have never understood why some people are so morbidly concerned with what their chickens eat. I don't even WANT to know what they find to eat when they are free ranging, lol. All of our kitchen garbage goes to them. What they don't eat turns into compost. Our eggs are so beautifully deep orange that I actually had a woman tell me she didn't want to buy my eggs anymore because they changed the color of her baked goods (!)

 

[tortoise]

I'm thinking I need to contact restaurants for food waste. I need to do a bit of research. How have others managed to do this?

 

[NH Homesteader]

A lot of the ones here (and grocery stores too) are super inflexible about pickup times and you must pick up every week, all kinds of other stipulations. But there is a huge demand for excess food here so can't blame them for not wanting to mess around. But that's mostly pig food... I feed my chickens things I would never feed my pigs, lol

 

[sumi]

I'm thinking I need to contact restaurants for food waste. I need to do a bit of research. How have others managed to do this?

I went to restaurants I knew the owners' of and asked if I can put a "pig bucket" in the kitchen. As long as I collected the buckets frequently, they were happy to fill it for me with all sorts of goodies.