Food for Chickens

Reducing our carbon footprint means reducing our waste. We, as a small family unit, do that by recycling, using refillable water bottles, and working to replace plastic kitchen containers with reusable glass. But what we also do, which seems to have the greatest impact for us, is care for a flock of poultry. My goal is to keep my family as healthy as possible. This means doing my best to take care of the Earth, too, so that it has the opportunity to help provide a healthier lifestyle for my family, as well as the rest of the world.

This helps in a number of ways. We don’t eat our poultry, but they provide us with fresh, nutrient-rich eggs to consume! As well as providing bug control, garbage and compost control, rodent control, parasite control, and entertainment! We provide food, shelter and safety. That’s it! And I’m not a bird lover – in fact they make me a bit nervous at times when the flock storms my space for food - but I find them rather fascinating from a distance.

Here’s how it works:

We bought chicks that would be egg-layers, and Guinea fowl chicks that would grow as bug control. We received so much more!

We put them into a large empty watering tank with a heat lamp. Bedding, food and water until they grew enough to transfer them to the coop we had built. They grow fast, so it wasn’t more than 2-3 weeks.

We kept them closed in the coop for a week, inside and out, so they could get used to their new home and safe place, then we started to let them out to roam. They mostly stay in the yard, and they were trained to go into the coop at night to roost. As they became more comfortable in knowing where to return for home and safety, we started to let the flock out to roam the yard throughout the day, and herded into the coop at night for roosting and food. They have learned this well, and usually return on their own at dusk.

Now they all run together as a group – the Guineas are loud – but the nuisances are by far outweighed by the benefits they provide to us and the Earth!

We discovered, after several years, that our woodtick numbers have decreased significantly and naturally, as well as many other bug populations attracted by our horses. We must give credit to the roaming birds, as we use no chemical pesticides. They also scratch and spread the piles of horse manure, which kills the parasites exposed. They love to consume any larvae and insect eggs they find!

We compost much of our food waste, but the birds love to eat the ends and peels of many fresh fruits and vegetables left over from our food preparations and gardening. This greatly reduces our waste, and is a very healthy addition to the natural, and pelleted, diet of the flock.

The birds provide a very special sort of entertainment. They are quite interesting really in their personalities and behaviors. The Guinea fowl are quite interesting appearing birds, with their long necks, bald heads with a couple of strands of feathers, and large, floppy, red cheek waddles. Looking like little old men; even the females, which actually managed to hatch out nests over the past two years, replenishing our flock. Those fuzzy chicks are very cute! But that phase goes by very quickly as they grow. The Guinea Fowl take themselves way too seriously.

Our other poultry are egg-laying Barred Rock chickens. They are attractive and much friendlier birds, but still very effective on bug-patrol! They are big and healthy and their brown eggs show it with the large, golden yolks.

One of our small contributions of a few that add up to more, and combined with the efforts of other people, makes a great impact toward improving the health of the Earth.

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