Chicken Gruel!
by Sharon Gaughan, PCLF Education Program Director
In September, I had the opportunity to attend the Heritage Harvest Festival at Monticello in Virginia. I was interested in the festival for a myriad of reasons, not the least of which was the variety of “chicken workshops” that they were offering.
One of the workshops that I attended was given by Pat Foreman, the author of several books on chicken keeping, including City Chicks: Keeping Micro-flocks of Chickens as Garden Helpers, Compost Creators, Bio-recyclers and Local Food Suppliers (Good Earth Publications, 2010). I purchased a copy of City Chicks while I was there, and read it through cover to cover after returning from Virginia.
Pat has included a wealth of information in this book – but I’d like to share one particular thing I learned that was most immediately interesting and useful for me.
I had noticed for a long time that chicken feed has quite the variety of particle sizes – and I had also noticed for a long time that the chickens have a distinct preference for the larger bits and pieces. In City Chicks Pat explains, “Given a choice, they would rather eat large grains than fine crumble. Perhaps larger pieces of food fill their crops faster and create a feeling of satiety, or maybe the larger pieces are just easier to see” (p. 153).
Before reading, I had wrongly assumed that the finer feed was the result of the feed company simply grinding it more than they needed to – and what a waste! But Pat goes on to explain that, “The finer feed contains nutrients such as probiotics and vitamins, so it’s valuable and you want the hens to consume it. Add water or milk to the rejected food…to make a dough-like mash and the chickens will gobble it down greedily” (p. 153).
So, I tried it! I tried it first with Rhubarb and Rutabaga, the Children’s Garden chickens – scooping a bit of the leftover finer feed from their regular feeder, pouring that into a small plastic container, and then adding enough water to make the wet oatmeal consistency.
“Yum! Chicken gruel,” I thought. And Rhubarb and Rutabaga did indeed “gobble it down greedily.”
But I had no idea what “gobbling down greedily” looked like until I did the same for our new flock of Bovans Brown hens! I prepared the “chicken gruel” in a portable feeder (a long trough, about 5 feet in length) while still outside the chicken yard, then I brought the feeder into the chicken yard and set it on the ground. A feeding frenzy erupted before my very eyes, despite the fact that these chickens had already been fed prior to this gruel offering!
So now we've starting make chicken gruel for our hens about 2-3 times a week. And now when they see that portable feeder, they know what’s coming. They no longer wait until the feeder is on the ground, but several will jump up onto it as I try to carry it further into the chicken yard.
Little do our hens know, they are greedily gobbling down the exact same thing that they earlier rejected eating from their regular feeders. All we did was add water and stir!
Pat Foreman, my chicken hat is off to you!
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