SC - period poultry feed

[Stefan li Rous]

> "Likewise, smaller hens who produce larger eggs take up less
>  coop space and eat less feed, resulting in more compact and more efficient
>  egg production and more profit." when the chickens were generally left to
> eat what they would on a free-range basis. Do we have any evidence of
> chickens being fed grain, even in winter?
> 
> **************************
> 
> Brother Johann (the chicken guy in the Midrealm) told me not too long ago
> that he's experimenting with some period diets for his poultry.  I don't
> know what his sources are, but it sounds like there's something out there...
> 
> Rose :)

If you can find out from him sometime what he considers period poultry
diets to be and what evidence he has for this I'd be interested. I still
think the idea of feeding chickens grain that you could eat is unlikely.
If you don't want to eat it, you can often make beer from it. Barley
for instance. 

One of the reasons that the horse took a while to begin
to be used in agriculture, even after an appropriate collar was invented
was that it required a better food supply than the ox. Even though it
was faster than the ox this was a problem. One of the things that sped
its use was the introduction of the three-field rotation of crops that
allowed a winter? crop of oats to be grown. Thus still giving you two
crops for your own use and a third for the horses.

Animals were often slaughtered in the fall rather than feed them through
the winter.

I just don't think there was a lot of surplus food available to use
on chickens.

I'm wondering if Brother Johann's period diet might include a lot of
bugs, that he has to make provision for, but that the period chicken
keeper would let his chickens gather for themselves. The same would go
for weeds and weed seeds. Chickens can and do eat a rather diverse
diet. In some ways they are an excellant method to turn stuff you can't
or won't eat into something you will eat. 

I have no direct experience raising chickens though to base any of
my comments on.

- -- 
Lord Stefan li Rous    Barony of Bryn Gwlad    Kingdom of Ansteorra
Mark S. Harris             Austin, Texas           stefan at texas.net
**** See Stefan's Florilegium files at:  http://www.florilegium.org ****
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