all the while the feed industry is trying to tell us that their kibble, pellets & concentrates can easily & conveniently replace good animal husbandry.
I remain unconvinced.
I don't think for one second anyone is saying that a balanced formulated ration replaces good husbandry.
Ok let me put it another way.
Why do you think commercial poultry farmers around the world aren't just feeding their birds on whole grains and throwing in a few peas??
Yes it sounds great to have birds living the natural way but I suspect that very few of us have the space and the land rich enough in nutrients and resources to support this (especially in the colder months) its certainly not viable commercially.
cost vs performance is always the battle with commercial poultry, they are provided with a ration that will give optimal results across the flock.
They could be fed a better ration and a percentage of the birds would respond to that and perform better but the rest wouldn't, therefore that becomes non cost effective (less profit)
On the flip side, if fed on a poorer ration the lower performing birds would do no worse but the higher performers would lose out, which again is non cost effective.
There are no "dodgy" things going into poultry rations today, the legislation covering it is VERY strict.
years ago they did recycle offal etc into the food and use growth promoting compounds etc but no more.
at the end of the day everything is just made up of protein, carbohydrates, fat etc so although I personally had no problem with the offal thing i can understand why it was stopped.
poultry will eat far worse things on their own than we would ever feed them
Now if you have a few birds running around that are basically pets or you aren't relying on them to produce cost effectively, OR they have sufficiently rich pickings from free range then fair enough, you can feed them as you see fit, in fact that may well be closer to their natural state, they will probably have an unbalanced diet which they can live on quite happily but they will most likely not be functioning at full capacity (compared to commercially fed birds)
I'm not in any way saying these birds will be starving or hungry, they won't, they'll just not be getting a balanced optimal diet.
A balanced diet which has been researched over many many years and cost many millions of pounds to produce.
I feed formulated foods but i throw in a lot of extras, they get fruit, greens and insects (I breed crickets and maggots) and they get their share of worms and stuff when i'm in the garden.
They love that stuff but i'm actually unbalancing their diet by doing it.
I know they would perform better, grow/lay/breed better if just left on the pellets but I have the backup of knowing the pellets are there and everything they require is in there.
I'm rambling again!!
Izzy is looking for ingredients to add to a grain only diet so i'd have to go with previous suggestions, greens, fruit, bugs (a good compost heap will be full of worms) and even any leftovers you have (although this is currently illegal
)