Raising chickens w/o feeding them grain.

[Kaleva]

One of the major issues I believe we will face as climate change continues to get worse and we work to adapt is interruptions in the supply chain and that includes food. To that end, I often think about, research and actually work at raising enough food to help my wife and I and our extended family to have enough to ride out shortages. My multi-year project of turning my backyard into a vegetable garden and fruit orchard is part of that.

I don't have the space for animals but my son-in-law does on 20 acres he and my step-daughter own just outside of town on a side road. He has raised pigs and chickens there but it's too hard to care for them and wont again until they build a home there and can be there everyday. I helped him before and I continue to think about how to make it sustainable and as close to self sufficient as possible in case of interruptions in the supply chain. Might not be able to get grain for the chickens.

How it's done is that a large compost pile is made and then allow the chickens to scratch for food in the pile. Some allow the chickens to free range in conjunction to having the compost pile while others have the pile in a fenced in chicken run.

Egg production will drop and meat birds will take longer to gain weight with this method. To get high output, you need high input and with chickens, that means feeding them grain but for the homesteader or hobby farmer who just want some eggs for themselves, lower production may be worth the reduced cost in feeding them.

There are numerous videos on YouTube about this. I'll be doing more research so I can come up with what I'll consider to be a good plan.