Chickens are Omnivores

Disclaimer:  Today's subject matter is not for the squeamish.  Consider this a WARNING before you read on.  You forfeit your right to complain if you read on past this paragraph.  It might be best to just tune in tomorrow!  Everything will be factually correct, it's just that "some things are better left unsaid," but I'm gonna say 'em!

As we've discussed before, our chickens are pretty much on their own, but we do throw them some rice everyday.  The pullets do get a commercial (non-medicated) chick grower feed until they begin laying.  Once they lay the first egg, they are pretty much on their own and they forage for bugs, worms, frogs, mice, snakes and other assorted tasty vittles.  Other than the rice we give them, if our chickens had bootstraps, they'd have to pull them up, because it is sink or swim at Our Maker's Acres Family Farm as far as eating is concerned.

A rugged individualist

I'm always reading about different farming techniques and ran across an article from Nourishing Traditions, a publication put out by the Weston A. Price Foundation, a group of which we are members.  In the article, Matthew Rales was giving a tour at Joel Salatin's Polyface Farms in Virginia in which he said:

"One of the points I always try to convey when I host farm tours at Polyface Farm is that chickens are omnivores. Visitors have no problem with the fact that pastured poultry eat lots of green grass, herbs and clover, but cringe at the notion that these beautiful, healthy birds also supplement their diet with plenty of animal foods as well. In the green season, the birds eat lots of grasshoppers and fly larvae (out of the cow pies).

But what happens when the chickens go indoors for the winter, and insect life is all but nonexistent except for the occasional pill bug and spider in the deep bedding material? Traditionally this is when farm flocks were supplemented with vermin, cut open for easier access to the internal organs. Chickens gladly and voraciously tear at the flesh and guts of a freshly shot groundhog, opossum or raccoon. Chickens have a featherless face for a reason—it is easier to keep clean after indulging in flesh. We see the same physiology in wild avian scavengers like vultures."  Chickens are omnivores its no dilemma

I have no doubt in my mind that a chicken would happily tear fresh road-kill up.  In fact, when we've lost chickens in our pasture to various predators including hawks, owls, opossums and dogs, when we discover the carcass, we've witnessed first-hand that the chickens have no qualms about eating what the predator leaves behind.  The "You are what you eat" saying is literally true in this case.

I have a 90 mile round trip commute to work each day.  Most of it is Interstate driving, so it goes rather quickly.  There are, however, some backroads that I take to avoid some school zones and traffic.  I've noticed lately for whatever reason that the road is littered with roadkill.  I've seen possums, raccoons, turtles and armadillos that have met their demise.  That's where nature's clean up crew comes in.  Nature's Waste Management.  Meet the buzzard.  This guy eats what others won't and cleans up the messes.  He plays an important role in keeping the pastoral landscape nice and tidy. 

A buzzard saying Grace before a meal

Which reminds me of a great story.  I may have this a little messed up, as it has been quite a while since my mom told me the story, but the main points will be accurate and this is one you don't quite forget.  My mom's great aunt was traveling many years ago with some friends somewhere around DeRidder, Louisiana.  We live on the Cajun prairie - some pretty flat land.  As you get a little north of us into the piney woods, there are some hilly areas. 

So my mom's great aunt and her friends were out for a drive and came over a hill and disturbed a group of vultures.  For grins, I looked up on Wikipedia to find out what a group of vultures is called.  Would you believe they are called a wake, committee, venue, kettle, or volt?  Okay, that's just interesting, right there.  So technically a wake of vultures actually attend a wake prior to eating??  I've seen committees in which the participants acted like vultures.  And a "kettle" of vultures?!  Sounds appetizing, doesn't it?

Back to the story du jour.  When they disturbed the kettle of vultures feasting on carrion, one of the old buzzards wasn't quite quick enough.  He was clipped by the front bumper of the vehicle, tumbled across the hood, broke the windshield (this was before windshields were shatter-proof) and became an uninvited occupant in the car with them.  The poor bird commenced to throwing up all over them, which made my mom's great aunt and her friends sick and then they began throwing up.  It is a monumental understatement to say, "What a mess!"

I'm trying to figure out if there is a moral to this story.  I guess it would be to drive carefully around road-kill and beware of committees!  For full disclosure, I have to admit that I have stopped several times when coming across roadkill, but it was only to cut the tail off of freshly dead raccoons to bring a souvenir of sorts home for my boys. 


Will work for food?

Chickens are omnivores and opportunists and, like me, will never turn down a free lunch!  I'm a little more discriminating in my menu choices, though.