Question has probably been asked before but I cannot locate it anywhere. Is is all right to feed chickens ,ducks and guineas the sandwiches from vending machines since I have access to the left overs from the machines, cakes chips and milk also included. Mary

-- Mary (marwel@microserve.net), October 28, 2001

Answers

I have been told by more that one person that salt is deadly to new hatched water fowl.

-- mitch hearn (moopups@citlink.net), October 28, 2001.

Mary, I don't know about feeding it to baby birds, but my chickens will eat darn near anything we toss out to them. They have access to laying pellets 24/7, and are free ranged in our pastures on top of that. But when they hear that back door open, they come running! They love any and all scraps, so I don't see why yours wouldn't eat them as well.

I don't think I would make that junk food a major part of their diet, however. It's not good for us, so it's probably not too good for them either. If you feed them too much of that junk food, they're just going to get fat and lazy, and next they'll be asking you for a couch and a tv! :-)

-- Cheryl in KS (cherylmccoy@rocketmail.com), October 28, 2001.

Mary- I would use the milk, even if it has gone "bad" (milk doesn't really go bad, just changes form), but personally I would avoid the rest of the stuff especially if you are going to eat the birds and/or eggs. I'm sure many readers will disagree with me on this, but remember, "Garbage in, garbage out". I don't eat many processed foods myself, so I would not turn around and feed them to my animals.

-- Elizabeth (ekfla@aol.com), October 28, 2001.

Im here to pose a different viewpoint. I try to do things as a depression-era farmer would do--that is use everything, waste nothing, keep costs down.

I feed all scraps. I read somewhere that in the old days fat was fed to chickens so they'd have a little fat for the winter.

They always have corn available so I believe with the scraps they are getting a good diet. In the depression my husbands grandfather would feed the used hops from a brewery to his dairy cows--he was considered the best dairyman around,BTW.

I am going to ask my kid's school for the scraps in the lunchroom-- the ones the kids scrape off in to big buckets before they put them in to be washed--to feed my chickens (and maybe eventually pigs)Lots of protein there.

Some of the things we think of as Junk food wouldn't be if we were going to be culled and eaten at a young age.

Just another viewpoint. Animals eat alot of things in the wild that we might not think of.

-- Ann Markson (tngreenacres@hotmail.com), October 28, 2001.

Ann Markson - WARNING - WARNING - You don't want plate scrapings to feed to your animals unless you plan to boil them thoroughly. A lot of diseases can be transmitted to animals, especially pigs, and then back to humans. Leftovers that haven't been served would be fine, but I would be VERY cautious about plate scrapings, since you don't know the health status of the last person dipping into any particular item.

-- Laura Rae Jensen (lrjensen@nwlink.com), October 28, 2001.

Uh, that would be, boil the plate scrapings thoroughly, NOT the animals. :o)

-- Laura Rae Jensen (lrjensen@nwlink.com), October 28, 2001.

I hadn't thought about that--I guess I'll need to think a little further. Currently the animals we don't eat get our plate scrapings. Chickens get things like peelings and veggies that are going bad so it hasn't been an issue.

-- Ann Markson (tngreenacres@hotmail.com), October 28, 2001.

Thank you for your responses on the subject above. The sandwiches are not left over scraps from people but still wraped and fully processed for sale but are out dated. Also available is out dated bread from the bread store and was wondering if it would hurt them. They are always well supplyed with growing pellets and greens. Thank you for your time on reading and answering my question. Mary

-- Mary (marwel@microserve.net), October 28, 2001.

Mary , feed them the scraps I have for years .Pigs will do great on it too.What exactly can be transmitted from human to food scraps to hogs ? I know about mad cow from meat but what else ? Thanks.~Patty

-- Patty {NY State} (fodfarms@slic.com), October 28, 2001.

My husband works at a dog food plant and we feed our chickens lots of dog food! It is mostly grain anyway and they seem to do real well on it. Some of the local pig farmers actually haul off the "rejects" from the plant for the hogs. The dog food plant is happy to give this away for free, otherwise they have to pay to have it hauled off. If I lived in an area where I could keep hogs I would raise a couple on this free food!

-- ellie (elnorams@aol.com), October 29, 2001.