Reminds me of the joke about how stupid the mule was, he was worked up to eat 100% sawdust right up to the point he died.

 

Not sure what you mean by that?????

 

I would not feed my chickens corn cobs because I don't think it would have enough nutrition. Grind the cobs and put them in your compost or use them as mulch.

 

People regularly feed cattle ground or whole cobs ( as silage Or dry) because cows are ruminants and can digest cellulose. Chickens are not, and cellulose is a useless filler. It won’t hurt them but it won’t provide any nutrition- like feeding sawdust- it takes the place of nutritious feed.

 

I agree low food value, use the ground corn cobs to polish brass, mop up oil spills and then burn before it self ignites.

 

Food(nutrition) is like dark humor; not everyone gets it. Joe Stalin

 

I would only care to use ground up cobs for bedding, as others mentioned there’s no food value.

 

I sometimes grind whole ear corn and feed to my chickens when I have extra around. I have ground it in burr mills and in hammer mills. They'll eat the cob with the corn, with no ill effects. I just feed them some along with their regular feed though, and I can't tell a difference in how many eggs I get.
The cows and mules love ground ear corn though, they eat it like candy.

 

Our pigs will eat the cobs especially the fresh picked ones.

 

A better option might be to use the cobs in a worm bin. It can be part of the bedding, and it will actually get eaten over time. Then feed the worms to the chickens and use them in the garden.

The very best idea I have ever seen for "free" chicken food is to take a bucket and put meat scraps such as chicken bones in it. Road kill works too. Then layer straw over it. Hang it above the chicken run with small holes in the bottom of the bucket. Flies lay their eggs on the meat, eggs hatch and worms eat. Slowly they end up at the bottom and head out the holes right into the greedy beaks. When done you have a bucket of clean bones and straw to dump out. If you have a way, you could probably pulverize the bone and feed to the chickens and/or put on the garden. Kind of like adding eggs shells back into the feed to recycle the calcium. All this allows what would normally be scrap, since most people do not compost meat, to be used to its fullest. If you butcher your own chickens, hogs, or beef, you would have a lot of stuff to work with. basically anything you are not going to eat can go in and there is not limit to the amount of buckets you can have going at once. Like I said above though, some people collect road kill to supplement their buckets. Depends on how many chickens you have.

 

Works great hanging off the dock over the fish pond, too.

 

Cobs would provide little to no nutrition for the chickens.

My chickens are a little wierd, I guess. They won't hardly touch cracked or dried corn when they have other feed available, but I had some extra ears of fresh corn this summer and tossed them in the chicken run. They fought each other to eat them down to the bare cobs in just a few minutes.

 

@woodchuckTN

We used to toss cobs from eaten corn on the cob in and they loved it. Ever given them watermellon rinds? My father-in-law's used to love them. Would eat them until the green skin was all that was left.

 

@woodchuckTN

We used to toss cobs from eaten corn on the cob in and they loved it. Ever given them watermellon rinds? My father-in-law's used to love them. Would eat them until the green skin was all that was left.

A fresh raw venison backbone or rib cage is great for protein, keeps hens busy, and they love it.

 

I use corn cob cat litter. Waste product finding a useful purpose, biodegradable, absorbent and clumps. Not any degree of food value.

 

Interesting question. Years ago, as a youngster, I witnessed a portable mill backed up to our corn crib. My dad shoveled the corn on the cob (field corn) from the bin/grainery into the mill. The portable mill, ground the corn and cobs up into mash where it was augured out in to sacks. That is when I realized that the cattle, hogs, & chickens would eat corn, cobs, all! Wow
If you raise some field corn, take a bushel or two to the feed mill, they will grind it up for you. They will grind corn on the cobs, add couple flakes of a alfalfa hay, minerals such as salt, calcium, & etc.
People are used to feeding crumbles, or pellets. Chicken mash is what we are talking about. Real feed or grain mills are becoming extinct. If you have a recipe, they can make it for you.

 

Interesting question. Years ago, as a youngster, I witnessed a portable mill backed up to our corn crib. My dad shoveled the corn on the cob (field corn) from the bin/grainery into the mill. The portable mill, ground the corn and cobs up into mash where it was augured out in to sacks. That is when I realized that the cattle, hogs, & chickens would eat corn, cobs, all! Wow
If you raise some field corn, take a bushel or two to the feed mill, they will grind it up for you. They will grind corn on the cobs, add couple flakes of a alfalfa hay, minerals such as salt, calcium, & etc.
People are used to feeding crumbles, or pellets. Chicken mash is what we are talking about.

I still grind corn for my stock in the way that you describe, my mills just don't have infeed augers. I use both hammer mills and burr mills, depending on what kind of feed I'm grinding, and how much of it. I also have an old New Holland corn sheller that runs on a flat belt and will shell corn as fast as you can shovel it in.

 

Makes me remember my Great Grandmother's hand crank machine to shell corn. She used to get so mad because us kids loved to do it, but she said if we did too much the rats carried it off. Funny to think we used to sneak and do that for fun when the adults saw it as a chore. lol Not sure if that stayed in the barn when her sisters sold the house. Some young couple owns the farm house and land now from what my Dad says.

 

I have my great grandfather's hand crank sheller, and I used to do the same thing! My wife gets a kick out of shelling a couple of ears for the chickens even today.