Not all chicken farmers actually eat their own birds. There is such a thing as the hobbyist farmer, a person who keeps chickens solely as pets, and sells their eggs for a secondary income. On a "real" chicken farm, the hens that are too old to continue laying become supper for the family, but in the hobbyist situation, a small flock is usually kept strictly for the eggs alone. Once the pampered hens are too old to lay, they become honored family pets, each with her own name and personality. There is nothing wrong with either type of chicken farming, as each has its good points. On a farm where chickens are kept as both egg layers and as food, names are seldom given to the birds, and they are treated as impersonally as possible.
On the other hand, you have the hobbyist farmer, such as myself, who raise the birds from hatchlings to old biddies, and this type of farmer treats the "girls" as if they were members of the family. But even though they are not destined for the supper table, they are expected to "work" to support the family. This means they are to lay eggs. Chickens kept as egg layers are fed a special diet, one rich in vitamins, minerals, and proteins designed to get them laying and keep them laying, for as long as possible. The food of choice of course, is laying mash, which is rich in all the nutrients that healthy layers require.
Our girls feed on laying mash, scratch feed, (which contains cracked corn, oats, and wheat) plus whatever extra "snacks" we give them. One thing I hate to have is a chicken that is too skinny. If you run your hand over the bird's breast, and the breast bone sticks out sharply with the flesh concave on either side of it, your chicken is officially undernourished. That breast should be gently rounded with the breast bone apparent but not dominant. The snacks the girls get usually consist of food scraps that we leave behind from our meals, (typically veggie scraps, fruit peelings, and meat fats and juices) Chickens are not always thought of as meat eaters, but they very much are, and will happily accept even cooked chicken meat.
One of their favorite treats is leftover cat food, which by the way, is a popular part of the feeding plan for many chicken farmers. Cat food is rich in protein, which chickens require to a high degree. Moist cat food is probably the only food I don't care to feed the girls by hand. They get too excited over it and will tear up fingers with ease. When our finicky felines refuse to eat their moist food, the chickens get it and let me tell you, they come back and squawk for seconds. Chickens who do not get the correct amount of protein become "pickers", birds that will pick the feathers from other birds in order to eat them. That is how you identify protein deficient chickens, by their missing feathers, and raw flesh.
Correcting this problem is something that has tormented chicken farmers for centuries, and it was once assumed that once chickens become pickers they will always be so, maintaining the bad habit for the rest of their lives. Back then any pickers that were identified would go immediately to the chopping block, because the farmer knew their behavior could not be corrected. This however, it has been discovered, is not true. Chickens who become pickers can be reversed by simply giving them the correct amounts of vitamins, proteins, and minerals that they need to overcome this terrible urge to pick feathers. There is a special powder that can be mixed with their drinking water, that is designed for just this purpose. It is called, Avia Charge 2000. The powder is brown and turns their water brown as well, and it smells just about as bad as possible, like dead fish. Naturally, the birds love it, and will usually ignore plain water in favor of the brown stuff.
They will also eat feathers that have naturally molted from their owners' bodies. Quite often you will see chickens feasting on feathers they have found lying on the ground, or they may even pull loose feathers from their own backs, in order to eat them. When you see this happening, it's time for the brown stuff, because the next step is always feather picking, an extremely undesirable trait. It is difficult to constantly maintain the exact correct diet continuously, so the next best thing is to remain watchful. Don't just feed and water the birds and then go on your way. Look them over while you work. Check out which birds look a little dumpy, which are too feisty, which are missing too many feathers, and which are attacking the others. Fresh blood is not a good sign for it signifies an open wound and that bird should be immediately isolated from the rest of the flock until the bleeding area has healed sufficiently. This is due to the fact that chickens usually go berserk at the sight of blood and will peck that spot unceasingly, until the poor victim bleeds to death. There is no sympathy for the wounded in the world of chickens.
