troutbert wrote:
It might make the eggs and meat taste fishy.
Chickens in the wild, before they were domesticated, probably had insects as a very large part of their diet.
But I doubt if they ate much fish.
Do the eggs you buy from the store taste fishy? Chances are, they feed used contained fish meal.
Fishmeal is ground, cooked and processed fish and fish byproducts. Supposedly it is actually good for the birds especially when they are molting. Not sure about raw fish, but probably doesn't hurt them.
This discussion reminds me of an old hen that we had that was almost completely blind. It could probably see shadows, but that was about it. Other than that, it was still quite healthy. I use a suspended feeder, and if it was swinging, the bird would peck in the general direction. Sometimes it would hit, sometimes it would miss. Just goes to show you that even a blind chicken finds ...
Funny but sad at the same time. But it did OK. She eventually died of old age.
I used to let the birds run loose during the day and this one used to stay near the chicken sedan (4 doors). One day, the blind hen wandered away from the hen-house and into the pasture, and one of the cows decided to investigate. The blind hen got all worked up and took of running. Fortunately it ran out of the pasture. Unfortunately it didn't stop and ran right into the pond.
Chickens don't swim very well, so I had to fish it out with a net.
