Homemade flock block recipes

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Well, it's 7F outside, the snow is blowing EVERYWHERE. Since I was going to the store this a.m. for milk, I decided to raid the bulk section and give this recipe a try. I tried to find ingredients that are higher in protein and organic when it was available. I spent about $5, so not too bad. When my kids walked in after school, they exclaimed, "It smells like cookies!" and were quite disappointed to find out that the cookies were actually for the chickens.... These were a bit crumbly when straight out of the oven, but firmed up as they cooled. Not cement-like, so that's a good thing. The chickens loved them.

Here's my adaptation:

Home-made Chicken Muffins

3 cups scratch (mine consists of: 1½ c BOSS, 1 c red and white millet, ¼ cup Cracked Corn and ¼ cup Safflower)
½ cup Winter Wheat Berries
½ cup Ground Flax Seed
1 cup Blanched Peanuts, coarsely chopped
1 cup Raw Pumpkin Seeds
½ cup Wheat Germ
½ cup Oatmeal
½ cup Raisins
4 Eggs
3 Tablespoons real Maple Syrup
Lard or Shortening

Preheat oven to 300F. In a large bowl, combine all dry ingredients and toss by hand. In a smaller bowl, beat eggs. Stir beaten eggs into the seed mixture and add syrup. Lastly, add raisins and stir mixture gently until all is evenly combined. Generously grease a muffin tin (I used a regular tin and a mini-muffin tin) with lard or shortening. Using an ice cream scoop, fill the muffin cups to level and tamp down with the back of a spoon until firm. Bake for 1½ hours. Let cool and remove from muffin tins. Store a few on the counter for the coming days and put the rest in the freezer in a tupperware.

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And for ultasol, I feed my chooks home-made lard suet when it's cold outside. It gives them a little bit of protein and some extra calories from the fat, and keeps things greased up nicely. They go CRAZY for it. I don't bother with a suet feeder and just give it to them on a plate. But I suppose you could use a feeder... I just don't have one. Anyways, that rendered fat can be stored in the freezer. I use lard year-round for my own cooking. Yum!

Here is my recipe for home-made lard suet:

Wintertime Suet
3 c rendered lard, I prefer pork, but beef works too
1 c peanut butter
2 c misc. scratch grains (mine are BOSS, corn, millet, safflower)
1 c dried fruit like raisins, cranberries, chopped apricots, whatever

Soften lard until stir-able, but not liquid. Mix with peanut butter, scratch and dried fruit. Pack mixture into a cake tin (or ice cube trays if you have multiple available). Put in freezer (or just on the porch if you’re in the Midwest like me...) until solid. Let it thaw SLIGHTLY until it can be removed from the pan and sliced (no need to slice if ice-cube size). Transfer slices to a Tupperware or ziplock baggie and store in the freezer. Thaw a slice on the counter before feeding to the chooks. You could probably feed it frozen, but that seems un-fun to me. Mine eat it quickly, so I don’t even bother with a wire suet feeder – I just put it on a plate and let them have it. They get one or two slices a week while it’s cold outside. BTW, my ding dong laborador thinks this is the bees knees. I guess she thinks that the chooks are getting special treatment and doesn’t want to be left out.

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Oh my goodness!
Your feeding that to your animals?
The organ meats have the most nutrition in them, and good lard is one of the best fats you can eat!
 
hay! My son sent me a post he found on craigslist! a guy near Grand Rapids Mi has a rent a hen bus. going. for $99 and $35 a month he brings you a coop and 3 hens. Maybe some one in your area will start a bus.
 
hay!Rosajrems, My son sent me a post he found on craigslist! a guy near Grand Rapids Mi has a rent a hen bus. going. for $99 and $35 a month he brings you a coop and 3 hens. Maybe some one in your area will start a bus.
 
I just found this thread... and here my friends are calling me loco for making a simple mash of warm oatmeal and sprinkling shredded cheese top!!! I feel sooo much more "normal" when I am on BYC...
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This is a great idea. Not sure how the fine print looks but in theory this would be a great way to get people interested in it without having the huge commitment.

So I was reading through and it hit me. Adding the bread probably really helped keep the block shavings free. Shavings will get on the block of course but you can just knock them off real easily.

I'm about to make another batch. The last one I made is darn near rock hard. The chooks don't seem to mind though. It gives them something to work at. I've been thowing a slice in their coop as needed so that when I wake them up at 3am they have at least something to keep them distracted.
 
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Ours, too. I will try baking them a cake, though.

I ended up drilling two holes in the first one we bought and hung it up like the seed bell next it and they figured it out. It was gone that day. Now that I make my own I just cut it into slices and give them a bit at a time. They've got it down now without me having to hang it up.
 
I have 31 chickens with a fenced in chicken run. When I first bought the Purina Flock Blocks they sat out there. and sat out there. and sat out there. Then one day it rained. And it softened up the top of the block. They went nuts on it. Every once in awhile, I'll put some water on the top of it. The first one I bought from my feed store was over $12. The next time I went there they were going for just over $8.

Another thing I do is cork screw a big head of cabbage on to one of those things that you cork screw into the ground to tie up a dog. I hang it and they love it! I'll cork screw on a baseball bat size zucchini too. A watermelon. Anything. It keeps it off the ground and free of sand.
 

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