Quote:
Originally Posted by
stoopid 
Wow, I thought it was all figured out with the organic food, Al.
But somehow, I have always wanted some form of meat protein in there.
I don't think yours had it....probably why I never switched.
Along with the shipping thing.
Roberta, I think you are right, and I think they need it from beef, turkey, pork or, forgive me, chicken.
Also, forgot to mention I gave them some short ribs we had left over the other night. That may have given them animal protein. The organic layer feed did have fish meal in it, which is technically NOT organic, but it is animal protein. I did have one bad bag which had a smell like paint. That could have either come from Menhaden (Moss Bunker to us NYers) in the fish meal, or rancid flax seed in the feed. I'm not so sure smaller companies do have the edge because the feed could have been old and I wouldn't have known it. Others have a higher turn over and dates on the bag. I'm still using the UltraKibble which is not organic either.
My DW was able to get some ready to toss out veggies from the small family owned IGA supermarket today. She asked yesterday and they told her to come by today and they saved a good sized bag of stuff for her. It pays to ask.
The organic feed is about $40 for 50lbs wth the shipping and the Purina is $16 for a 40lb bag. I could get Layena in a 50lb bag at $14 and just supplement the flax seed with one of the powdered forms.
I re read Raising Chickens for Dummies, which our BYC site owner ( Rob Ludlow) is coauthor of, and they pretty much led me back to thinking all this soy free organic feed may be a little bit of overkill, needless and nuttiness on my part. I'll see how it goes because I can't have the feather picking issue continue much longer. I did narrow it down to one major instigator, and she's going to be soup if she doesn't quit it. So far today, she's on good behavior.
