Colorado

[maggiemo]

Oh Yay!!

I am so glad they are doing well for you!
Keep us posted on how they lay and they just do in general for you!!

 

[Double Kindness]

The trip going to the home brew store to get yeast to make ginger beer yielded even better than expected! The guy running the place says he needs to get rid of at least 2 batches of spent grains every week, and so do each of his employees as well as many customers and said if I come get it, I can have all they bring in. The place is a 5 minute drive from my house, yay free chicken feed!

Does anyone know the difference in nutritional value in spent grains vs non spent grains? Or experience in feeding their flock spent grain?

 

[Mtn Margie]

Nice score. There is lots of info on this site about spent grains. Higher protein, I think?

 

[Percheron chick]

Nice score. There is lots of info on this site about spent grains. Higher protein, I think?

It does but that's not the entire story. The protein percentage goes up because the carbohydrate (sugar) percentage goes down in the fermentation process. If one goes down, the other 2 (fat) must go up. You don't end up with more grams of protein.

Spent grains are a major component of prepared feeds but a lot is added back to balance them. They have decent energy, protein, fat, have an inverted Ca, marginal minerals and lacking in vitamins. If you are feeding it wet, it's 80% moisture. Feed it like you would fresh vegetables as a treat and not the major portion of the diet. The other issue for you is spent grains are still loaded with gluten. If you are going gluten free, you can't be feeding those.

 

[Mtn Margie]

It seems that the quail are averaging 97-100 grams, like 3.5 oz. I was trying not to stress them.
I think that is a pretty decent weight for jumbos.

 

[yawningreyhound]

Hi Colorado Peeps! Been busy fencing since the fox murdered Curl, now we have an enclosure that used 250 feet of fencing plus the width of the house and backyard. Chickens are safe(r). I put hardware fabric around 30' of the area and decided that life was much too short for this activity and found 10" landscape staples for 21 cents each at Lowe's which I drove into the ground about every 2-8 inches depending on the rock I encountered. Figured if the staple can't get past the rock, neither can Mr. Fox.

So.

Now my question to everyone is:

Has anyone raised their own mealworms? At $32.99 for 30 ounces (AND they're chinese), I'm looking into this because our recent newsletter from Greenwood Wildlife Rehab (Lyons, CO) had an article about doing just that.

The "frass" is the biggest management issue (mealworm poop).

The dried ones are very easy but darned pricey, so maybe I should raise live ones for them.

Anyone out there doing this?

I guess I would feed them live as I would have no idea how to dehydrate them. Plus, you know me, I don't think I could dehydrate even mealworms...like how to you dispatch them first? I couldn't just dehydrate them to kill them...what an agonizing death, eh?

Anywho, hope you all are doing great. I haven't even been lurking. Fence raising is time-consuming. But we did score 250 feet of fence from the neighbor who just happened to ask if we needed any...We had no idea how much there was but there it was, we'd measured out a 250 foot enclosure starting at one end of the house and going all 'round their coop/run and back to storage shed. Well, there were 250 feet. Almost to the foot! So spending $100 on staples seemed a no-brainer after dealing with my back from doing 30 feet of hardware cloth which had to be straightened out, bent, a trench dug, the cloth attached to the fence and the cloth then buried. Blech!

Oh, and hey! I learned something: The black zip ties are the strongest because they absorb 40% more of the UV limiter the mfr applies to zip ties.

And they had HEAVY DUTY ones at Murdoch's in Black and White. Black for the front of the house where it shows and white for the back (cuz they only had one bag of black). Way better than tying little pieces of wire like they do for horsefencing. Zip ties and Staples Rock!!!!

 

[lgc1970]

This link is for someone that posted their experience.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/821868/mealworm-farm

It is pretty informative and also speaks to the time it takes. I've been thinking about doing this, but just haven't made the time.

Have fun!

 

[Double Kindness]

Perchon chick- I need to get them off gluten, but since I'm not ready yet to mix my own feed, it's still long glove time. It looks like I'll just feed the spent grains as like a scratch grain in the evening and freeze it in manageable sizes.

Yawningreyhound- lol we just put up hardware cloth too, and it kicked our behinds! I'm still sore, and it's not completely done yet!

 

[foothillsco]

Hi there everyone.

I want to order some ducks online but I only want a small number. I want 2-4 Cayugas.

Anyone recommend a local breeder or want to go in on a larger purchase together? I live in Littleton.

 

[Mtn Margie]

Welcome to the thread Foothillsco! I think someone on CL had Cayugas. There are a few duck people on here, just do a search on this thread for them. One person raises ducks but I do not know what breed. Good Luck!