But has anyone really figured out how to do that?
My grand parents were, but they had totally free range chickens (no feed other than what they caught themselves). But their chickens ran wild and there were so many of them they had no idea how many they had. The hens would hide eggs and hatch them all the time, so there was always plenty of young roosters for the pot. My grandmother would take boxes of her eggs into town and sell them to the owner of a small grocery store for her weekly staples like salt, flour, sugar and so on. They had several dogs that protected the chickens and cows from predators. The dogs would eat kitchen scraps my grandmother would cook for them plus whatever coons, skunks, and so on that they could catch.
They had a big garden every year and put up all their own vegetables.
My grandfather grew corn and hay which he fed to his cows, they sold some of the yearling calves at auction for money for the year.
They had 2 milk cows and they made their own butter and cheese, what milk was left was fed to the pigs along with some corn; the yearling milk-calves were butchered for meat for the coming year. The old sow would have babies once a year and when the piglets were old enough some were sold at auction and the others butchered.
I don't have the land or knowledge of how to do all that. I would just be happy if I could just figure out a way to feed my chickens without having to shell out $10.00 a bag for 50 pounds of feed. I read an article about hanging rotting meat scraps in an old plastic jug so that flies could get to it. Then cutting large enough holes so that the maggots could drop to the ground and the chickens could eat them. My chicken yard is far enough away from the house to do that but I'm afraid if I did that I would attract predictors and create a whole new set of problems.
My grand parents were, but they had totally free range chickens (no feed other than what they caught themselves). But their chickens ran wild and there were so many of them they had no idea how many they had. The hens would hide eggs and hatch them all the time, so there was always plenty of young roosters for the pot. My grandmother would take boxes of her eggs into town and sell them to the owner of a small grocery store for her weekly staples like salt, flour, sugar and so on. They had several dogs that protected the chickens and cows from predators. The dogs would eat kitchen scraps my grandmother would cook for them plus whatever coons, skunks, and so on that they could catch.
They had a big garden every year and put up all their own vegetables.
My grandfather grew corn and hay which he fed to his cows, they sold some of the yearling calves at auction for money for the year.
They had 2 milk cows and they made their own butter and cheese, what milk was left was fed to the pigs along with some corn; the yearling milk-calves were butchered for meat for the coming year. The old sow would have babies once a year and when the piglets were old enough some were sold at auction and the others butchered.
I don't have the land or knowledge of how to do all that. I would just be happy if I could just figure out a way to feed my chickens without having to shell out $10.00 a bag for 50 pounds of feed. I read an article about hanging rotting meat scraps in an old plastic jug so that flies could get to it. Then cutting large enough holes so that the maggots could drop to the ground and the chickens could eat them. My chicken yard is far enough away from the house to do that but I'm afraid if I did that I would attract predictors and create a whole new set of problems.
