Looking to buy Fish Meal for small back yard flock

[All About Chicken]

Between my meat and layers i have from 10 to 30 chickens at different times of years. I heard and agree that fish meal would be a great feed mix and have found suppliers of large amounts of 3 tons.... Ok i would be willing to buy 100 or 200 pounds at a time but not 3 tons. Really want to produce high quality meat and high omega 3 eggs and seems the fish meal can do this. Also any other feed suggestions would be appreciated.

 

[Clay Mudd]

I just got a 50 pound bag of fish meal from Countryside Organics.

http://www.countrysideorganics.com/product.php?productid=181&cat=40&page=1

It's supposed to have a good shelf life, but I split the 50 pounds into a bunch of plastic buckets.

 

[Lazy J Farms Feed & Hay]

Why not just feed a properly formlated complete feed designed for the nutrient requirments of the birds in your flock. Adding Fishmeal or any other ingredient without proper formulation will result in nutrient imbalances which may lead to growth and performance challenges.

Jim

 

[All About Chicken]

Thanks Clay Mudd!

Jim I have been mixing my own feed for some time now with recipes that I found on line and have been very successful in both egg production and great quality of meat. I have also found a big savings on food costs although very labor intensive. But being I’m not doing for $$ labor is free. I see you may have some very good insight and would welcome any advice you may have.

 

[Cowgirlgrace]

Lazy J Farms Feed & Hay :

Why not just feed a properly formlated complete feed designed for the nutrient requirments of the birds in your flock. Adding Fishmeal or any other ingredient without proper formulation will result in nutrient imbalances which may lead to growth and performance challenges.

Jim

I agree adding fishmeal is a good idea. Especially if your flock doesn't get out to get many bugs as they really need meat protein and most the feeds have only vegetable protein. Fish meal is almost pure protein so if you wanted to boost your protein in a formulated feed or mix your own with meat protein fishmeal will do that. There is lots of info about formulations if one wanted to do that.

I get 50 lb bags from a wholesale fertilizer supply house. They focus on chemical fertilizers but cater to the organic folks as well. It was around $45. Yes, it is used a fertilizer also but it is safe to use as feed and organic. I also buy kelp meal from them. I also have purchased it at my local farm store but I got it on clearance as they sold out to Wilco Farms stores but was too expensive to buy from them otherwise. Haven't checked yet to see if the new Wilco Store carries it but will probably be more expensive than the supply house. The supply house is Wilco also but it is Wilco Pro. Not Wilco Farm store. You should be able to find it locally without having to pay the prohibitive shipping costs of a 50# bag.​

 

[Cowgirlgrace]

Flax seed will boost your omega 3. I buy it whole in 50# bags also for about $15 a bag. I purchased a commercial coffee grinder and grind up a fresh batch whenever I need to. You could probably feed the seed whole to chickens but they go right through a horse.

 

[All About Chicken]

Thanks!

Flax seed and kelp I have good source from a local store. Although, I have thought about going out to the flats by Ft Meyers Florida when I go home. And try to dry some of the very rich kelp found in the fields out there and drag that back north with me but may not be worth the expense and time.

 

[upthecreek]

it's no doubt that our chickens are under fed meat , fish & seed proteins in the pellets , crumbles or grain feed because of cost .......... so it's up to us to correct the problem especially with fowl that are penned , feed the fish meal , flaxseed , shelled sunflower seeds and any other meat or seed supplement to our birds (they will eat what they need) they will eat more at first but as their bodys and systems get corrected they will eat less of it (just what they need) .

 

[upthecreek]

Peanuts is one of the verybest supplements you can feed to your birds . You/they only need small amount of them each day . A handfull or two in a big bucket of mixed grains/feed will go a long way and not cost a lot but it's amazing what they can do for your birds .

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[Erica]

There are lots of ways to increase meat quality, including omega 3 fats. Pasture time (with exercise) and a good supply of bugs help. Pretty much that means using tractors (30 birds means probably 3-5 tractors, so it's very labour intensive). Or you could use electramesh.

Last time I raised meat hybrids I kept them in a large tractor on grass and didn't process them until 11 or 12 weeks of age. The difference in meat quality was amazing, with much more dark meat (which I've read tends to be higher in omega 3) compared to white, and much more flavour. Other than pasture my broilers were on a sprout diet of wheat and corn with legumes including soy meal, and added sunflower, kefir, seaweed and grit.

This is the same diet I feed my breeders and layers, but I do throw in earthworms and other meat sources occasionally (not daily). Since they're penned they also get daily chopped greens. They're in great shape and deliver the expected quantity of eggs, with high fertility.

At the moment soy meal here is currently non GMO so when that status changes I'll rethink the whole thing. Perhaps I'll grow my own non GMO soy and boil up the whole beans. Or maybe I'll make a full scale worm farm... Or get into fish meal, though I gather fish meal can have rancidity/storage/contamination-with-heavy-metals issues. If I kept fish meal now, I'd probably be cleaning out my chest freezer and storing it in there to make sure it doesn't go rancid.

I reckon it pays to consult one of the 1940-50s poultry raising books, if you can find a good one. They're often full of useful recipes, as they'd taken an interest in scientific trials but hadn't yet been replaced by feed industry paternalism.

Good luck with it all and apologies for such a long ramble... Grist for the mill, hopefully.

Erica