Organic food I just found

[TillyPeeps]

I have been using new country organic food for all my chickens. I love it! I fermented my feed. All my chickens have shinny feathers and are very healthy. The free shipping products are more expensive though. I always buy the 50lb bag. Shipping is about $20 for me. So I pay about $50 for a 50lb bag. It's much cheapper than $70 for 2 25lb bags.

 

[sayccrn]

I have been using new country organic food for all my chickens. I love it! I fermented my feed. All my chickens have shinny feathers and are very healthy. The free shipping products are more expensive though. I always buy the 50lb bag. Shipping is about $20 for me. So I pay about $50 for a 50lb bag. It's much cheapper than $70 for 2 25lb bags.

Oh my gosh! That's just who I ordered from! I just got a 25 of scratch and 25 of grower. I have about 25 left of my original starter. I was going to transition them to the new stuff, slowly to use up the old. I would like to ferment too. How do you do it? Should I wait until I am only on the grower, or can I ferment the two different brands together? Would that be too much change for my girls too fast? How big a container for 5 chicks? I don't want to waste the good stuff. They do get to forage a different spot everyday in my tractor. Any help and advice is greatly appreciated. Thanks so much!

 

[sayccrn]

I always buy the 50lb bag. Shipping is about $20 for me. So I pay about $50 for a 50lb bag. It's much cheapper than $70 for 2 25lb bags.

I just went back to figure out the shipping and compare and for me, it's over 40$ to deliver 50lbs of scratch and feed. for a total of 104$. If I order the same thing, but in 25lbs bags so 2 of each, on their 'shipping included' it's 124$. Either way is expensive, with the shipping, for me. But would I really need 50 lbs of each for only 5 birds? Especially if I am going to ferment?

 

[GC-Raptor]

But would I really need 50 lbs of each for only 5 birds? Especially if I am going to ferment?

50 lbs of feed for 5 LF chickens during the summer should last 50 days.
Scratch should only make up 10% of that. So would probably be stale before you finish it. I would get 25 lbs of Scratch or a smaller bag.
In colder weather, winter your chickens will eat about 2/3rds more, so 50 lbs would last about 30 days.

Of course this depends on how much kitchen scraps, treats and how many bugs they get, if you free range. GC

 

[sayccrn]

50 lbs of feed for 5 LF chickens during the summer should last 50 days.
Scratch should only make up 10% of that. So would probably be stale before you finish it. I would get 25 lbs of Scratch or a smaller bag.
In colder weather, winter your chickens will eat about 2/3rds more, so 50 lbs would last about 30 days.

Of course this depends on how much kitchen scraps, treats and how many bugs they get, if you free range. GC

OH! OK a pound a day. that's good to know. Thank you. They do eat from my yard, in a little tractor I made that I move to a different spot every day. So, This should take me to about september then. (with the stuff I have left over). Thanks.

 

[TillyPeeps]

Oh my gosh! That's just who I ordered from! I just got a 25 of scratch and 25 of grower. I have about 25 left of my original starter. I was going to transition them to the new stuff, slowly to use up the old. I would like to ferment too. How do you do it? Should I wait until I am only on the grower, or can I ferment the two different brands together? Would that be too much change for my girls too fast? How big a container for 5 chicks? I don't want to waste the good stuff. They do get to forage a different spot everyday in my tractor. Any help and advice is greatly appreciated. Thanks so much!

I have 5 chickens now. I use 32 OZ. wide mouth mason jars (with ferment lids) for their fermented food. Fill the jar half full of feed, then fill it full of water. When I start the first jar, I put 1 teaspoon of apple cider vinegar with mother in it. The first one was slow. I think it takes about 6 days to get it ready. When you make a new jar, just dump some water from the ready-to-use jar to it. This way, it only needs about 3 days to get done. That's why I have 3 jars in a row to keep feeding them. I always have free choice of dry food in their coop, but they barely touch it. If you use fermented food only, you will need bigger size containers. It depends on how much your chickens eat. My chickens are relatively small. You can mix your feed to make fermented food.

 

[sayccrn]

I have 5 chickens now. I use 32 OZ. wide mouth mason jars (with ferment lids) for their fermented food. Fill the jar half full of feed, then fill it full of water. When I start the first jar, I put 1 teaspoon of apple cider vinegar with mother in it. The first one was slow. I think it takes about 6 days to get it ready. When you make a new jar, just dump some water from the ready-to-use jar to it. This way, it only needs about 3 days to get done. That's why I have 3 jars in a row to keep feeding them. I always have free choice of dry food in their coop, but they barely touch it. If you use fermented food only, you will need bigger size containers. It depends on how much your chickens eat. My chickens are relatively small. You can mix your feed to make fermented food.

Thank you so much! I have two mason jars, 32 ounces. They have those clip locking lids, but I know not to seal theose while they are fermenting. Would a coffee filter work for a ferment lid? They are not in their coop all day, they are in their tractor unless it's absolutely horrible weather, they have a small under their coop run if needed too. I have 5 small chickens too. Do I NEED a third jar or will the two be ok for now? Do I have to transition them to fermented? Or just put it out and go cold turkey? They will love it and eat it?

 

[rosemarythyme]

Would a coffee filter work for a ferment lid? They are not in their coop all day, they are in their tractor unless it's absolutely horrible weather, they have a small under their coop run if needed too. I have 5 small chickens too. Do I NEED a third jar or will the two be ok for now? Do I have to transition them to fermented? Or just put it out and go cold turkey? They will love it and eat it?

No need to cover fermented feed unless you have a problem with flies/pests, in that case some cheesecloth works well.

When starting out with fermented feed, do NOT make a large amount of it - it can take them days or weeks to catch on to eating it, so you don't want to waste pounds of feed by over committing.

I do a very simplified, dumbed down version of fermented feed: 1 large jar, add dry feed, mix in enough water to cover by about an inch or so (actual amount of water needed varies based on feed and weather conditions), and then I start serving it the next day. Once I run low, I just dump in more feed, more water, and continue from there. I only wash out the jar if it gets pretty gross and crusty.

 

[sayccrn]

No need to cover fermented feed unless you have a problem with flies/pests, in that case some cheesecloth works well.

When starting out with fermented feed, do NOT make a large amount of it - it can take them days or weeks to catch on to eating it, so you don't want to waste pounds of feed by over committing.

I do a very simplified, dumbed down version of fermented feed: 1 large jar, add dry feed, mix in enough water to cover by about an inch or so (actual amount of water needed varies based on feed and weather conditions), and then I start serving it the next day. Once I run low, I just dump in more feed, more water, and continue from there. I only wash out the jar if it gets pretty gross and crusty.

Interesting! Thanks so much. one more thing: when they are getting used to the new fermented food. do I just leave their old dry food there? Or just put it out for a short time and leave out the fermented the rest of the time?

 

[rosemarythyme]

when they are getting used to the new fermented food. do I just leave their old dry food there? Or just put it out for a short time and leave out the fermented the rest of the time?

If you don't currently leave your feed out overnight, I would try putting in only fermented for an hour or so, then bring in dry feed and have it available during the rest of the day. If they take to the fermented feed immediately, then you can skip the waiting period and just put out dry feed as well at the same time. My flock definitely prefers fermented so they'll eat most of it before touching the dry feed.