Recent content by ILChickenTV

I know things are a bit late now, but maybe this helps someone. The main consideration with chicks is going to be protein. I don't know what you do for your hens, but for chicks, up the protein to 20% or higher. Peanuts and alfalfa may be a good place to start. If you don't mind going the...

25 year warrantee sounds amazing.

I realize I'm too late for this year, but I recommend getting in touch with your local fish market, drying out the carcasses, blitzing them up, and adding to corn and sunflower seeds. Truth is, aside from newly hatched birds, they probably won't keel over and die after a week of only corn...

Watch out, most bird seed mixes have oats or wheat.

None of the five grains in this one. Not a complete feed, but a decent supplement.

I have an old English game bantam that's only a week old and making funny crow-like chirps. I guess we'll have to wait and see.

From my understanding, it's the sudden change in feed restarting laying that seem to be evidence of foul-play. I'd like to see actual numbers for how many people switched off of the suspected feeds and saw real improvement.

Spent brewers grain is a wonderful source of protein for hens.

Wow, those look great! How did/do they lay?

What I usually end up with is slightly heavier on the salmon, with nearly as much of some kind of whitefish, and then the occasional red snapper, flounder, or other.

Yeah, but that makes drying it out for storage even more difficult. It may be the best option, though. In the summer hopefully I'll have the time to try all these options, see what works out to be the most effective method. Another downside is I'll no longer have a ballpark estimate for the...

Another way to lower the cost even more may be to replace some of the corn with old bread. A lot of variation there, too, but again, it probably averages out. I like fish a lot, but that could be weird in the eggs. If logistically and nutritionally this all works, I might not make too large a...

Now I'm a bit confused. According to the sources I could find, fish meal has almost double the fat of the other ingredients, and that's "commercial" fish meal. I'd imagine I had considered this, but I'm not sure how much big equipment I can dedicate to this, but... ...I may have to try this...

Definitely a lot of fun to read. I'm drying it to be able get as close to the right proportions of different ingredients as I can, water content throws that off. I should also be able to make more at a time with less risk of spoilage.

That's what I was originally hoping, but I couldn't find any information averaging the values of fish-market waste (bones with flesh between them, whole heads, etc.) I could always use a bit more if there are too many bones, but I don't know how I would find that out. I could potentially use...