You might want to check into people who feed their dogs raw food, they might be interested. I know some of the sled dog people in the area feed chicken parts to their dogs.
I started giving my hatchling Polish X chicks and their mom the fermented chick started....WOW! I mean WOW! They dove on it and refuse to eat the dry crumbles. As you said, the poop smell is so much less. And the growth on these little guys is incredible. They feathered out quicker and are...
Actually, when I said I keep 1" of water over the feed, that's mostly a lie. I pour that much in to the bucket after I added new feed to the already fermenting feed. By the next feeding, the water has been absorbed and the feed is sort of like soupy Maypo.
Ok, been on the FF for a week now.
The Chickens LOVE it.
I am using less food and they are not wasting any by scratching it onto the ground.
Egg production started going up within 2 days of eating their first helping of FF.
I have it in a covered 5 gallon bucket. I keep about 1" of water...
I just started feeding fermented feed to my layers 2 weeks ago.
My egg production is up
My feed use is less. Not sure if it is 50% less at this point, but it is a lot less.
I am filling up their water fountain every 2-3 days instead of daily.
They love their fermented food.
They are...
I feed a layer crumble, 16% protein. It has no animal products in it, so I give them meat or fat scraps that seem to help their laying. Mine also get fresh goat milk daily in their crumbles, fresh comfrey leaves and other greens (seasonal) and table scraps. Right now they are getting apples...
I have fed Blue Seal since I started with chickens in 1970 and I am very happy with it. If I get coupons from Purina I will buy a bag or two, but the price is so much higher than I want to pay. I tried Nutrena and Poulin but the protein level was lower. Agway has a new feed that has Flax meal as...
We had several nights (and days!) of -40 weather. I feed them extra and added chunks of fat/meat to their feed along with fibrous feeds (semi-moist bagged alfalfa left over from the goats) when the weather gets down below 20 degrees.
For water, they get fresh water twice a day, they know to...
I had bought bagged alfalfa hay made for livestock that my goats refused to eat. I decided to give it to my chickens and Guineas. They LOVED it. I gave them some every day to supplement their regular feed this frigid winter. They repayed me by giving me ORANGE yolks! And.....an increase in eggs...
I live considerable further north and our temps have been well below 0. I water the chickens and Guineas in the morning and again later in the day. They know to fill up while the water is fluid. I messed around with adding molasses and electrolytes to help keep it liquid longer but it just...
I stopped reading at page 13 and went ahead to pg 104. I know I must have missed a lot, but right now I don't have the time to dedictae to reaoing 90 pages of postings.
Can you use bird seed to sprout? Would that work? Like the mixed seed made for wild birds. I buy BOSS and millet for the...
The feed I buy contains flax seed meal. I have been feeding it for about a year now and the girls are doing great.
I don't know about the instant rancid thing. I buy ground flax seed for me and it stays in the fridge and it does not become rancid before I use it up. I go thru a box a month, so...
I've had nasty roos who I had to fight with every time I went near the hens. So not worth keeping. I have 1 mixed breed roo now. He's 2 years old and still just as mellow as they come. I have 2 Buff orp roos, probably 6 months old, who are calm also. Hopefully they stay that way.
I feed back their eggs shells to them. Don't have a problem with them eating their eggs. I dry the shells and crunch them up. I'm not sure they know that the shells belonged to their eggs.
I also hard boil extra eggs and smoosh them up shells and all and feed them back to the girls. They go...
I add cheap dry cat food to their crumbles in the winter months.
I have been adding crimped local oats to their crumbles at the rate of 2 parts crumbles to 1 part oats. It stretches their crumbles and lowers grain purchases because crumbles are 17.00/50 pounds and the oats at 11.00/50 pounds...