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The Natural Chicken Keeping thread - OTs welcome!
Nothing amazing, really, lol just a bunch of buckets and drums :D But they are nice when I can put them right next to the coop in winter and just dump the snow off the lid and I've got food. No trekking all over the yard to get the chicken feed. Oh yeah the kids love it; its better than...- shortgrass
- Post #38,948
- Forum: Managing Your Flock
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The Natural Chicken Keeping thread - OTs welcome!
Yep, sure can, especially the grains, like millet; they settle fast. The pellets are hard to cram 500# into one though. They're bulky with lots of air space, so more like 400# if its pelletized feed. When I mix it, I dump a half of a 5 gallon bucket of each grain, in a rotation, along with a...- shortgrass
- Post #38,945
- Forum: Managing Your Flock
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The Natural Chicken Keeping thread - OTs welcome!
Well, I live smack dab in the middle of grain and hay country, so I can usually find things fairly cheap if I buy it in bulk a few times a year when prices drop. That and last year, we stumbled onto 500# of wheat and oats for free because they had gotten mixed up in the combine and the elevator...- shortgrass
- Post #38,943
- Forum: Managing Your Flock
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The Natural Chicken Keeping thread - OTs welcome!
Oh, its not a problem at all; love to share my recipes ha-ha :D He's constantly hungry, especially when I find a moment to myself ;) I found the coolest website though, so it was worth the wait! The protein on the beet pulp is about 11%. I had the millet and oats switched, millet is 8-11%...- shortgrass
- Post #38,941
- Forum: Managing Your Flock
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The Natural Chicken Keeping thread - OTs welcome!
No supplements, unless you count the lactobacillus I use to kick start ferment every once in a while. I used to mix in oyster shell, but they kept picking it out and I was actually having problems with shells that were too hard and had calcium deposits on them, so I nixed the oyster shell. Oh...- shortgrass
- Post #38,939
- Forum: Managing Your Flock
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The Natural Chicken Keeping thread - OTs welcome!
Yep. I assume that's a 40# bag, so that makes it almost $.50/ lb. I mix my own, so its way cheaper. I can get the grains at market price that way, and no animal byproducts. At an average of $7/bu for most of the ingredients, I can make a 500# drum of feed for about $75. That's about $.15/lb. ;)...- shortgrass
- Post #38,936
- Forum: Managing Your Flock
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The Natural Chicken Keeping thread - OTs welcome!
Most Feeds actually use animal by-product over alfalfa or soy, except vegan blends. I have, however, noticed that there are quite a few brands changing their formulas to soy instead. I mix my own feed, so I'm not really sure which brands have what, but likely that your organic or especially non...- shortgrass
- Post #38,932
- Forum: Managing Your Flock
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The Natural Chicken Keeping thread - OTs welcome!
Best grain for protein would be soy. Second best isn't really a grain, but its what I use; alfalfa. Alfalfa pellets can run 25-40% protein, same as soy. Both are about the same price, but alfalfa may be cheaper in some areas and some folks just don't care for soy. If you can find a granary or...- shortgrass
- Post #38,923
- Forum: Managing Your Flock
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The Natural Chicken Keeping thread - OTs welcome!
I use pumpkins to ferment my feed in... I got about 30 last year and would use them as "buckets". Cut 3 open, use to ferment in until they get too mushy to use again, then toss the whole thing in the run. Then, cut another one open and rotate. They lasted until January, then started freezing...- shortgrass
- Post #38,910
- Forum: Managing Your Flock
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The Natural Chicken Keeping thread - OTs welcome!
Bummer! Well its interesting to play with either way; I figured maybe the nematodes would give the worms worms lol ;) I use some of the microbes to start my compost, too, so it might be something to help kickstart a DL method, and there are some in there for mosquito and fly control, so it...- shortgrass
- Post #37,893
- Forum: Managing Your Flock
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The Natural Chicken Keeping thread - OTs welcome!
Look into beneficial nematodes or microbes. Certain nematodes will feed off of eggs and larvae, and microbes can improve the soil as well as keep pests in check. Here's where I go to get them :) http://www.arbico-organics.com/category/s?keyword=Beneficial+nematodes There's a bunch of different...- shortgrass
- Post #37,882
- Forum: Managing Your Flock
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The Natural Chicken Keeping thread - OTs welcome!
Garlic, pumpkin seed extract, and/or Wormwood :) The most natural you can get ;)- shortgrass
- Post #37,871
- Forum: Managing Your Flock
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The Natural Chicken Keeping thread - OTs welcome!
Yep, that would be the one ;) its a very nice bushy plant, eye catching for backs of borders in a flowerbed... It gets really big where I'm at, so I try to contain it, but it seems to do really well here with no effort on my part ;) I had never read about it being used for malaria; that is...- shortgrass
- Post #37,721
- Forum: Managing Your Flock
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The Natural Chicken Keeping thread - OTs welcome!
Hmmm, I'll have to read up on that; that's usually the case though lol, we try to extract something from an herb unto a pill and end up with dead dust and not much more :P There's that Keep It Simple, Stupid acronym all the time to remind me that sometimes the best thing is the natural, pure...- shortgrass
- Post #37,714
- Forum: Managing Your Flock
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The Natural Chicken Keeping thread - OTs welcome!
The rosemary is definitely for the roosts and nesting boxes, especially in summer when we get these horrible gnats, Buffalo gnats or blood sucking tiny flies lol, they hate rosemary ;) I rather prefer rosemary OIL for that, but I like sprigs of fresh too, just smells nice to me, and no buggies...- shortgrass
- Post #37,712
- Forum: Managing Your Flock
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The Natural Chicken Keeping thread - OTs welcome!
I have nu-stock, blue kote, and vetRX poultry meds... And I keep herbs like rosemary, dill, nettles, and wormwood handy, especially in summer when they're fresh... I've never used garlic powder, I always just fed fresh cloves, but I'm willing to try the powder :) Oh and I like to keep an...- shortgrass
- Post #37,708
- Forum: Managing Your Flock
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The Natural Chicken Keeping thread - OTs welcome!
That's really great info! I wondered about using it(garlic) for external medicine, but whenever I type in 'garlic' and 'chicken' anywhere near each other, the search always comes up with recipes lol :P As for the NuStock, would it still harden inside the body, or would the body start to reject...- shortgrass
- Post #37,703
- Forum: Managing Your Flock
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The Natural Chicken Keeping thread - OTs welcome!
It depends on which extract, @Leahs Mom... First, there's Neem oil. It's cold pressed oil from the plant, and it contains the active phenol, Azadirachtin. Then there's clarified hydrophobic extract. It has no Azadirachtin, but still has antifungal, pesticide, and miticide properties. There's...- shortgrass
- Post #37,657
- Forum: Managing Your Flock
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The Natural Chicken Keeping thread - OTs welcome!
Absolutely, Neem oil is awesome stuff; keep it around for the garden too! ;)- shortgrass
- Post #37,648
- Forum: Managing Your Flock
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The Natural Chicken Keeping thread - OTs welcome!
Organic always matters ;) But that's my humble opinion, nothing more lol :D As far as worrying you poisoned them; nah, they're ok :) If you were to FEED them the leaves, (which they probably won't eat anyway) they would have to eat A LOT of them to reach toxic levels, and as far as using an...- shortgrass
- Post #37,639
- Forum: Managing Your Flock