$0.31 a peice but are we really saving any $$$???

[cluckychick]

I say it's not about the money but about knowing where your food comes from and knowing what goes into producing the product. Enjoyment is another factor. I love going out every evening and watching our animals and taking care of them. It's something that DH and I do together every morning and every evening.

 

[sparkles2307]

We grow our own wheat, which is a good protein source. We also have free access to pretty much all of the soybeans, sunflower meats, flax, and millet we could ever possibly shake a stick at. DH grows corn and the neighbor sells us oats for next to nothing. Neighbor also grows barley which I will probably talk him into along with the oats. We are thinking that these grains, along with grass clippings, garden scraps, and a few other odds and ends will work out pretty nicely for almost zero $.

 

[sparkles2307]

I had to get down to the money bit to convice DH, he is obsessive about money. I do it for fun. But then he gets to talking to all his buddies at work about it and they all tell him different than what I tell him and then he comes back tome with all this info that I do not want...mainly because I am 99.8% certain he works with the worlds finest group of morons...

 

[Akane]

Wheat is not high enough protein. The highest protein variety I could find in the usda nutrient database is 15% and you want about 16% as a minimum. That's also plant protein not animal. Chickens are omnivores. Since meat scraps from the kitchen will likely not make up a large part of their diet the sunflower seeds and soybeans are the only thing there that might get you the protein level you need. If you were only feeding the high protein items you could come out at the right protein but with other stuff added in it's going to be low. Millet is really low in most everything and generally used more as a treat than in a diet. Most grains are also higher phosphorous than calcium when you need the reverse so oyster shell or other calcium supplements will still be required. Balancing homemade diets can get tricky if you really want the best nutrition. They will survive just throwing some grains together and free ranging but they probably won't lay well. Have you run the protein, calcium, phosphorous, and other levels? Even with premixed feeds we always add up everything when feeding the horses something new. If I were making my own chicken feed I'd have my calculator out finding the exact ratio I need of everything and what protein it will yield along with Ca as a minimum. Unless you want to do a lot of research and crunch some numbers you don't come out ahead feeding strictly a home made diet.

 

[Anny]

It 's not so much about saving money. It's about being able to produce your own food, knowing where your food is coming from. And not supporting factory farms.

 

[Davaroo]

What does feed cost you? Iy youre like me, here in chicken country, you can get it for a pretty good price from the mill. I pay $0.18-$0.20 per pound. There in MN, I should reckon you could do close to that. I spent summers there and as I recall, there were plenty of chickens cows and other livestock around.
BTW, you DO NOT have to feed only chicken feed. "All Purpose" livestock pellets can be fed as long as you ensure the layers get their calcium.

We did a little experiment here at BYC a few weks ago and concluded that your own chickens, reared to butcher age of 8-10 weeks, could be raised to compete with store bought. They might be a tiny bit more, but the quality offset any small difference.

When you added in the proper feeding of table scraps as a mash feed, using garden wastes as green feeds and so on, the price could be well be kept in line.

And suppose it did cost you a bit more... where's the harm in that?

Good for you, I say.

 

[PurpleChicken]

I've raised many a leghorn and other standard roos and used them for
meat. From a cost perspective they are expensive to raise for meat
which is why the hatcheries give them away.

IMO you would be better off with Cornish Crosses feeding them whatever
you can find.

With that said I have 15 packing peanut roos running around my yard
right now. They aren't the most efficient meat producers but will still
fill my freezer and have been a joy to raise. The more I free range them
the less feed they consume and the healthier they are.

For me it's about the experience.

 

[PurpleChicken]

Quote:
Dave is there a thread about that? It sounds like good reading.

IMO many people go a little far on feed analysis. Chickens are good
scavengers and can live very well on free ranging, misc scraps, and
minimal feed.

In many countries chickens run free in the streets and eat anything
and everything.

 

[Davaroo]

Quote:
Our friend PC, brings up a good point - before we knew about "efficient" meat chickens and Cornish Hyper-Profilgate Super Genetic Dynamo Range Crosses - there were the common fryers and broilers.

These were, as the name implies, plain old cockerels reared to a decent size 8-12 weeks and then butchered for the eating. There used to be a market for them, in fact. That was back when people had never heard of 'supersizing' anything, or hybridized poultry crosses. They simply expected a chicken to be, well... a chicken, and not some gargantuan, feathered meat ball.

If they wanted that, they raised turkeys. But that is another story.

 

[Marlinchaser]

Quote:
What else came with the peanuts????