Alaska Chicken Lover's Soup for the Cold!!

[HaikuHeritageFarm]

Tori, I'm liking the barley idea more and more. I just came in from mixing my last bag of Manna Pro Sho rabbit feed. (I throw in some COB and BOSS, plus a spattering of Calf Manna.) At the bottom of the bag there was a TON of fines and clumped pellets like it had been wet, which I know hasn't occurred since it's been in my possession. It kind of stinks, because most of the rabbits were doing phenomenal on it, MUCH better than the Don's Mix that M&F makes and sells to Wal-Mart, Three Bears, and most of the other feed stores around.

The rotten part about using barley as the base for rabbit feed is that then I have to go from feeding timothy or brome hay to Alfalfa hay, and that's expensive. (When you can find it!)

I was thinking I would have to buy one more bag of rabbit and chicken food until my PFD comes in on the 28th, then I was going to stock up on all the bits and pieces to mix all of my own feeds. I guess I am still going to have to.

 

[Ban seabhag]

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Rachel is there any reason one couldn't use alfalfa pellets, and hay? Just wondering here what's possible...

 

[HaikuHeritageFarm]

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Rachel is there any reason one couldn't use alfalfa pellets, and hay? Just wondering here what's possible...

No, you can use pellets, but I kind of feel like that defeats the purpose of mixing your own feed in a lot of ways. Plus, then you have to buy two things instead of one thing that would fill both needs.

 

[PaulaJoAnne]

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Rachel is there any reason one couldn't use alfalfa pellets, and hay? Just wondering here what's possible...

We tried that route. The pellets are huge, plus our chicens thought they were toxic.
Did not smell good either.
I ended up making mash with it and mixing in scraps just to get them to finish the bag.

 

[Eveil]

Ok so I was wondering about my BCM's that just hatched. I got 5 little guys all black and white fluff balls with fluff on there legs so they look right. But one of them has red tinge to his head what is up with that is that normal. It is on top of his head.

Has anyone seen this before it looks very odd to me.

 

[MrsDeb]

Yep, thats normal. Remember the BCMs are a work in progress.....the two that I had who had red on them became roosters.

 

[Mrs MIA]

Jeanette, that's normal... that chick will likely have more "color" than the others. Tag it, and watch it.

Rachel, I tried feeding my chickens the alfalfa, and they shunned it too. Every once in a while hubby scoops up the feed that the rabbits spill, and tosses it in the chicken run... they'll eat it then. I even tried the cubes. They just kicked them around until the ground absorbed them. They'd rather eat the hay out of the nest boxes. I don't know about the rabbits, though...
That sucks about the bag of feed... I'm guessing it DID get wet at one point. And then you risk all sorts of toxic stuff...

 

[Ban seabhag]

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Same here.. Several of the 9 hatched were like that...

 

[Alaska animal lover]

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Did he vomit right after eating or later on?

It would be later, about 30 minutes. I put him back on his previous food and he was fine. I didn't even use the whole bag.

 

[PaulaJoAnne]

Good morning!
Thought you all would enjoy this post my mother did, on her "slow life" on the growing farm.
http://seedsofnutrition.com/?p=6453