Another Newbie In Washington State :)

PNWGirl

Chirping
7 Years
Hey All,
Mine is a round-about story to get here.


It all starts in April of this year. That is when the first of MANY dog food recalls began at Diamond Plants. Two of the holistic brands that I fed my dogs were on it. I could not have been more shocked. Here I was, paying a premium price, thinking that I was feeding the best for them, only to find out that it was being produced at a plant with a shockingly horrific past of poor to no sanitation and of processing the worst junk food around and not cleaning the production lines between runs or, at least keeping their holistic brands on a separate production line. The first people, hospitalized with Salmonella, were two of their own employees. To give you an idea of how bad the food is, that they run, look up the term "animal digest". It will gross you out. Needless to say, I will no longer feed any food produced at a Diamond Plant.

I am now making a grain-free wet food for my guys. I use organic, where ever I can find it. The chicken I cook but the rest of the fruits and veggies are raw. My dogs have never eaten as enthusiastically as they do now! I do feed a base of kibble but only 4 - 5 star and ones that have their own plants and use human grade ingredients.

I spent over 100 hours researching dog food and ingredients. I read USDA inspection reports on various processing facilities. During all of this I found out a lot more about what I was eating. One of the area's that made the biggest impacted to me was chickens-- both eggs and the meat I purchased. I had heard about the conditions but never really sank in until I was doing my research. At that point I began getting cage free, grain fed, zero hormones, and etc, eggs. I could not BELIEVE the difference in taste!! I also began purchasing organic chicken meat.

So now is the next natural step, to have my own birds for my eggs. I am in the process of getting the birds (got my first three chicks yesterday) and I already have their coop and yard. I am pretty excited. I know that I have a lot to learn but that is the fun part!!

Sheila :)
 
Welcome From Bellingham! I had the same problem with the Diamond dog food, , , for awhile I was cooking our pup venison and potato, but that got old for me after a couple weeks lol. This place is awesome for learning everything you want to know about Chickens. I just got mine in march and they have been a blast to have! Most people on here pretty helpful if you have any questions
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Hello, and
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!!!!! :D Aww... poor doggies... Curse that place !

What kind of chicks did you get ? I hear Cornish is the way to go with broilers !
 
I am starting off on the 'small' end of the scale; three Porcelain Silkie's. Hoping for hens as I will have to place any roo's. I live in a housing development and loud 'crowing' will be an issue with my neighbors.


I am not planning on getting any ‘meat’ birds right now. I just want the eggs and having fun with the hens. A friend has Bantams and she gets more eggs, than she can use, and give me a bunch. Other than being smaller, they taste just fine and since I have Pomeranians I seem to be drawn more to the ‘little’ guys in the poultry world (in fact are getting three Serama’s in about a month).


I have an old, 2-story, children’s play house that has been used only for storage. I am turning that into my coop and it has a fenced area- around it- that is about 14’ x 20’. That will be their ‘free range’ area.


Since I have decided, for now, to only have the little guys, this will allow me to have more diversity in my flock :)

Sheila :)
 
Thank you all for the nice welcome! :)

Hi Altonafamily,
I am supplimenting the new kibble (50/50 of Evanger's Pheasant & Brown Rice and Blue Buffalo Small Breed Chicken & Rice) with my own 'wet' food as that is one that seems to have more production issues with contamination. If I make it, then I can control the "production" and insure that it is created with the best ingredients on clean surfaces. It's 24% protein and, in my next batch, I'm going to bump that up to 28 or 32%. A friend, who's girl just had puppies, was having issues after the whelp. I gave her some of my food, to add to her kibble, and in a day her energy level was back and she was nursing fine.

I will be feeding my chickens organic as well. They will feel better and their eggs will be better for me and the 'fur-kids'. They are flippin' cute though!! Can't wait to see them as adults!

Sheila :)
 
Hello and welcome to BYC
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Glad you joined us!
 

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