Apple slices

[Iluveggers]

I am planning on growing extra storage squash this summer with the intent of having enough to give the flock a squash per week for vitamin A to keep the yolks an attractive yellow -- given that I'm trying to develop egg sales.

This is a fantastic idea. My girls love the seeds & tops/bottoms I cut off of the butternut & pumpkins I make! Thank you!

 

[3KillerBs]

This is a fantastic idea. My girls love the seeds & tops/bottoms I cut off of the butternut & pumpkins I make! Thank you!

C. moschata squash are one of the few things I can reliably grow on my sandy, nutrient-poor, and concrete-hard fresh ground.

I have enough rail fence to let them ramble around the edges of the yard.

 

[NorthwoodsChick]

No need to. The "treat" factor is blown out of proportion. I know there are lots of people on BYC who manage chickens the same as their parents and granparents used to, know it works, and just ignore any "you've got to use the balanced feed" posts

 

[Bryce Thomas]

Where do you learn all that chicken nutrition info? I would love to study and learn about it more : )

 

[Brooks_]

Much has been covered, but I'll add...Wanna raise chickens old school? Don't lock 'em up or use electric. Just deal with the ones that live long enough to get eaten. And no CX either.

 

[U_Stormcrow]

Where do you learn all that chicken nutrition info? I would love to study and learn about it more : )

The Internet. Many, many studies are published. The easiest way is to go to a known good source of decent info, like your local extension office or USDA/NRCS, give it a good read thru, make sure you get the gist of it, then look to the bibliography, and start following links. You can also look to developing countries to see if their research reaches similar conclusions, and how incorporation of local ingredients affect their feed recipes.

Once you've got a handle on the basics, troll the feed forums on BYC, see who is saying what, and what evidence they cite to back their opinions. If you are confident, jump in with your own input, be ready to defend your position. You can also look to professional/educational powerpoints as a way of testing yourself. If someone handed you the deck, and asked you to put on a presentation with it, can you? Try researching the answers to questions you don't know the answer to, as well. Its a good way of identifying what you don't know, and uncovering information you haven't previously reviewed.

You can also look for old books on poultry nutrition - many are free to read. You'd be surprised how many books from the 40s, 60s, and even early 80s highlighted ingredients and offered that they didn't understand WHY a particular ingredient was of benefit or problematic, because testing had not yet identified the cause, but experiments had repeatedly shown some noteable effect. Those books are also good sources for identifying assumptions present in old management styles which might not be applicable today.

Several of our members have made Articles or Threads capturing a host of useful resources.
Here's LauraVonSmurf's Thread (multiple topics)
Here's Casportpony's Thread (multiple topics)
Numerous Sources for "The Business Hen"
etc.

Additionally, you need a good source for information on individual ingredients. I recommend Feedipedia - not because its perfect, but because its database is quite large. If all your info comes from the same source, you can't find yourself "cherry picking" data to support your position - like this helpful offering from a pro-Barley trade group. Of course, Feedipedia.Org requires a good amount of knowledge to use properly, and as their own data discloses, there is WIDE variety in the nutritional value of many ingredients (VERY wide in some cases). If your ingredient comes with a guaranteed Nutrition label, use it.

Finally, you can ask - expect lots of answers. Evaluate the information offered, and decide for yourself. The people with more to their knowledge than mere anecdote are easy to identify, you will become familiar with BYC's best qualified posters on a given topic pretty quickly.

Hope that helps. I'm actually quite new to the whole BYC thing - not even two years into my chicken keeping journey. I started researching feed maybe 8 months ago?