Bob Blosl's Heritage Large Fowl Thread

[Jared77]

Ive raised meal worm cultures myself its so simple its criminal. Id get an aquarium and do it. Even a 20 gallon aquarium would give you a huge colony to work with. Very low upkeep costs, and if kept warm will go on and on and on. Id give it a try.

 

[centrarchid]

Do some math on your meal worm cultures to make sure sized correctly. I assume mealworms are intended to supplement, not replace, protein coming from other sources. How much protein per bird intended per day? How much worm biomass (size and number important)? How much space required to raise that many mealworms. These have been issues for me since we feed out a thousand or more per day making rearing of mealworms a bigger investment than the critters I am feeding.

 

[Cydney83]

Quote:
My favorite source of animal protein in the spring, summer and early fall is whey from cheesemaking. When we dry off the last of the does, I start picking out a big bucket of meat trimmings and scraps from the local butcher for the birds.

I wouldn't know where to find CLO in this area, but sure wish I did; none of the feed stores or pharmacies carry it anymore.

For this newbie....what do you consider "meat trimmings" and how do you feed it? Is there a meat protein you can add to the chickens regular feed..Thanks for your time.

 

[centrarchid]

Quote:
My favorite source of animal protein in the spring, summer and early fall is whey from cheesemaking. When we dry off the last of the does, I start picking out a big bucket of meat trimmings and scraps from the local butcher for the birds.

I wouldn't know where to find CLO in this area, but sure wish I did; none of the feed stores or pharmacies carry it anymore.

For this newbie....what do you consider "meat trimmings" and how do you feed it? Is there a meat protein you can add to the chickens regular feed..Thanks for your time.

Fishmeal can be used if local supply available. Keep addition to 10% or less of total diet. Will be expensive but can go a long way. Also look into blood and bone meals. You might be able to get those as well. I would like to try crawfish / shrimphead meal but those most likely restricted to gulf states.

 

[cgmccary]

danhonour: Most if not all of Purina poultry feeds are plant proteins too.It seems there is more money in putting the meat into cat and dog feed.Hence I buy dog and cat food as a suppliment for the hens

Purina Game Bird Chow contains both animal and plant protein. It comes in Startena (30%); Flight Conditioner (19%); Layena (20%); Maintenance (12%?). The Game Bird Chow is excellent feed, but it is pricey (at least it is here). The only other feed I use is Purina's Flock Raiser (which is in the SunFresh series and like the other feeds in that series, it only contains plant protein) -- I put it out for my geese but everything else helps themselves to it as well.

I understand that most of us are limited to what is available around us. For me, I do not use pellet food but crumbles & the Game Bird Chow is what is available to me locally as a crumble. With the higher protein % and animal protein in the Game Bird Chow, I do not have to supplement with cat or dog food.​

 

[Yard full o' rocks]

For those of you in the Southeast, I use Tucker Milling Feeds, manufactured in Guntersville, AL

Here is a statement from their website concerning the protein in their feed.

Tucker Milling uses only the finest ingredients to produce excellent quality nutrition for your birds. We include non-ruminant meat and bone meal to fulfill the omnivorous needs of your poultry. Poultry naturally consume insects and worms when they are free range, but in captivity they need supplements of this in their diet. This gives them the proper protein sources they need and can help curb pecking eggs and each other.

I usually buy their layer pellets (16%) and their SUPER layer (22%) and mix it giving me a 19% mix. Seems to perform very well for me. If your feed store does not have it, perhaps its worth asking them to order it for you

Here is a link to their website

http://www.tuckermilling.com/

 

[buffalogal]

Quote:
Trimmings are what is left over when a butcher processes a carcass. It's the parts and pieces that are not packaged for human consumption, IOW, when a bag of feed says "animal protein" or, what you'll see on better grade pet foods: "high quality beef by products", that's what it means) We started picking it up for the LGDs, and the chickens would also get out there and steal what they could. Now I just boil up some for the birds separately, and throw out roughly a couple of pounds every few days for each group of 10 to 15 birds.

All my older books that have recipes for mixing your own feeds have "meat scraps" or fish meal listed as an ingredient, but you should know that too much fish meal or fish by product in the ration can taint the eggs, giving them a fishy aftertaste. This isn't a problem with beef scraps; I haven't found an egg that tastes like a hamburger yet.

Also, if the local processor handles pigs and you end up with a barrel of pork scraps, you'll want to make sure all the trimmings are thoroughly cooked before you feed them to either chickens or dogs.

 

[saladin]

I feed deer hearts and livers during season. Get all I want for free from the deer-cooler. Birds love blood. I nail the livers to the side of the chicken house where the birds have to jump to get a bite: exercise and protein at the same time.

During off-season I use Hunter's Blend Dog Food which contains no corn: 21% protein if memory serves me correctly.

I prefer the hearts and livers! (so do the birds)

 

[cherylcohen]

Quote:
WOW great idea...do you cook the livers first

oh wait just re-read....they love blood...ick

 

[Chickielady]

http://www.westvet.com/collibacilliosis.htm

I read the SPPA articles and gave special attention the the article on bleach in the birds' water...I had an issue with this last fall, with birds in a flock sneezing, coughing, unable to breathe and dying despite the $$$ of antibiotics I used...I went through Sulpha, into Tetracycline, then into injecting tylan for MG, and it went on and on, and I sent a bird to the Washington State Avian Health Lab, and then did cultures and necropsy (weeks have gone by now) and the cultures take more time, the bird examined, a blue copper marans hen, was found to have heavy sinus musous...
Then after surfing the internet and going NUTS for help, I found the article above.
2 cups of household bleach (CHEAP!!) in a gallon of water in a milk jug....from this solution, add 1 Tablespoon to a gallon of water for your birds that are healthy, and 2 Tablespoons of the solution to the water if your birds are sick...and all was well....
I lost several extremely expensive birds, Golden Cuckoo Marans Cockeral, among many others, and hundreds of dollars from one antibiotic after another...and all I needed was chlorine.
The birds dip deep, and rinse their beaks and sinus cavities...it cleansess the crop...and within 1 hr of giveing this solution...all was well.
It was amazing !
Wanted to say thanks for the article !!!
What they had was Collibaciliosis, E. Coli infection of the head/sinus...from water untreated by chlorine from our well...our home water is treated, our bird water was not.
And as it says in the SPPA article, bird feaces kicked into their water can reproduce and cause a build up of all sorts of nasty bacteria, even at cold temps.
Mind you, I scrub and clean bird water buckets every day...I do not use fonts left for days...I also use a biosecure system of washing one's boots in the same water with a few tablespoons of the bleach solution described.
So, everyone read the article in the winter bulletin of the SPPA, read what Charles Everett says about bleach in the bird's water.