BREEDING FOR PRODUCTION...EGGS AND OR MEAT.

[Beer can]

I've been lurking here a bit and wanted to ask, while you guys are on the subject of feed; Do any of you use fermented feed with your breeders? And/or do any of you try to produce your own chicken feed with gardens/mealworms/etc?

Where I'm at, nobody seems to care about anything organic or frufru, the types of feed are always changing at the feed stores, and a couple of the smaller ones have reduced what they have available to only a few options. I can't even get non-medicated chick starter anywhere so I have to go with game bird feed. I have to drive almost two hours just to get non-medicated goat feed. I just don't believe in medicating before there is anything wrong, so sue me...

I guess where I'm getting at, is I would rather not have to rely on the ever-changing feed stores and if I can produce my own feed, and breed chickens more suitable to free ranging, all the better. I just don't know enough to make sure they are getting all the nutrition they need...yet...

I do not use medicated chick feed either.
I grow cabbages for the chickens, store a long time, they went through them quick. Have a big bed of kale in the garden, still good even with freezing and snow, tough stuff. I ordered a 1/4 lb of giant mangel seeds from R H Shumway seeds to try this next winter for the tops and roots. Link to mangels; http://r.search.yahoo.com/_ylt=A0LE...hickens//RK=0/RS=2dVuZs1IogT2Lo6d7DkGc0Jxxvc-
During the summer I have a pond full of duckweed, they love it and the little frogs, tadpoles, leaches that get scooped up with it. I grind small blue gills/sunfish and perch whole, fish burgers, they love them. I sometimes add free 40% solids condensed whey from work, they don't seem to care much for it though. Thought about adding ground wood chuck or road kill deer...
ALL organic of course

Edited to add, I go back and forth on the fermented feed, not sure if it is worth it, feeding them it right now.
I look at cost, if I don't see any negative effects to being frugal, I'll continue. I don't care about decimal points in growth or egg laying, but I do enjoy reading everyone's opinions/facts, learning here every day.

 

[Kassaundra]

Raising chickens can be a simple or complicated as you want to make it. Chickens have existed and thrived in human captivity for millennia and been fed on everything from scraps of very, very poor peoples to premium, high dollar manufactured chicken feed and still grew big enough to eat, and still made plenty of babies. For example some people ferment their chickens food, now that is as easy as food (grain based) + water + time = fermented feed, but there is a thread 1700+++ pages long on people complicating it.

Chickens are omnivores like humans are omnivores look at humans some people eat junk and crap all their lives and still make babies and grow and develop still live well into old age, even w/ unhealthy practices of smoking, drinking and poor eating, others do everything "right" and get taken out early by disease.

I am not saying feed your chickens crap, I am saying you don't need a collage degree to feed chickens, and you don't need to stress about feeding chickens.

 

[neopolitancrazy]

In regards to fermented feed, all the research I have read strongly supports fermented feeds for all us non-ruminants. From personal experience, I recommend against fermenting anything with fish meal in it-ugh! The moistened feed is much more difficult for the birds to bill out of their feeder, but my work schedule dictates using dry feed in feeders large enough to last several days to a week between refills. The moist feed sticks and lodges instead of sifting down to the trough. So, I add probiotics to their water.

In regards to deterring potential predators, get your own (LGD, farm dog,) and give them the run of your property, 24/7. Your dog on your property is a pet/employee. A dog off its owner's property is a predator.

In regards to dealing with known predators, shoot, shovel and shut up.

Best wishes,
Angela

 

[angry rooster]

If you don't have the stomach for killing dogs or if you want to give your nabors the benefits of the doubt get a cheap slingshot or pellet gun and shoot the dogs in the ***
I had a dog running around my house that looked like it came out of the grinch that stole Christmas( I have the coop and run completely fenced-in there are more mink and falcons around me then there is grass so they where safe ) I tried to say calm but after calling the dog catcher and then seeing the mutt chasing my dog that was yet to be fixed I called my dog inside and the true dog snuk in to so I tried to grab it's caller the dam thing bit me then I had enough so I did grab it by the back of the neck and tossed it out and jest to spite me it ****** on my truck so I put some pebbles from a slingshot in its hind quarters I have seen the dog since but never close to my property
Good luck antfarm I hope Dumbledore recovers soon

 

[angry rooster]

That is funny I did not know it would sensor the other words for but and pee

 

[ronott1]

That is funny I did not know it would sensor the other words for but and pee

Be careful, too many of those censures will get you an infraction.

Welcome to BYC!

 

[Fire Ant Farm]

Thanks so much everyone! I think I should have clarified that the little Cream Legbar family are essentially pets - they were my first, it just turned out that way. I've learned and I'm less attached to subsequent chickens, but haven't been able to "undo" my feelings for these, so I have accepted that for their lives, these four chickens will feel like pets to me. {{{shrug}}} Anyhow, I realize this probably wasn't the best place to post it (not really being a "pet" forum), it's just that this is the first place I thought to come to ask for help. I appreciate EVERYONE'S input (including hellbender!). And reactions to the photo made me double check everything (and ultimately got to the vet, see below).

I didn't sleep well last night, and then I was so frazzled that I wasn't thinking straight, and in my frazzle I was worried that I might have missed a serious injury (trying to examine him solo was hard to do), especially because this AM I identified a small chunk taken out of his wattle and another bite near the side of his crop. So I found a good avian vet with experience treating chickens and took him in this AM. I'm glad I did, as at the time I felt I needed a second opinion on how he was, help in getting a thorough examination, and was too tired to even think straight. Between three of us, we got a good examination done. I had not missed anything, and except a small number of shallow bites, most of it was road rash and having been plucked. She put him on antibiotics (one or two areas had started to redden/swell a bit) and a pain killer and said he should be fine. It was expensive (no surprise), but it was worth it for my peace of mind in this case, as it was my first chicken injury to treat.

I have just blocked off the areas where I believe the dogs got into the yard, but I'm not letting any of the chickens out today (the NNs are SO grumpy about that). I want to be able to do another survey to feel comfortable that I didn't miss anything when I'm less tired. The vet said that if I can identify or get the dogs, that there is a mandatory animal control quarantine for any dog that attacks another animal.

Anyhow, thanks, everyone, you're the best!

Enough about that, now back to our regularly scheduled feed discussion...

- Ant Farm

 

[AnthNDacula]

Raising chickens can be a simple or complicated as you want to make it. Chickens have existed and thrived in human captivity for millennia and been fed on everything from scraps of very, very poor peoples to premium, high dollar manufactured chicken feed and still grew big enough to eat, and still made plenty of babies. For example some people ferment their chickens food, now that is as easy as food (grain based) + water + time = fermented feed, but there is a thread 1700+++ pages long on people complicating it.

Chickens are omnivores like humans are omnivores look at humans some people eat junk and crap all their lives and still make babies and grow and develop still live well into old age, even w/ unhealthy practices of smoking, drinking and poor eating, others do everything "right" and get taken out early by disease.

I am not saying feed your chickens crap, I am saying you don't need a collage degree to feed chickens, and you don't need to stress about feeding chickens.

Well put Kassaundra. People, pigs, possums and p...chickens are all omnivores.

If it's good for us it's good for them.

 

[AnthNDacula]

In regards to fermented feed, all the research I have read strongly supports fermented feeds for all us non-ruminants. From personal experience, I recommend against fermenting anything with fish meal in it-ugh! The moistened feed is much more difficult for the birds to bill out of their feeder, but my work schedule dictates using dry feed in feeders large enough to last several days to a week between refills. The moist feed sticks and lodges instead of sifting down to the trough. So, I add probiotics to their water.

In regards to deterring potential predators, get your own (LGD, farm dog,) and give them the run of your property, 24/7. Your dog on your property is a pet/employee. A dog off its owner's property is a predator.


In regards to dealing with known predators, shoot, shovel and shut up.

Best wishes,
Angela

 

[AnthNDacula]

Here's an interesting article worth looking at from Dr. Brigid McCrea comparing the performance of Delaware and Ameraucana chickens on small farms. Watch for Dr. MacCrea. She seems to be doing some really interesting stuff.

http://www.chickenwhisperermagazine.com/articles/pastured-egg-performance-delaware-vs-ameraucana