Can’t afford rising feed prices

[Cat Ballou]

I’ve seen online that some people go feed-free with whole grain berries, bugs, and other foraging.
Has anyone here tried to cut back amounts by a good deal or even entirely omitted chicken feed?
I was planning on letting them summer over my garden bed this year instead of gardening, but husband is looking at abandoning the chickens all together. If he does that I’ll have to do a garden or lose both outdoor pleasures. (Because if I don’t labor on the weeds, and the chickens don’t than it’ll be impossible to get back.)
Hoping y’all have some better ideas than I’m coming up with.

Can you source scraps from friends, family, neighbors, and restaurants? Buy in bulk and your own feed? This is the time we need to rely on backyard chicken keeping the most - not give up on them. Tell your husband to go check the price of eggs now - 6 months after millions of poultry were euthanized by the USDA.

https://lancasteronline.com/news/lo...cle_acd572fe-d52f-11ec-a6be-732afc23accc.html

 

[Cat Ballou]

Methionine is also in a number of foods of animal origin: meat, fish, bugs, chicken eggs. In fact, egg white is listed as one of the very best sources for methionine for a human. (Of course the hen laying those eggs needs to get her methionine from her own diet.)

For a wild chicken foraging in a jungle, there would be plenty of sources of methionine-- bugs, mice, etc. The wild chicken would also lay fewer eggs, so she wouldn't need quite as much methionine as the domestic chicken who lays so many more eggs.

The problem arises when people try to prepare a chicken diet from cheap foods, usually plant-based. That's part of why older chicken food recipes contained meat. When the meat is omitted, soy or synthetic methionine becomes much more necessary. (The meat is omitted because it is expensive, or because some countries have rules against it. Meat still is found in some chicken foods, in some countries, and those feeds have less need of soy or synthetic methionine.)

I’ve been feeding Scratch & Peck for the raw, untreated organic grain. It lists fish meal as #5 ingredient but then has dl-methionine buried way down

 

[NatJ]

I’ve been feeding Scratch & Peck for the raw, untreated organic grain. It lists fish meal as #5 ingredient but then has dl-methionine buried way down

The fish meal may be more expensive, or using larger amounts may mess up the balance of some other nutrients, or they may be worried about the fish meal affecting the flavor of the eggs laid by the hens. Or they may be doing that for some other reason yet, that I haven't thought of.

 

[Sally PB]

I have 2 1/2 flats of eggs, thinking about pickling some

Have you tried water glassing as a method of preservation? That helped me get (mostly) through the egg drought. I'm going to do more next fall.

I've never had pickled eggs. I'm guessing a sweet pickle flavor...?

Yes, roses aren't edible, but good for significant other. Its the only concession I make to non useful greenery on property.

Ah, true. But they're beautiful, and that feeds the soul.

 

[The Truth Is Out There]

If you have extra eggs why not boil them then grind up the shells and smash up the boiled egg then feed that back to the chickens? That could help with feeding too?

 

[U_Stormcrow]

Have you tried water glassing as a method of preservation? That helped me get (mostly) through the egg drought. I'm going to do more next fall.

I've never had pickled eggs. I'm guessing a sweet pickle flavor...?

Ah, true. But they're beautiful, and that feeds the soul.

I haven't tried it, no. Generally, I have plenty of eggs for my own use, and enough buyers to remove extra. One of my 1 flat/week neighbors is ill, hasn't been eating, and another is out of town - which is how I suddenly swung from too few to too many.

...and we just hard boil them, shell them, and toss them in a big jar of pickle juice (finished a jar yesterday). After a week, we make deviled eggs with pickled eggs. 'cause I hate eggs, but find them perfectly acceptable in bread, pasta, deviled, in cakes/cookies, and so deeply buried by other ingredients that its hard to find the egg in my omelet. Also, mayo and lemon curd.

 

[raingarden]

We don't use many eggs except for baking and always have extras. I just break them into the chicken feed bucket and mix them in with a spurtle. It fortifies the cheap 15% protein crumbles and gets it up closer to 18% or so.

 

[Brooks_]

so deeply buried by other ingredients that its hard to find the egg in my omelet

 

[3KillerBs]

Y’all should definitely be raising your egg prices now. Go take a look at what your local stores are charging, because your customers probably are. They’ve certainly gone up here.

Indeed.

We shouldn't short ourselves by not keeping up with market forces.

The problem arises when people try to prepare a chicken diet from cheap foods, usually plant-based. That's part of why older chicken food recipes contained meat. When the meat is omitted, soy or synthetic methionine becomes much more necessary. (The meat is omitted because it is expensive, or because some countries have rules against it. Meat still is found in some chicken foods, in some countries, and those feeds have less need of soy or synthetic methionine.)

BINGO!!!!

I have never dabbled in making my own feed (because I know I can't do it at a reasonable price point), but I have read old chicken-keeping books and they relied heavily on both "meat scrap", skim milk, and whey (presumably leftover from on-farm production of butter and cheese).

 

[Iluveggers]

Indeed.

We shouldn't short ourselves by not keeping up with market forces.



BINGO!!!!

I have never dabbled in making my own feed (because I know I can't do it at a reasonable price point), but I have read old chicken-keeping books and they relied heavily on both "meat scrap", skim milk, and whey (presumably leftover from on-farm production of butter and cheese).

We decided to keep prices at $4 for customers who ordered from the farm before prices went up. Any new customers who inquire about eggs are sold them for $5, or 2/$9.