Confused.......how can you afford to feed your chickens

[paisleycj]

Well, ok then, I'll feed them some cooked chicken. I HATE to see anything go to waste. My co-workers think I've lost my mind because of all the stuff I bring home now. I've got to be careful, I think my dogs eat more processed foods than I do at this point! They get all the various ham, processed turkey and beef roast scraps we make while I'm at work. I've limited the amount they get, they're both putting on too much weight. My co-workers do like feeding my dogs.

Quote:
I'm not aware of any safety issues feeding cooked chicken back to chickens. My girls dined on some leftover chicken pot pie last night. We have a "don't ask, don't tell" policy -- they don't ask what it is, and I don't tell them.

Seriously, there IS a biological safety issue feeding lamb or mutton back to sheep, or beef back to cattle, due to spongiform encephalopathy diseases -- scrapie in sheep, and bovine spongiform encephalopathy aka "mad cow" in cattle. But, none in poultry that we seem to know of to date.

Personally, I wouldn't give up the gift of such a high protein, nutritious free food. The chickens will love to have it. If you don't tell, I can guarantee they won't ask.

 

[Sunnybunny]

Yes- grain has gotten higher, but I have found by checking with the produce section of my local grocery store- I can get lots of 'day old' produce, ie- lots of grapes, watermellon rind (from when they make the cut mellon cups) with still an 1" of mellon on it- the girls love that! Also salads & tomatoes. My girls eat really well, and the eggs show it! I'm up to 55 chickens now- 35 of them were 'free' chicks from "chick day" at the local feed store
And I also pick up 'day old' bread from the local bakery- you've got to work the area, but you can find some great stuff out there. You are saving the grocery store from having to pay to haul away the older (by 1 day! most is just beautiful!) produce. I help them, they help me.

I have 2 horses, 16 Nigerian goats, 55 chickens (americanas, Oppingtons, RIR, Delawares, Bantams, and whatnot!) 6 golden reterivers, 2 cats

I have ALOT of animals to feed, and nothing goes to waste! Good luck!

 

[paisleycj]

My chickens are free range. However in Minnesota winters there isn't much around to range for. I try to supplement with anything I can get, but they are sorely missing their greens.

Quote:

 

[lorieMN]

Quote:
so feed the cooked chicken to your dogs.

 

[seedcorn]

Can we get past all chickens are not hormone free or they are all hormone free. Nobody feeds hormones to chickens, but every chicken produces hormones. Therefore every chicken served has the same amount of hormones.

 

[dmiravalle]

Quote:
I think people mistake a lot of the meat birds as having hormones because of the large size. Same thing with Turkeys. It is not the hormones, it's the genetics.

Now feeding them medicated feed and/ or supplements (vitamins) to help them be able to live to a grow out age and not lose as many birds, that would be a different subject and why a lot of people want "organic" birds.

(Ha Ha had to ad the smart alec face!!)

 

[KellyHM]

Quote:
I think people mistake a lot of the meat birds as having hormones because of the large size. Same thing with Turkeys. It is not the hormones, it's the genetics.

Now feeding them medicated feed and/ or supplements (vitamins) to help them be able to live to a grow out age and not lose as many birds, that would be a different subject and why a lot of people want "organic" birds.

(Ha Ha had to ad the smart alec face!!)

I just want to

all the ignorant people that INSIST there are hormones in the chicken meat they buy at the store.

 

[dmiravalle]

My kids have to deal with at fair every year, same with the beef. We don't implant any of the steers my kids show. Last year we had someone offer a lot more money to buy the steer BEFORE it went to fair, so hey, it all works in the end!

 

[queeneev]

Wow, I just spent 90 minutes reading all of these! I have an interesting way of supplementing my chicken feed, I just dialed in on it yesterday:

I had been wanting to go to grocery stores and get their produce discards, but I hit a brick wall at 3 places. They ALL said, with disdain, NO, you may NOT have our discards, and NO, you may NOT dig through our garbage. It was very disturbing, and even when I tried to negotiate, there was no budging. Some of you are very fortunate to have been able to get your grocer's discards. I must live in retardville. They all acted like I wanted to get away with stealing or something. I live in a very urban area, and most of the grocers are big box. I still have one local market to approach, but it's sort of a drive, which detracts from my goal (to keep costs down).

Ok, so I have been ruminating on *sneaking* into dumpsters. Yes it's questionable ethically, but COME ON....stealing food garbage is not something I will lose sleep over. It will make a world of difference to my chickens. if you want to scold me, please feel free, I've already been scolded by my (adult) children, and my spouse, so it's probably something I've already heard. On a 10 scale, I feel like 2 on the unethical side. The food is important to me. So, still ruminating....I had my eye on a nearby chinese take out restaurant, figuring their garbage would have a lot of greens and veggies in it. But they are open until 11 pm everyday and I just have not been able to drag myself out into the frigid weather at midnight to dive into a dumpster. Then, yesterday, I drove by an elementary school and noticed their dumpster was overflowing with their garbage bags. And that was my AHA moment...their garbage probably has a high proportion of food, and what is not food is going to be mostly paper, easy to figure out which bags are food and which are not. I stopped by yesterday evening and right on top were 2 giant CLEAR garbage bags filled with obvious food discards. I tossed 2 bags into my trunk and took them home and sifted through them. I ended up with about 8 pounds of fresh, YUMMY chicken snacks! Here is why this is a great source of food:

1. Fresh discards will arrive in the dumpster 5 days a week, except for summer, which I don't care about (my hens free range)
2. Discards can be obtained during normal waking hours.
3. Bags are clear, making the food bags easy to identify.
4. The food in these bags are what we are feeding our children, so, it must be reasonably good for the chickens.
yesterday's haul yielded 7 unopened fruit cups; 5 whole bananas; 3 ham and cheese sandwiches; 3 lbs of mac&cheese; 30 chicken nuggets
10 chunks of brocolli florets
5. The discards are between 1 and 7 days fresh.

-1. Dumpster diving is illegal.
-2. The food is gooey/wet/messy, as there are tons of half-drank discarded milk cartons mixed in. If you try this, you will get slimey up to your elbows.

I am not condoning this for *you*. I am just sharing how *I* am finding ways to be resourceful. If I get caught, I will repent and come up with another plan. It depends on whether I get caught by the custodian or a police officer.

I am considering making a deal with the school - I will give presentation(s) to kids about raising urban chickens if they let me dive once a week.

Other things I do (during winter):
* boil rice and oatmeal from time to time, always adding a large dollup of olive oil

* I also succeeded in having live greens in my garden greenhouse until mid-January (planted early September), but then everything died. This winter has been much colder than normal fore much longer than normal.

* I dug up 4 healthy chard plant in December and put them in pots in a sunny bedroom, and they are still thriving. They don't yield much, but every leaf is a treat to the ladies. And these chard plants will yield seeds this summer when I put them back outside (they are biennials) so I am getting a 2fer by bringing them inside over winter.

 

[SSO202]

Not sure if anyone has suggested this yet, but another good place to check is your produce manager at the local grocery. They sometimes will give you boxes of the expired produce which is still very suitable for the birds. I also have a local eatery that will scrape all the table scraps into a bucket for me once in a while. You want them to have a good diet, but a supplement of this "junk" will help to cut your feed bill some. Good luck...