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

[tobin123]

How can you afford to keep your chickens?????We have gone from $9 a bag to $12 a bag for feed and cracked corn is going up as well.We have been walking the fields and found lots fo corn,I mean we have lots of corn.BUT I need to find a way to to crack in.I have been using our blender BUt I blew up 2 of them.
SO HELP

HOW DO YOUALL DO IT.
We have been offered $$$$$ for the whole flock but I really want to keep them!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[colowyo0809]

Quote:
How can you afford to feed your family eggs and meat from the grocery store that are full of antibiotics, chemicals and preservatives, all of which are found to be detrimental in the long haul to humans? Yeah, it may be cheap meat and eggs, but the price of those are going up as well, plus when you factor in the cost of the medical bills and subtract the entertainment factor there you have it. I'd druther give my $100 every six weeks to the farmer for the feed than to the dr every time I have to visit. *shrug* at least I have a better idea of what's going into my birds if I'm feeding them than if I'm buying it in the store. Plus, it just means more to me to have that meat and those eggs in the fridge that I helped produce, and chances are I'll allow alot less of that to go to waste

sorry, didn't mean to get on a soapbox. getting off now

 

[dlee]

Everything is going up in price & will continue to raise. I buy at least 600 lbs. of deer corn ( it's sold to people who hunt deer ) each fall. It was on sale for $3.99 per 40 lbs. at walmat & I have an old corn grinder that grinds it up into small pieces. I even built a sheet metal thing with a screen in the bottom to place over a bucket to catch the flour in. I now have about 20 lbs. of corn flour stocked up for cornbread, etc. Haven't bought an egg for 2 yrs. We even make out own bread. Also feed the chickens all the food scrapes we have left over & lots of greens out of our garden. Hope this helps you out.

 

[Katy]

You don't need to grind or crack it......they can eat it whole. Even my bantams eat whole corn with no problems.

 

[smith2]

Quote:
I don't know your situation, but I can give some ideas. Chickens can eat whole kernal corn right off the cobb unless they are little or have some particular reason they can't. You can hand shell it and just throw it in there to them. I feed mine all table scraps and stale cereal, bread, etc. My friends also give me stuff to feed them. I limit the corn/pellets they get because it will make them too fat and they will not lay well. I also don't feed mine too much of the scraps or junk. Do yours forage? I also buy a formula of feed that is available around here that is high protein 23% and mix it with the cheapest cracked corn I can find. We cut our feed bill by about a 1/3 last year doing all these things and the chickens just kept on laying. I also go to the bread store and get the clearance stuff; sometimes they just give it to me. Just some ideas.

 

[maizey]

Is it possible to downsize your flock? Keep enough to sustain your family but not so many that affording food for them becomes a problem?

 

[tobin123]

Quote:
How can you afford to feed your family eggs and meat from the grocery store that are full of antibiotics, chemicals and preservatives, all of which are found to be detrimental in the long haul to humans? Yeah, it may be cheap meat and eggs, but the price of those are going up as well, plus when you factor in the cost of the medical bills and subtract the entertainment factor there you have it. I'd druther give my $100 every six weeks to the farmer for the feed than to the dr every time I have to visit. *shrug* at least I have a better idea of what's going into my birds if I'm feeding them than if I'm buying it in the store. Plus, it just means more to me to have that meat and those eggs in the fridge that I helped produce, and chances are I'll allow alot less of that to go to waste

sorry, didn't mean to get on a soapbox. getting off now

Please don't apologize.I really understand where your coming from

I just want to make sure that I can afford it BC I do have neighbors that have chickens as well.Due to the economy I want to make sure we are okay BUT I am trying to teach our son that you can make it work,somehow.

 

[Lazy J Farms Feed & Hay]

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[HHandbasket]

I guess we are just lucky. We just recently added a 7th pullet to our flock, but we've had 6 hens for about 9 months now and don't go through very much feed at all. We have gone through half a bag of chick starter, one 50-pound bag of flock grower, and just opened a second 50-pound bag of flock grower (I don't feed mine layer pellets--they get the higher protein flock grower/meat builder-type stuff with free choice oyster shell). That's all the feed we've gone through in 9 months. They forage all day, plus we do give them scraps and treats (they are fiends for leftover rice or oatmeal or steamed veggies or scrambled eggs), but our feed costs are really nominal when we consider how much money we spend on our OTHER hobbies!

This week, the girls have been happy helping me turn over the ground in prep for the garden, and there have been so many worms and other things in the dirt--it's like Hometown Buffet (similar to Ryan's to you folks down south) for chickens!

 

[AZBootsie]

Here in AZ feed is 15$ a bag, so I too am looking for ways to cut the feed bill. I like the suggestion to mix with a high protien feed and plan on trying that this week. As soon as the weather warms up I will be planting BOSS and corn. It may or may not be less expensive here because the price of water is also zooming up. But, it will provide some shade for my babies. Last week they got all the weeds when I turned over the garden. I figure it is safe for them if the wild rabbits eat it?? Anyway, they liked them and it didn't seem to disagree with them.

Always looking for good suggestions!!