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

[OkChickens]

I get day old premade sandwiches from a local convenience store along with salads and a few fruits and vegetables. I am wondering if its ok because about half of the sandwiches have mayonnaise on them. Is this ok?

-Nate

 

[dmiravalle]

I have to wonder about all the discarded food. Do you really want what is in that "food" to feed to your chickens? They are usually heavily treated with pestacides, unless you are sneaking behind an organic market, plus LOTS of chemicals, especially in lunch meats etc. To me the point of "knowing" what I feed my chickens then hence put into my body is the whole point of having the chickens. There are healthier ways to do this. If you have little space, wine barrels make great planters and can grow lots of things. Sprouted food such as alfalfa, (and yes, it will sprout from left over hay, I have even had Wheat Straw sprout and my cows LOVE IT!) oats, etc., are a great nutritional source and much healthier than all the "Chicken Junk Food".

I do a program where we take 5 gallon home depot buckets, drill a few holes in the bottom, then use the lids to catch extra water and plant what we call a "Bucket o' Pasta Sauce". We include one Roma tomato plant, some italian parsely, etc. These have worked well for the groups we make them for (charity project). You could turn this idea around and plant some chicken healthy foods.

Just my input on the whole collecting garbage idea. So instead of flowers per say around your porch in planters, plant some chicken health food.

 

[MyKidLuvsGreenEgz]

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Wow ... pretty smart! Unfortunately closest school out here in the boonies is about 30 minutes away. Great idea tho!

 

[Beekissed]

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Not quite. Battery operations feed certain soy proteins that enhance or increase the natural hormonal release in the birds to stimulate early and more proliferant sexual maturity in their laying hens. Those hens are processed at the end of their time in these operations and used in chicken soups, processed chicken patties, etc. Those same soy proteins can and do influence the consumer's own hormone production levels.

 

[dmiravalle]

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Not quite. Battery operations feed certain soy proteins that enhance or increase the natural hormonal release in the birds to stimulate early and more proliferant sexual maturity in their laying hens. Those hens are processed at the end of their time in these operations and used in chicken soups, processed chicken patties, etc. Those same soy proteins can and do influence the consumer's own hormone production levels.

I have heard the rumors about this, but as of yet cannot find any signifigant studies or data on it, do you have any links?

 

[FireTigeris]

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Not quite. Battery operations feed certain soy proteins that enhance or increase the natural hormonal release in the birds to stimulate early and more proliferant sexual maturity in their laying hens. Those hens are processed at the end of their time in these operations and used in chicken soups, processed chicken patties, etc. Those same soy proteins can and do influence the consumer's own hormone production levels.

I have heard the rumors about this, but as of yet cannot find any signifigant studies or data on it, do you have any links?

ya'll might want to start a new thread, that sounds very interesting for the garbage in - garbage out type thing and I might need to change brands if you have any studies.

I'm curious too about the farm chickens having 1/2 cholesterol and 3X Omega 3 is true or not too.

 

[Beekissed]

I did once upon a time when it actually mattered to me to look it up. Since I raise my own and have done so for many years, it no longer matters to me to do any research regarding the merits of commercially raised poultry.

As to affording to feed a flock....I haven't read the whole thread but there are some folks on SS who sprout grains to feed their flock and so provide more nutrition and less feed consumption. I can get 100# of wheat here for around $8. I imagine it would take a long time to work through that bag if I were sprouting instead of feeding the grain outright. One could look into that if they cannot afford to feed their flock.

 

[MyKidLuvsGreenEgz]

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Just an idea ... instead of buying home depot buckets, you could go to a bakery or Sam's Warehouse bakery and ask for any empty icing/frosting buckets. They almost always have them, and have never charged me for them. They would need a good scrubbing first, but still... free is free, right?

NOTE: If this posts twice, sorry. Computer trouble.

 

[lorieMN]

is dumpster diving illegal?..I thought once it hit the garbage it was free for anyone to take if they wanted..I thought that because one guy was giving a little thing about scammers,and he said thats why people need to shred documents or things with names and address is because once it is in the garbage,it is not against the law for them to dig through and get info.

 

[nursrose3]

I does get expensive at times. My husband and I have a flock of 37. 34 Beautiful ladies (Red stars and Rhode Island Reds) and 3 (most of the time) gentlemen. We were buying chicken feed from a retail store, but like you we felt the continuously rising pricing wasnt going to work. We were raising several pigs that we had a ration mixed for by the local cooperative. We asked them what kind of mix and what kind of price would we be looking for on chicken mix. We were told to feed the pig feed ration to them it would be the same mix. You have to buy 1000 lbs at a time to get the deal on it, but maybe you and a neighbor could split the fee. In Kansas this weight would be about $160 and lasts for many months. It works out to between $8.50-$9.00 a bag. If you save the bags for next time you buy you can save a few bucks on the $1 per bag, bagging fee. These are all Kansas prices, but it should be fairly close. And, I truly hope this helps in some way.