Consolidated Kansas

[22qZoo]

OQB- that picture is awesome !

 

[HEChicken]

OQB, that photo is really great - it looks like a metal statue!

 

[chicken danz]

OQB, I actually thought it was a statue until I enlarged it. Very good. I think you have a buddy there! At least she is smart enough to know where the food is. I imagine later on you'll have wild turkey Toms moving in trying to mate your girls. At least it will be entertaining.
It's 20 degrees this morning. But the forecast for tomorrow is awful. It's supposed to get below zero tonight with a chill index of -18 then not all that much better during the day tomorrow. Same for tomorrow night but warmer on Friday.
I was going to go pick up my pork tomorrow but in view of the weather I may postpone it. I really don't want to spend more time outside than necessary. I'm going to have to go get a load of feed in the next couple days as well. Would someone PLEASE bring some warm weather back! This is probably the coldest winter I remember in a long time. We haven't had all that much snow but the constant cold has been unreal.
When I lived in OKC we were already planting an early garden by now. Usually planted peas in January at a minimum. And I had all my other plants like tomatoes already started.

 

[zigzag45]

I soaked my first round of wheat berries for fodder overnight, which ended up being 24 hours as I ran out of time this morning. I read both ways, either 12 hours, or 24 hours! I sure hope this works! I don't see how I could mess it up to much, other than forgetting to rinse it often!

That's funny, I started my first jar two days ago. I did my original soak for 12, now I've got nice "sprouts" coming from the berries - my kids were excited. One thing I read on a blog post (lost the link) is that barley has no GMO options. So, I think I'll see if I can find some and sprout it for my girls so they can have something that is nonGMO.

I'm looking for more nutrition than they are getting from the bagged feed. My Chickens for Dummies book stressed so heavily not messing with their feed much, instead trusting the commercial stuff. Chickens have way more specific health needs than the breeds 100 years ago, they can't get by on your grandma's kitchen scraps anymore.... things like that. The book is based out of the UK where it's illegal to take food from the kitchen to the birds - they stressed that alot to. My gut feeling is that it was a bit overboard. Forgot who, but someone here was feeding horse poo to their birds, that probably would have flipped the authors out.

I want my birds laying well (which they have been, 9 birds, 5-6 eggs a day through the winter) but fodder, veggies, things like that have got to be a great addition to their diet. Now to see if they will eat what I'm growing. My berries are sprouted and I've placed them on a sprouting mat to help.

I also realized that since I'm getting my bagged feed from a local mill, I'm at least pretty confident the grains were grown under US law oversight and not barged in from ????. Still GMO, but maybe a little better than what is being imported.

 

[HEChicken]

The book is based out of the UK where it's illegal to take food from the kitchen to the birds - they stressed that alot to. My gut feeling is that it was a bit overboard. Forgot who, but someone here was feeding horse poo to their birds, that probably would have flipped the authors out.

OMG seriously? Illegal? So they have kitchen scrap police going around issuing tickets for breaking the law??? Wow - I am stunned. I am so pro-freedom that I have a really hard time with ridiculous government oversight of our lives, but this takes the cake.

Ummmm….yeah….that was me. Its not exactly that I feed horse poop to them as that I carry tubs of horse feed out and allow them to scratch through it. They find the undigested grain that passes through, and any bugs that might have got into the poop as well. In addition, there are seeds from the hay they eat, plus a little partially digested hay itself.

I know a lot of people are a lot fussier about their birds than I am, but mostly I relaxed after sitting and watching them for hours. For example, I noticed that although I attempted to keep their water bowl scrubbed clean and full of fresh, clean water, given a choice between the clean water in the clean bowl, and the muddy water in a puddle nearby - they chose the muddy water 9 times out of 10. So that told me that imposing human standards - our desire for clean water - on them, isn't necessarily what THEY deem to be preferable. Perhaps there are minerals in the muddy water that are absent from the clean water. Perhaps they just like the flavor better. The thing is, I can't stop them from drinking the muddy water, but I can relax a bit about their bowl of water and not feel like I have to dump it out and scrub it every time it doesn't look perfect.

The same with food. I can - and do - buy what I believe is a high quality feed. But they also have access to free-range and when I watch what they are eating out there - pecking through a pile of cat or dog turds, eating all kinds of bugs, grasses, weeds, seeds, a mouse that runs by, the maggots that are growing in the mouse that died last week, practically anything that blows into the yard - then I realize that their standards are slightly different than mine

 

[chicken danz]

I agree HEChicken. There's a long list of things you aren't supposed to feed to your chickens. But I watch them. They NEVER eat spoiled food or anything that will hurt them...with the exception of mold. And I've seen them pick through old food in the trash burn bin though and they are careful to pick only the good stuff and leave mold or spoiled stuff behind.
People always used to run hogs behind cattle to clean up the grain and chickens picked even further. So it worked for our grandfathers. I've not resorted to that yet but probably only because I don't have horse poo right here.
The idea for it to be illegal to feed kitchen scraps is insane.
I know in the US it's illegal to feed scraps from restaurants or food institutions to any livestock. I just read that the law does exist in the UK but it isn't enforceable unless the chicken has been taken to the vet and the vet sees evidence of it.
Years ago my husband at the time drove a truck from Dolly Madison to a farm in Missouri every evening. It was all loaded with day old bread and items that weren't perfect. The kind of things they sell in the outlet stores now. This stuff was free to the farmer other than what he paid us to deliver it and the cost of the truck and gas. He had a huge hog operation and we'd drive this big farm truck over every night and dump it directly in the field. The hogs would dig the paper/plastic off and eat the goods. So he was feeding hundreds and hundreds of hogs for no feed cost.We were poor. My husband was in college, and driving the truck was the only income we had in the winter. We also farmed a little. We would stop at home and crawl in the back and pick out bread and treats for ourselves a couple times a week. One of my most prized possessions is a beautiful embossed metal container that had a fruit cake in it. I wish I had taken a bunch more. The hogs obviously couldn't open the metal containers. I've kept embroidery supplies in that container for 40+ years. And the fruit cake was great. I do like fruit cake though!
That all came to an end when they passed the law making it illegal to feed the livestock that stuff. So when it became illegal to feed it to the hogs they opened the outlet store and sold it. Not good enough for pigs but good enough for humans!!
I hate government interference. At a time it was really necessary for unclean conditions in meat processing plants but they have gone so overboard with the rules its insane.
The one thing I do agree with is chickens that are penned in a small coop with no access to free range at all. Those chickens need a regulated diet. They need a feed formula that gives them what they need since they can't get out and scavenger for what they want. I feel sorry for my breeders who never get to free range. If I ever get a poultry facility built like I'd like I would be letting one breed out a day so they would have a chance to free range. The other option would be to keep the roosters all contained but I think their free ranging is important to health of the offspring as well.

 

[Trish44]

I agree Danz, I wish there was some way to free range all of the birds, but you can't keep the breeds pure if you let them all out at once. I would be concerned too about losing expensive birds because I don't have a nice fenced area for them to range in like some people, they just go where ever they want & that includes higher risk areas in hedge rows & such. I know I have lost a few birds over time to animals lurking in the trees behind our garage. There is deep cover there & is a perfect spot for a fox or coyote to hole up & grab a chicken as they come in looking for bugs or other treats. I do have the dogs here but they can't be everywhere at once. If they hear something they go after it, but it can be too late sometimes. I told my DH one day before I fell & broke my leg that I was standing outside when both dogs took off at a dead run & when they're running hard they make this huff huff sound & they ran right by me. They hear things I could never hear. I watch those dogs & often one will be up on the hill to the north & the other one will be watching the lower yard to the south, they're really amazing dogs. Anyway, I got off topic, but I wish I had more greens to feed my birds in the winter. I tried the sprouts, I got the jars & seeds & all but they really weren't that excited about them. Maybe just growing grain in a metal container would be better & easier for them to eat. I know if you just take scratch & wet it that it will sprout. My scratch I get here includes whole grain wheat, so maybe that would be good. I know the birds miss the green stuff in the winter.

That's crazy that the government made it illegal to feed old bread to hogs! How could that possibly be bad? So we can eat it but the hogs can't, wow.

 

[Ralph Moyer]

I had an old farmer friend, who is now deceased, that would not eat chicken in any form; and that included eggs. He said that he knew what they ate, as he watched what they ate as a boy growing up on the farm. I guess he believed you are what you eat. LOL

 

[tazcat70]

My local feed store sells Purina only. The Layena and Flock Raiser are the same price, and since I have free choice on oyster shells, I feed the FR. It has a little bit higher protein. It only comes in crumbles tho. I would love to try them on Renee's mix, but I just can't afford that. I know that they would ultimately eat less. Mine get all sorts of scraps. I have even fed them chicken. I just realized I haven't done that for awhile. My chickens were in the back yard and I would feed the cats on the back porch. Here at this house, the cats are fed on the front porch....so kitties get all the chicken.

During molting I usually give them some cat food to help them.

Danz, I have seen some small farmers with loads of bread for their ducks. I *think* that you can still get it, you just have to know who to ask.

 

[tazcat70]

I had an old farmer friend, who is now deceased, that would not eat chicken in any form; and that included eggs. He said that he knew what they ate, as he watched what they ate as a boy growing up on the farm. I guess he believed you are what you eat. LOL

I have a cousin who worked at a chicken farm. He won't eat it either. I tried to get an answer from him once...what he said was. There was a row of chickens with 4 cages of birds on top of each other. He said they would feed the top cages food, and the bottom cages would only get the droppings from the top. That was all I got from him. He was scarred by whatever he saw.