cost of raising birds...

[Bammony]

You don't have two story fields? What's wrong with you? That's just how we do it here in Utah. But in Utah, everything's better!

 

[the1much]

 

[Bammony]

Keep it up Jim. Keep it up.

 

[Bammony]

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Is that jealousy I'm sensing? Aw.....isn't that sweet!

 

[the1much]

i must just feed too many wild birds with my chickens

i wish i only went through a couple hundred pounds a month

 

[gckiddhouse]

So, am I just insane? We have 10 hens and a roo. They are going through more than 50 pounds of feed a month plus they free range all day, and get kitchen scraps. They have really picked up how much they eat lately. I live in Phx, so it is still great weather here.
But here is the thing. I have been buying organic feed which is $25 per 50# bag. So we are spending more than $50 a month to feed them.
So, that is more than $5 per bird per month.
Those are some expensive eggs!!
what to do!?

 

[digitS']

Gckiddhouse, I'd say that's really expensive.

I haven't seen temps above freezing in 3 weeks. I bet my standard chickens would be eating nearly one-half pound of feed a day if I wasn't feeding so much food from the kitchen. You don't live at 49° northern latitude.

But, your birds are eating nearly one-half pound/chicken/day!

This may be controversial but . . . Here's what I did. Weigh their commercial feed daily and get them down to about 1/4 pound/chicken/day. Then give them something else like kitchen scraps. Try to make it healthy food and balanced - that's important.

For their commercial feed: I have a scale right beside the bag of feed and weigh their feeder every day. So, I know how much of that they are eating.

Here's an example: we cooked carrots and broccoli yesterday. The chickens got some of the carrot peelings and chopped broccoli stems nuked in a plastic bag. They also had left-over oatmeal from breakfast and an old roll. As well, I took out of the freezer a small bag of pumpkin from October's garden and nuked it for them. They love pumpkin and ate that first.

As long as they are eating 1/4 pound of commercial feed each day, they are probably getting adequate protein, minerals, and vitamins. Everything else can just be gravy . . . sorta.

But, you will need to weigh their feed to reduce your feed costs by 50%. And, be sure that they aren't getting junk.Replacing good food with junk won't help with production but they need extra calories during the Winter. No need to allow them to go hungry - that would be very unwise. My hens are laying at 80% daily.

Steve

 

[ssteiner]

digitS' :

Scott - Dear Hubby = DH

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Most of what is in commercial feed is grown and it may as well be grown on your land. Some of the "processing" is simple milling and some of that is done, probably, just as an aid to mixing.

The 1st 300-egg hen wasn't around until about 100 years ago - Lady MacDuff at what is now Oregon State University, owner James Dryden. I think most hens of that time were far, far short of that in production.

Professor Dryden wrote a booklet called "Feeding for Eggs" and he certainly seemed to know what he was talking about. For the most part, the foods that he is advising are things like beef scraps and ground corn with special attention towards proteins. You can download his booklet thru the OSU library.

Steve (somebody's Dear Hubby

)
Merry Christmas Everyone!

Wow thanks. That's been bugging me for weeks!

 

[the1much]

im gonna start feeding mine green jello

 

[Scrambled Egg]

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