Does anyone feed organic? If so, do you make your own?

[skatcatla]

I'm having a tough time finding organic feed..I've only found a couple of sources online and its expensive; plus its not local which, in my mind, sort of defeats the purpose of buying organic.

So, I'd like to make my own but I am not sure where to start. I have only four girls, 4 weeks old right now. Once they move outside they will be allowed access to the grass and yard a couple times a day, but for most of their day they will have to stay in their coop and run.

 

[PurpleChicken]

Blue Seal has an organic line that is twice as expensive as regular feed.
You must have a Blue Seal dealer close who can special order it for you.
http://www.blueseal.com/livestock/organiclife/
I've used it as well as regular Blue Seal grower. They seem to like it.

Now that I let my birds free range a few hours a day they don't eat very much
regular feed so I stick with the $12/50# bag of Blue Seal or Nutrena feed.

Free range food is about as organic as your gonna get. I also feed them
steamed rice, fruits, vegies, pasta, pizza, cracked corn, scratch, chicken (yup chicken),
and pretty much everything else. THEY LOVE WATERMELLON.

Do a search. I know a few folks here make their own feed.

 

[skatcatla]

Purplechicken: awesome THANKS! I've slowly been figuring out from searching the internet that they should be able to eat quite well on just grass, insects and table scraps..except then I read one website that recommended against table scraps as being "too rich"...so I wasn't sure about it.

thanks for the Blue Seal link as well! I'll look into it. Sadly there are very few poultry feed stores around here.

 

[rosyposyosy]

i have never actually found afordable organic feed online... but when i went to the feed store i got a 50 lb bag of it for $17

 

[PurpleChicken]

Quote:
The "too rich" thing I can't explain. I do know to stay away from greasy or
salty table scraps.

My concern for you would be winter when bugs and grass are hard to come by.
Chicken feed or feed you make yourself will be their primary source of nutrients.

Where are you located? There has got to be a feed store somewhere close by.
I never realized how many feed stores there were until I got my babies.

Don

 

[GoodEgg]

The lady who supplies eggs to our store mixes her own feed for her flock, and buys organic.

We used to order all of it for her from a coop (Ozark) who unfortunately shut down after merging with General Mills.

They have re-organized another coop called Morningside Organics and are refilling that route slowly now. Other co-ops are out there ... depending on where you live? Most are more local.

I am interested in this as well, but I don't have a lot of information yet. I was planning to talk to her about it some day. I think she used some corn, but she feeds fish meal, and flax, and DE, and I don't know what-all. I'll try to ask her when I see her, but I have to ask about the DE already and when she comes to deliver eggs she usually has about half a dozen children with her, and if we are busy at the store there really isn't much chance for conversation.

I can't afford it until the co-op starts to deliver here (and they are delivering 45 miles away now!). You might check with a herb or health food store in your area to see if they do any co-op ordering.

If there are any mills around you , it might be possible to buy at a better price from them if they carry any organics.

I wish I was an expert and could really help, but that's the little I know. If you look around, hopefully you can find some resources and get more information.

Good luck!

trish

 

[Barnyard Dawg]

My wife likes to feed our chickens steamed rice mixed with some crumble feed and we also add DE. They just gobble up the rice; we will also grow corn for them, and feed them vegetables from our garden they love steamed zucchini and squash that gets to big for us. Blackberries, figs and watermelon are some of their favorites. We also let them free-range on grass and bugs. In their water we add raw apple cider vinegar. We will also add flax seed we grind in a coffee grinder occasionally in their feed. There are so many options you have, we will grow a winter grass so they have it available all year.

 

[skatcatla]

Thanks all for your replies!

I am smack in the middle of Los Angeles, so growing my own cover grops is going to be somewhat limited. The good news though is that because of the warm climate, I have grass and bugs in my yard all year for them, and I don't think they will be needing a LOT of grain. And since I only have four girls, I might just be able to buy what little grain they will need at the local organic grocery store and cook it for them. I was thinking barley and brown rice would be good.

I've also started just talking up the folks at the farmer's market to see what they feed their chickens; and I also started corresponding with another chicken-owner who lives in Los Angeles. She says she just feeds them fruit, veggies and small amounts of leftover grains. She doesn't give them any prepared feed at all.

I think I'm going to use up their chick feed and grower feed and then make the transition from there to whole foods and see how they do. I do have whole flax seed I can grind for them too.

Keep the ideas coming though..this is such a helpful conversation!

 

[Nyna]

I would read the nutrition information on some different feed bags and try and mimic that. I know that if they are layers it is very important to give them calcium. They could get that from organic yogurt or their egg shells. I think that is a really cool idea. I think it might be a little hard for me to do having seven and pretty rough winters, but good luck!

 

[Backyard Buddies]

Quote:
My local feed store in Orange County had organic feed in the last time I was there because someone has special ordered it. It was in crackle form and I use pellets with my girls, so I didn't get it at the time. If you want to give the feed store a call and see if they still have it, they are:

Midway City Feed Store
14941 Jackson St.
Midway City, CA 92655-1252
(714) 893-2613

Midway City is an unincorporated area near Huntington Beach and Westminster, right off the 405 Fwy.

Edited to add: I think the 50 lb bag was close to $20, so it wasn't cheap!

I'm going to be following this thread because I'm interested in pursuing this as well.