Feeding chickens for cheap

[oldrooster]

We have a small local Abattoir (slaughterhouse) where we take our beef cows. I got to know the folks and they started asking me if I wanted hearts and tongues that people don't take, for our dogs (Great Pyrenees = eat a lot). Then they asked if we wanted to go through the awful barrels for bones, meat scraps and suet. Boy do the chickens love that! I laugh when I read all of the posts about meal worms for protein because it seems like so much work. But then I have roughly 100 girls. That would take a lot of meal worms. It's a lot easier if you can find a source like this that is just going to go to waist anyway. I can stop in and get 50 to 100 pounds of goodies and put them in the freezer and use it as needed. In the winter we don't even freeze it, just through it out in the chicken yard and let the girls work on it for a month or so. It's amazing what is available for free.

OMG!!!!!! you actually feed the hearts and tongues to the dogs?????? In my book unless it is somehow tainted it's HUMAN food!!!!!!! heart is a good meat to use in soups and tongue is a sandwich meat.

 

[laura625]

Ok,
Once my birds sre full grown, I will happily cut down on the pllets. They free rang all day, get all sorts of suplemental vegs andd protien, snd I am def gonna try thatzapper trick ad soon as we get or solar electricity set up.
But, here is my question: how do iknow they are getting enough?
The main reason I feed pellets at all is becaus they are" nutrifionallybalanced" I addume that means theyll get all their vitamins etc If they eat a full ration. See what I mean?
On my limited experirnce,chickrns dont necessarily eat only whats good for them Or only as much as they need.
Do you alljust figure that if they Look bealthy and lay eggd tbey are good?
And BTW I feedorganic ad well, ( $24/50lbs, hope to cover with egg sales) because not only do I not want to Fred, and then eat, all those petro chemicals, I dont want them spread all over the landd where the feed is grown bad for the land, wayer, workets and the economy.
Just my 2cents.

 

[Headgear]

Quote:
My wife feeds our dogs raw food as much as possible. She is already hounding me about "when does deer season start?" so she can feed them deer meat also. I'm probably the only guy in Indiana that has to go hunting instead of wants to go hunting. There are many deer hit on our street and she always pays attention to she if there is a fresh one and calls me on her way to work. If I have time, I call the Sheriff and let him know, then go down and get it, gut it, skin it with the Bobcat (two minutes, love it), cut the whole thing up with a Dewalt saws-all and put it in week sized portions in the freezer. An hour or so later we have a months worth of free food for the dogs and chickens. Its a lot of work and its not for the squeamish but it has to beat meal worms effort wise. I was reading a thread where someone was taking meat and using it to raise maggots then feeds them to the chickens. If the nutrition for the maggots is in the meat, why not just feed the meat straight to the chickens? Oh well that's another topic.

It amazes me how many tongues and hearts they have that people don't take at the slaughter house. Many times I will go down every couple of months and come home with a hundred pounds or so and they are giving it to other customers as well. There is no end to the amount of bones, meat scraps, and suit I can get which is excellent for the doggies and the chickens not to mention the woodpeckers. Of course I have to keep the coons whittled down pretty good though with all those scraps laying around. They get tired of steak and want a chicken dinner every once in a while.

 

[Tammy N]

your wife is doing a great Job I have a link that is awesome I buy chicken Backs for 59 cents a pound .
I buy legs and whole chicken for 69 a pound

I also get Ox tails for 3.15 a pound

here is the link it will help save some dough.
http://www.rawfitpet.com/pb/wp_e0f369a4/wp_e0f369a4.html

Good luck and tell her thanks and i hope this helps Tammy

 

[Headgear]

Thank you, she does do a great job. We also have a turkey processing plant near us and she gets a 30 or 40 pound box of necks for $15.00 for a change for our Pyrenees. Deer processing places are another good source of protein for dogs or chickens also.

 

[KimKimWilliamso]

I feed my flock a commercial pellet (though I would switch to an organic feed if I could bloody well find it in my area, LOL) and I have 20 less Chickens than you do, so there arent many similarities to our scenarios.

But I did just want to add that I notice I lose A F**K LOAD of feed to wild birds. My feeders are too big to fit in my coop (went a little oveboard when buying feeders, and bought ones that are intended for large flocks, and I have a small flock of five, LOL) so they are under an overhang, but still accessible to the wild brirds. While I find my flock does not flick much out, I do notice that the sparrows, magpies, etc will perch on the overhang and feast on the feed. My rooster wouldnt hesitate to take one of my kids out while they are collecting the eggs, but he leaves the wild birds to eat the feed as they please. Im guessing the only way to fix this is put the feeders inside the coop, which Im guessing I'll have to do in the winter anyhow, LOL

But it is something for you to consider. You could be losing tons between waste from the chickens to the wild birds and other animals getting at it!

 

[Tammy N]

Thank you, she does do a great job. We also have a turkey processing plant near us and she gets a 30 or 40 pound box of necks for $15.00 for a change for our Pyrenees. Deer processing places are another good source of protein for dogs or chickens also.

it costs me 30 bucks for 10 pounds of turkey necks safeway or fredmeyers
lately i drive 8 hrs for my Dog,cats and parrot but well worth the trip

Last time my freezer went out i bought 400 lbs under 200.00 and went crabbing for a month with tons of friends LOL.

for cats and Dog i like chicken and turkey MY own hens will not be in the stew pot for me or them i get too attached . I did kill a mean rooster once he attacked my 2 yr old niece .
still bothers me .

I get for them hearts ,livers, necks,and Backs and whole chicken all 59 cents at willamette meat co
i also get the dog Ox tails 3.15 a lb and she goes crazy for those
But r she begged me for one of my blue berry's off a tree and after that the 6 trees where bare . I threatened to pull otu her blue hair but that would leave her bald . My neighbor laughed cause she made a funny sound like Yeah right mom . LOL

 

[oldrooster]

Just a question has any one here tried to feed the guts of a chicken that has just been dispatched to the freezer or crockpot to the other chickens? why or why not? if their is a safty issue please tell me and don't act like I am an idiot because I don't already know the answer.

 

[lynn1961]

Has anyone else planted food plots for their birds for fall/winter forage ?
This time of year is the perfect time to plant those food plots. The feed stores/wal marts have the deer and turkey food plot seeds, about $ 15.00 for the bag of seeds.
Every year we do this, plant 2 different areas ( 2 bags of seed) rotate the birds on the areas, the food plots last all fall, winter and into the spring, it cuts down the amount of bags of feed that we buy in the late fall/winter/early spring by about half, they have green food all winter long, the eggs retain their deep yellow to orange colored yolks in the winter time, the birds realy enjoy it.
It is a bit of work to get it going, a little water to get the germination started, but IMO well worth it in the long run, esp. now since the price of feed has been going up and up lately with all of the drought conditions.
We live on two city lots, so we are not planting huge areas. On the roatation, we leave the birds in one area until they get it eaten down, but not demolished, close them off of that area and let them onto the 2nd area, letting the 1st area recover.
This also adds green manure and chicken fertalizer into my garden spot for next spring, the only draw back in using it in the garden area is that there is winter wheat that has gone to seed in my garden in the spring time, but we usually pull it up and toss it into the chicken yard.This year we have added some oats to the mix, will see how that turns out. Also if you like turnips, there seems to be quiet a bit of turnip seeds in the food plot seed mix.

 

[oldrooster]

Lynn some cattle farmers do that with their cattle it's called rotational grazing.