Feeding meat chickens

[Island Roo]

I order from Rochester - in Canada. Probably doesn't help you.
Search the forums. I recall seeing comments about various hatcheries closer to you



Quote:
LOL backintime - thats one of my favourite programs on Chicken TV.

 

[Oregon Blues]

What do you use to boost the protein? I think peas and lentils are good? Any other ideas?

I feed a pelleted feed from a local mill that contains soybean so it is not an issue for me.

Peas, lentils, and beans should boost protein, but they have to be processed correctly for the birds to digest them and the amino acid profile has to be balanced by someone who knows what they are doing.. Also, they aren't cheap. Fish meal can be used. I don't know if it taints flavor and a lot of organic people don't want animal products, so the mills won't use any sort of meat meal. Meat meal would be excellent for chickens. But again, it is not anywhere near cheap and usually goes into expensive dog food, not poultry food.

I hear from some people who do great with organic feeds, but also hear from a lot of people who just don't get the growth using organic feeds with Cornish Cross. The feed from each company is going to be different.

 

[chicks4fun]

Peas, lentils, and beans should boost protein, but they have to be processed correctly for the birds to digest them and the amino acid profile has to be balanced by someone who knows what they are doing.. Also, they aren't cheap. Fish meal can be used

Thanks, Oregon Blues. I will try again this fall. So until then I will keep reading BYC and learning from everyone out here.

 

[ekemily]

I am raising growers and i can't find a feed to feed them. The feed store folks are not much help.
Is there a purina or nutrena brand that you guys can recommend?
I saw flock raiser, but it's only 20% protein. Think that's enough?

 

[cassie]

Usually feed stores offer turkey feed or game bird feed if they don't have broiler feed. If not, try the yellow pages and see if there is another source of feed nearby.

 

[trifecta]

I used the meat bird formula made by Nutrena for my last group- I think it was 22% protein. I have no idea how much they ate, but they dressed out at 5-6 lbs at 7 weeks and were fabulously delicious .

I have 25 more chicks arriving at the end of August. I just started raising mealworms today, unfortunately my guys don't get a lot of grass access but I used to give them 1/4 cup of dried meal worms and 1/4 cup of scratch grains every morning and they LOVED it. No, I'm not really that retentive that I actually felt the need to measure their bugs and scratch, it just happened to be the available scoop

I really want to provide my birds with more good quality forage. I am going to try to sprout some alfalfa indoors and offer it to them daily and see what they think about it. I got this crazy idea from the FarmTek catalog where they were showing hydroponic systems to grow up to 2,000 lbs of forage a DAY for livestock. I think I can do something smaller scale in my kitchen since I sprout all the time for the humans to eat.

I don't have access to organic feed reasonably close to me, but I was happy with the Nutrena products overall. I am hoping that my mealworm farm/microsized hydroponic sprouting operation will help reduce my feed costs. It may end up being a huge bust, but I will be sure to post some photos!

 

[Yukonchick]

I just feed my birds twice a day like the rest of my animals. I don`t think there is any real scientific way that meat birds should be fed. I look at the animal and guess how big its little belly is and go from there. I got 33 meat birds and 12 layers all the same age but the meat birds have gotten bigger than the layers so i just guess at a quarter cup each bird should do them and now they are 6 weeks old and huge. mind you I frequently add poultry vitamins to their water and they get lots of vegi scraps from my fridge too.

 

[Yukonchick]

Jeez, i wonder what would happen if we were so specific about what we ate or fed our kids. Do you think it would put a few more years on our lives. maybe they should design a Purina human food, where that would be all we had to eat. We may live 20 years longer, ya think.

kinda makes me wonder. So much crap out there now in the grocery stores.

 

[wsmoak]

I am raising growers and i can't find a feed to feed them. The feed store folks are not much help.
Is there a purina or nutrena brand that you guys can recommend?
I saw flock raiser, but it's only 20% protein. Think that's enough?

Flock Raiser has plenty of protein, I raised my first batch of Freedom Rangers on it and they did great. Nutrena also has a meat bird feed that is 22% protein (but lower fat than Flock Raiser.)

-Wendy

 

[Oregon Blues]

Jeez, i wonder what would happen if we were so specific about what we ate or fed our kids. Do you think it would put a few more years on our lives.

Speak for yourself. I was extremely specific about what I fed my child. Good home cooking with lots of veggies, fruit, fiber, and home raised lean meat. Dairy daily, hardly any sugar, sweet desserts were rare. Yogurt or a piece of fruit makes a good dessert for a child. No junk food or fast food.

I hope it will add years to his life, but no way to prove that.