Feeding your flock amidst of feed shortages

[Ponypoor]

It's because we have the worst Prime Minister ever who won't let us build a pipeline to get the oil cheaply to other provinces. I live in oil country and even here prices are ridiculous. Which is good for our province, but horrible for it's residents.
And I just bought feed last week from a local guy and he informed me prices were up a dollar a bag. Not a huge deal... But if it continues it won't be cool. Time to get rid of my 7 extra cockerels!

Well I work in pipelining and I don't have any problem with seeing facilities being built but then I have been working a long time so I get to see whats going on all over the country. Don't be fooled by smoke n mirrors... Oil prices r dictated by the world markets... U still have factor in processing and shipment to market end users. There is a crap load of lines going in all over.

Feed prices here have gone up a bit, it more other things gone up like prepackaged processes foods, which I generally don't eat. My huge pet peave is fuel prices, and with winter coming propane cost for heating - but I been here before with prices about 10 years ago, up and down the markets dictate costs not the PM. Blame OPEC if u wanna blame someone hahahaha.

As for shortages I don't see any.... Yet!

 

[Ponypoor]

Also, (provided you have the room) try raising some corn. We have 1 garden plot that is
about 20 feet x 20 feet, that we generally raise corn in (just for the chickens).
It's not a huge yield, but it is an additional supplement for them. And given the direction this
Country is headed, EVERYONE needs to be seriously looking into raising crops, food gardens, and learning self-sustainability. It just makes SENSE. Being caught off-guard in a
food-shortage or depression is no way to be. Try to stay ahead of the curve at ALL TIMES !
GOD Bless !

Re: hay - they loooove tearing my round bales apart I store in the barn, they eat the seeds from the weeds and spend hours rooting around, drives me nuts though when I go to feed the horses and chicken doodoo all over it, ewwwww! Hahaha. The horses get fussy if they smell doodoo so I waste a lot of hay to the chickies haha. They sure have a great time, tho, rooting around the hay!

 

[Ponypoor]

It's because we have the worst Prime Minister ever who won't let us build a pipeline to get the oil cheaply to other provinces. I live in oil country and even here prices are ridiculous. Which is good for our province, but horrible for it's residents.
And I just bought feed last week from a local guy and he informed me prices were up a dollar a bag. Not a huge deal... But if it continues it won't be cool. Time to get rid of my 7 extra cockerels!

Just thinking about all those 7 extra birds, must be noisy there in the mornings, just got rid of 3 extra youngsters, and couldn't believe how quiet it was afterwards hahahaha. Only the one guy crowing now and not so much now that he is King of the manure pile!!!! Gotta love chickies .

 

[Pippin quail]

Well I work in pipelining and I don't have any problem with seeing facilities being built but then I have been working a long time so I get to see whats going on all over the country. Don't be fooled by smoke n mirrors... Oil prices r dictated by the world markets... U still have factor in processing and shipment to market end users. There is a crap load of lines going in all over.

Feed prices here have gone up a bit, it more other things gone up like prepackaged processes foods, which I generally don't eat. My huge pet peave is fuel prices, and with winter coming propane cost for heating - but I been here before with prices about 10 years ago, up and down the markets dictate costs not the PM. Blame OPEC if u wanna blame someone hahahaha.

As for shortages I don't see any.... Yet!

Good to know. I do not work in the industry or actually know much about it. Just not liking the prices when filling up!
I haven't noticed shortages much yet, though I asked about scratch grains at my local feed place the other day and he said he didn't have any in. And his feed price went up a dollar. But that could just be inflation not due to a shortage yet.

 

[Pippin quail]

Just thinking about all those 7 extra birds, must be noisy there in the mornings, just got rid of 3 extra youngsters, and couldn't believe how quiet it was afterwards hahahaha. Only the one guy crowing now and not so much now that he is King of the manure pile!!!! Gotta love chickies .

I used to have 11 other cockerels plus the chicks. These guys are not crowing yet, they're only 13-14 weeks old. It's making me really sad thinking about butchering them. And my husband doesn't want them just eating feed for the next month or two. (They're not meat chickens so they won't bulk up for quite awhile) The first ones we butchered were quite a bit bigger than these guys and still had barely any meat on them. I wonder if we butchered them sooner and just froze for dog food?

 

[Ponypoor]

Good to know. I do not work in the industry or actually know much about it. Just not liking the prices when filling up!
I haven't noticed shortages much yet, though I asked about scratch grains at my local feed place the other day and he said he didn't have any in. And his feed price went up a dollar. But that could just be inflation not due to a shortage yet.

My cousin told me her trio of hens love steel cut oats, and she is right! They go bananas for them! I am going to get some from the grocery store - if I can remember to add to my list hahaha

 

[Minister Marc C]

Did you cut the tops off before the curing time?

No. "Leave the leaves" on ! "Husk the corn" (peel the leaves back) and let em dry.
(the corn on the cob) not the leaves!
Hang em up with twine in rows so the air can dry em out. It takes about a week. Sometimes 10 days or so, depends where you hang em. If you have a barn, shed, garage, somewhere out of the rain, as long as they are getting some air. Somewhere dry preferably.
( You can give the chickens fresh cobs, corn & all too.) After they are dry,
run em through a course grain / corn grinder. You can buy a manual hand-cranked grinder for about $38.00 -$45.00. ( it's good exercise !) It's not hard. Build you a little wooden trough
2 - 2 1/2 ft wide, 3 or 4 feet long, clamp the grinder onto one end and grind away !

 

[Ponypoor]

I used to have 11 other cockerels plus the chicks. These guys are not crowing yet, they're only 13-14 weeks old. It's making me really sad thinking about butchering them. And my husband doesn't want them just eating feed for the next month or two. (They're not meat chickens so they won't bulk up for quite awhile) The first ones we butchered were quite a bit bigger than these guys and still had barely any meat on them. I wonder if we butchered them sooner and just froze for dog food?

I had 4 roosterlets who started crowing at 5 weeks, omg they were hilarious.... At first.

Once they got really going it was very noisy. Yep not much meat on youngsters. Bit what r u gonna do? Can't have a bunch of useless males running around causing drama!

 

[Ponypoor]

No. "Leave the leaves" on ! "Husk the corn" (peel the leaves back) and let em dry.
(the corn on the cob) not the leaves!
Hang em up with twine in rows so the air can dry em out. It takes about a week. Sometimes 10 days or so, depends where you hang em. If you have a barn, shed, garage, somewhere out of the rain, as long as they are getting some air. Somewhere dry preferably.
( You can give the chickens fresh cobs, corn & all too.) After they are dry,
run em through a course grain / corn grinder. You buy a manual hand-cranked grinder for about $38.00 -$45.00. ( it's good exercise !) It's not hard. Build you a little wooden trough
2 - 2 1/2 ft wide, 3 or 4 feet long, clamp the grinder onto one end and grind away !
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I might try that, around here corn is left to dry on the stock. They will combine now if not too wet and muddy, but I have seen them combining in December if not too much snow. Also seen them wait till next spring yo take it off!

Think I will see if I can get some with the whole stock an leaves, I bet the chickies will love playing an pecking around that!

 

[Ponypoor]

I have found my chickies all love mash potatoes, turnip an green peas! The potatoes esp they Loooove! I tried raw carrots and they won't touch it, anything cooked though they love.

They esp like roast beast mash potatoes and the fixings. Yummy!

I have very discerning chickens