Fermenting Feed for Meat Birds

[Bitterroot]

I had to break out the muck boots to go do chores.

It's normally cold here in the winter, but this last week has been torture. We had two days last year with single digit negatives, but a whole week of them so far this year. Brr! I saw it was raining yesterday in Charleston and I admit to being green with envy. I'm from the Elkview/Blue Creek holler.

The chickens were slow getting out of bed this morning, and this is the first time they've seen any real snow. The looks on their faces had me cracking up. Tossed down some hay in their run and it's back to birdy business as usual for them.

Waiting for hubby to get back from the post office. My crazy behind went and bought hatching eggs.

I don't know a ton about rabbits, but I've kept them since I was a kid and into 4H and FFA and all that. I'm always happy to share any experience I might have that someone might have need of. I don't have my expert badge yet though.

Hope everyone has a great day. Stay warm!

 

[LindaB220]

The thing with feeding rabbits or chickens is definitely availability, cost and time. I know folks who devise complicated mixes for chickens that I would never do because I lack the money and inclination to do so and the mash at my local mill is cheaper and a full nutrition...and I only depend fully on it during the winter months. It's all in preference, money and time.

That being said, whether your animal is "common" or having an expensive pedigree it all really comes down to what you are willing to pay or do to keep that animal around to produce food or if you are selling offspring for profit. Most posting here are not dealing with high dollar animals but they value them just the same as those who are feeding $400 rabbits...I'm sure if their animals were to die from their feeding methods they would~quite obviously~stop using that method. I know I would and I'm sure that everyone here values their animals, expensive and elite or common and cheap, all alike, would do the same. Feeding greens to rabbits~their natural food~done by those who post here or other places and who have not reported any deaths from doing so would seem like proof enough for them to continue the practice ...I'm sure if they had rabbits die from it they would immediately cease and desist from feeding fresh greens to said rabbits.

Those who want to feed bagged feeds, please..continue to do so! Those who want to feed a more natural diet,please...continue to do so! No one is twisting anyone's arm here to conform or change to a natural diet for their animals.

That horse has been beat to death!


For my part, feeding all natural has several purposes in my life:

1. Cost~the cheaper I can get by on feed for the animals I will be eating, the better all around. I've found that a free or $1 animal tastes much the same as the heritage breed chicks I received this spring that are worth much money when sold....they sorta all taste like chicken. Rabbits all taste like rabbits, common or high bred. Cheap animals and cheap feed align with my lifestyle of frugality and practicality. It always has and always will be that way.

2. Availability~the meadow and forest around my place has a wealth of food that I didn't have to buy or till/plant that has better nutrition than anything found in a bag or formulated by a poultry nutritionist. If I were to get into rabbits, I'd be utilizing those same nutrients that are available for free here...who wouldn't take advantage of FREE? Putting rabbits in a tractor so they can glean their own, feeding good hay that is $4 a bale that can last quite a long time, harvesting browse that grows locally, providing whole grains, fruits, vegetables that can be cheaply obtained or grow here already for free are also in my wheelhouse of things that are available and cheap. If I lived 3 miles from a place that offered healthy rabbit food for $12 a bag you can bet I'd also avail myself of that resource as well~that covers my need for low cost, availability and would be a natural conclusion, particularly for winter feeding options.

3. Health~ I've found that a more natural diet for animals is a healthy choice and as God intended. The closer I can get them to what they would consume in nature, the better they seem to thrive, ward off illness, have less problems with laying and birthing, etc. With time I've come to learn that in my livestock management and so I find it prudent to continue with feeding more natural foods, not filling the animals with medicines, providing a more natural life style of being out on the soil and not overworking the soils with heavy stocking of animals, etc.

4. Fulfillment~I'm not one for fussy feeding regimens, time consuming management methods or labor intensive routines. The natural free ranging of my flock and gleaning things easily for them in other ways~deep litter, pumpkin scavenging, fruit harvests~is something that is easy and makes me feel good when I see the chickens running free on the land and socializing in a natural setting. Even when I worked full time and long hours I found that this type of management, once in place, was the easiest for my busy schedule and my personal energy resources. It fit my budget, my time constraints and my personal conviction that animals should get to live as natural as possible before being utilized for food for my family.

5. Self-sustainability~ What can I put in place to feed my animals that can be more self-sustaining if I should happen to lose income, lose available feed sources, lose transportation to get bagged feeds? Why not implement those before that possibility becomes an eventuality? Living out in the sticks we know that at any given minute the power goes out, flooding blocks roads to town, illness and lay offs can cause a sharp drop in income, and simply put..the economy and state of the world are not in a good place. We like to prepare for such emergencies on a yearly basis~ as we have always done~ by storing food we grow and harvest, living frugally so there is extra for emergencies, getting in firewood for the winter, drawing up water and storing it for times without power, etc. We intentionally live in the country where we can grow and harvest food, where we can heat with wood, where we can live on well water, where we have the freedom to live our natural life in this manner.

Why then would livestock management be any different? We buy in bulk when we go to the feed store and we store enough for a couple three months of feeding. But, knowing that feed supplies could become unavailable at any moment in our world I try to lessen my flock's dependence on grain based feeds on a continual basis so that if I can no longer afford or have access to formulated feeds, that my flock can still thrive and produce without them. If I were to get rabbits, it would be like that also. That dependence on all things produced by other people in other places is not something of which I am too fond and I've always worked towards some level of independence from it.

You can't plan for every emergency and you can't prepare for long term survival in a world gone to pieces~I find that nonsensical~ but one can surely prepare for things like a lack of access to bagged feeds in their livestock paradigm. That's easy and a no brainer.

And I'm not kissing your butt. ha

 

[Triple Willow]

I had to break out the muck boots to go do chores.    It's normally cold here in the winter, but this last week has been torture.  We had two days last year with single digit negatives, but a whole week of them so far this year.  Brr!  I saw it was raining yesterday in Charleston and I admit to being green with envy.  I'm from the Elkview/Blue Creek holler.    The chickens were slow getting out of bed this morning, and this is the first time they've seen any real snow.  The looks on their faces had me cracking up.  Tossed down some hay in their run and it's back to birdy business as usual for them.

Waiting for hubby to get back from the post office.  My crazy behind went and bought hatching eggs. 

I don't know a ton about rabbits, but I've kept them since I was a kid and into 4H and FFA and all that.  I'm always happy to share any experience I might have that someone might have need of.  I don't have my expert badge yet though. 

Hope everyone has a great day.  Stay warm!

It is cold here BUT you have some SERIOUS COLD there!!! I know it has to be extra hard work just to keep normal outside work done in such cold. I feel for you. Be safe!

If you have kept rabbits that long you must know plenty about them. There's nothing like experience. You can read read read and talk to people who know a lot but until you jump in and do it yourself, you don't know what you don't know. lol

 

[BCMaraniac]

I had to break out the muck boots to go do chores.

It's normally cold here in the winter, but this last week has been torture. We had two days last year with single digit negatives, but a whole week of them so far this year. Brr! I saw it was raining yesterday in Charleston and I admit to being green with envy. I'm from the Elkview/Blue Creek holler.

The chickens were slow getting out of bed this morning, and this is the first time they've seen any real snow. The looks on their faces had me cracking up. Tossed down some hay in their run and it's back to birdy business as usual for them.

Waiting for hubby to get back from the post office. My crazy behind went and bought hatching eggs.

I don't know a ton about rabbits, but I've kept them since I was a kid and into 4H and FFA and all that. I'm always happy to share any experience I might have that someone might have need of. I don't have my expert badge yet though.

Hope everyone has a great day. Stay warm!

Hey Bitterroot,

I use Bartlett feet for my chickens, and am considering meat rabbits. Would you mind checking this link and letting me know what you think about the Bartlett Rabbit feed?? Thanks.

http://www.bartlettmillingfeed.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=19&Itemid=33#rabbit

 

[Bitterroot]

If you like their chicken feed, you'll probably like their rabbit feed, too. I don't see any reason why that particular feed wouldn't work. If it's locally milled, all the better. I'm a big believer in supporting local businesses.

The only thing beyond regular pellets and hay that my meat rabbits get, aside from mother's milk, is calf manna pellets. I'm not sure if it's really necessary, but it makes me feel better and they love them. My kits are little butterballs from day 1. I give a tablespoon a day to lactating does, and does with kits up to two weeks old.

What kind of rabbits are you considering? There are a ton of great meat rabbit breeds out there. Let us enable you.

 

[beverly evans]

Folks...I'm too tired (and stuffed with pinto beans over the last of the catheads) to respond to the questions...without a little nap

That rabid rabbit is just tooooo funny!! THX!

 

[beverly evans]

Quote:
A mama McGyver! I think you'd be great fun to be with in an emergency, Bee!!

 

[hellbender]

That rabid rabbit is just tooooo funny!! THX!

thanks Beverly!

 

[beverly evans]

Winter sports for hicks... "shavings bale sledding"! Just sit on the bale and slide down a hill. For old hicks with bad knees the ideal method would be to stack two, secure them together and just have a seat! For smaller hicks who will fit in a doghouse, "doghouse sledding". The big plastic doghouses are best. Just crawl in and have a friend give the house a shove down the snow or ice covered hill. Doghouse sledding could also be done behind a 4-wheeler, horse, etc. Always be aware of trees because they don't move.

Sounds like a ball. You do mean those Igloo type don't you? (plastic doghouse)

 

[beverly evans]

Quote:
RoseMarie, You are just a youngster! A cute one at that, and look just like your sister too.