You are so good at getting me into Calif rants
!
I remember corn growing
FREE in my back yard 50 yrs ago until I discovered stalks & husks did not decompose well in compost w/o a chipper. Then we decided the following year to buy 10 to 15 ears of corn/99 cents for the lot at the supermarket! Dang ~ a small packet of corn seeds for a whole crop was less than $1.00 !!!
Then along came GMO pro/con controversies.
Today we're reduced to buying at $1.49 one small can of GMO-free organic corn equal to barely one ear of a whole corn husk ~ the Silkie's smaller beaks don't like to peck at whole veggies so it's got to be mashed or cut-up for them.
Our 2-lb feed store bags of mealworms you can imagine that price every couple weeks. & then there's the price of New Zealand grass-fed ground lamb fluctuating from $8 to $12/lb & shelled sunflower seeds. You feed steak, we use ground lamb. Rather than flock feather feed we use direct protein foods. In all recollections though we never had one hen in 13+ yrs ever have a hard moult. Mostly we'd see pillow feathers in the coop or yard yet no bald hens so they obviously were replenishing feathers but no baldies.
For years we've been buying organic Scratch & Peck feed which is not cheap. An open field range is probably best for foraging hens but we have a small yard & have to compensate w/ supplementation.
But ~ at least I get nice orange eggs for breakfast every morning!
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