for the self sustained homesteader

[7L Farm]

This will be my first winter with chickens. There gonna freak out when the grasshoppers go away. I'm in the process of putting my fall garden in. I read about growing kale for the chickens. I'm gonna grow some but was wondering, How much do I grow? I have 10 birds. I've fed them lettuce from time to time but seems they like grass more. Maybe they will eat more lettuce when the grass dies. I 'm assuming they will eat mustard greens & everything I plant for the fall. If not their gonna be stuck eating pellets. Which is something they really only snack on.

 

[eudyptes]

Given that my first chickens are now all of, let's see, six days old, you are welcome to take or leave this. I am, however, an ornithologist, so I'm not completely new to birds!

The following recipe for homemade chicken feed is on p. 99 of Christine Heinrichs's (sadly misnamed) How To Raise Chickens:

5 parts wheat, 1 part corn, 1 part barley, 1 part oats, 1 part black oil sunflower seeds, 1 part buckwheat.

She recommends mixing this with age- and use-appropriate crumble (grower, layer, chick, etc.). For myself, I plan on growing most of these next year, and will try to make my own feed once these birds reach more-or-less adulthood. I think that chickens on range that get a mix of these grains above should do just fine. I don't know how layer production would be affected by feeding such scratch only, rather than high-protein crumble, but if you have good forage as well (I plan to seed their yard to winter wheat and alfalfa), they should get more than enough protein. My half-baked plan is to mix them in rough proportion, feed em through a feed mill to get a coarse grind, and see how it goes.

So far, my birds are getting chick crumble, whatever they're scratching out of the dried grass clippings they're bedding down in, whatever moths they catch around the incubator light at night, and the few crickets my two year old and I find in the barn and toss to them. And they're growing like weeds. Some of them grew an inch of wing feathers yesterday. Amazing.

 

[savingdogs]

Well I don't have any special knowledge of birds, but I know that you can feed too much scratch! We threw all of ours into a premature molt because all four family members were feeding the birds "treats" of handfuls of scratch which amounted to more than their other diet. They were on free range at the time as well and also had free choice pellets, but they only picked the scratch if they could get it and acted 'starved' for it, that is why we all four fed more! I think it is wishful thinking that they will pick things that are necessarily good for them although when mine free range they eat a lot less pellets. I believe they enjoy variety.

I certainly see my goats try to eat the chicken food which would kill them, so I don't necessarily feel animals know what is good and bad for them. I think while they crave nutrients they are lacking they are just as guilty as the rest of us in making poor food choices or eating the wrong amounts. My chickens would pick leftover noodles over anything (except possibly sunflower seeds, which are good), and my ducks love bread, both of which is terrible for ducks and my dogs crave my trash! lol

That doesn't make mixing your own grains a bad idea, I just don't think you can trust they will balance the nutrients out for themselves and you had best think about that for them.

 

[Organics North]

What great responses..

I make my own chicken feed and passionately subscribe to this philosophy.. So I will join this club...

With that said here are my personal thoughts on this subject....

Do we "need" the expert's???

Well now that depends on the expert....

I do feel it is good to be able to "speak the language" and have a decent level of knowledge on what science has uncovered so far. Our scientific knowledge has lengthened lifespans in humans and pets, increased productivity and profits in our livestock.. Has our inherent greed pushed things too far? Are we going the right direction? Do we really know enough to discard the millenniums of work mother nature has done? Is our playing "god" with our food sustainable?

????? Questions questions and more questions are evoked in my mind........................................... ??????

Do we need experts, who are mere puppets with strings being pulled by a powerful industry.. NO!
Do we need experts, that think they know it all or at least enough.. And feel they have little to learn from the natural world? NO!

Do we need Scientists who are trying to unlock the deeper secrets of the natural world and apply them to the world we created.. SURE
Do we need "experts" who humbly accept they do not know everything and are open minded, continually learning and growing.. SURE

With that said ... Know the science..Maybe take it with a grain of salt but know it.. Make informed decisions.Make them YOUR decisions NOT what some one else tells you to think!.

Yes I personally BELIEVE that the perfect food is unmolested by man!!! Perfect food is given to us directly by mother nature.. We as an industrial species like ants destroy biodiversity, destroy our environments hence make it difficult to find a balance with nature.. Yes I feel we have forgotten more than we have learned in the past 60 years of tinkering with our foods...

But really...??? What does a true free range chicken or wild bird eat??

We have wild turkeys, a small flock of under 20 birds covers square miles of ground to get what they need... Same with the deer.. Large tracts of ground are needed.. Also keep in mind the modern chicken ie..domestic livestock is created by man not evolution. Choose heritage breeds, don't expect the productivity of their industrial cousins fed industrial feeds... I feel biodiversity in the food is key to happy healthy birds. I feel this biodiversity can be hard but not impossible to obtain in the suburban back yard. Biodiversity can be lacking even at a modern farm that practices industrial techniques of raising only one crop or one kind of livestock... With that said the amount of diverse foods chickens may require can be mind boggling . I have at least 10 ingredients in my feed and free range in bio diverse old growth and second growth forest, and in my climate they have to rely on the feed alone for 6 months out of the year! So I feel I need to pay attention to the details in my home made feed, as the birds rely on it almost half the year.

What do you think about all this??

Yes go for it!!! It Will cost you time and may cost you more money... To me one "real" egg is worth more than all the eggs at one of those disgusting CAFO industrial factory farms.. The monster of modern agriculture has become has to be contained.. The way to do it is one small farmer at a time saying NO to the status quo...

Hopefully we can have many threads on alternative agricultural techniques.. Share our knowledge with each other.. Share our experiences..

Any suggestions???

1. Create bio-diverse pasture where ever you can.
2. Yep study up on compost.. Become good at hot composting, turn your piles often.
3. Love whole grains.. Still get cheap grinder to grind certain grains.. (I thought I did not need one, I did.)
4. Spend the time to find a good source of grains.. Not from your vet store...

5. Study up on gape worm.. if you are considering a red worm bin as a food source for your chickens. (I am still on the fence with this one.)

Be Well

ON

Sammi<3chickens :

I'm not an expert/scientist on feeding/nutrition but...
Do we REALLY need them? I mean yeah, it is convienet, and good for the people who just want animals, and have no desire to free range of feed natural foods and such, just open a bag and feed, no questions asked...not downing that person by any means, just explaining my point.

I want to start "serving" my own whole grain and foods. I went to my feed store and asked the owner who is a vet tech and animal nutrition teacher, what kind of separate whole grains she had. She asked me what for, I didnt want to tell her because I didnt what to get the third degree of how bad that is blah blah. She said that at the grain company, they have scientist who fallow a chart that formulates what they need and they put it into a pellet. She was going on about all this scientific stuff. "If you give to much of this, it could be fatal, they may not get this, or this, ect, ect..."
But really...??? What does a true free range chicken or wild bird eat?? Grains, grasses, weeds, sprouts, berries, bugs. They get their nutrition, vitamins, minerals and trace minerals through all of that. And while if you give a chicken nothing but say grain, or nothing but bugs/protien source, they may get a vitamin overdose and a deficiency. But if you give them everything, and enough of it, a choice, I really believe they will eat what they need at that given time. I believe nature made it so they know what they need and will seek it out by natural choice.

I want to do an experiment. I want to give them free choice of foods. I dont want to measure. I want them to eat what they want, when they want. While they free range, they may not be getting everything, so I need to give them what they dont get. I cant really do this until I have a good supply of bugs and a good protein source. I want to do worms, I think would be the easiest non timid way. I need to focus on my compost and a way to encourage a good bug population.
Any suggestions???
What do you think about all this?? Anyone agree with me?
Thanks for listening.​

 

[Organics North]

Quote:
Yepppp.... Great one! It is important to remind folks of this FACT....

ON

 

[Organics North]

Lazy J Farms Feed & Hay :

Nope you don't need nutritionists like me.
Jim

Here I go disagreeing with you again...

We do need you..!
Few of us have the knowledge you have.... How do various amino acids function. Where do we find them if we want natural sources and want to use raw unprocessed products in our feeds? What whole grains are best for each amino acid? Why do we need to feed meat? How could I improve my home made feed?

ON​

 

[Sammi<3chickens]

Oh my gosh, I was not expecting such great responses! Thank you all for your in depth response, which was exactly what I was looking for.

I want to respond to everyone, not sure if I have the time at the moment.

 

[Sammi<3chickens]

Lazy J Farms Feed & Hay :

Sammi<3chickens :

I'm not an expert/scientist on feeding/nutrition but....

Nope you don't need nutritionists like me.

I'll go tell my wife I need to get a new job then.

Jim​

Not true! I did not mean to offend anyone. Remember this topic is for the self sustained homestead. Which there is not to many of them. Most people only desire to have the knowledge to go pick up some feed in one bag, open it up, feed. No questions asked. And that is where you come into play. But to only SIMPLY put it, a self sustained farmer would not need to go to the feed store.​

 

[Sammi<3chickens]

I dont know how to quote multiple people.

Quote:
This gives me another excuse to get a cow!

 

[Sammi<3chickens]

Quote:
Exactly!!!!!