Fugly Farm

[janiedoe]

Good morning, IM! I haven't visited your thread in a while. I'm glad I did, this morning. Your garden and your chickens look great. The family is beautiful! Happy birthday Hope!

 

[igorsMistress]

Good morning, IM! I haven't visited your thread in a while. I'm glad I did, this morning. Your garden and your chickens look great. The family is beautiful! Happy birthday Hope!

Good morning Janie, thanks for stopping by and for the compliments. Garden has been hard work lol.

 

[igorsMistress]

Recently I’ve had issues with getting the chicken feed I like from TSC and the crew is still getting crumble which the little birds are helping themselves to. I’m switching to Kalmbach flock maintainer which is pellets and have ordered from Chewy. By the time I drive to TSC and pay for an all flock feed the cost is close to the same if I just subscribe. So subscription it is. My son should be taking the bunnies by the 10th and shortly thereafter we’ll build a run for the chickens. Eventually I’ll begin to let the flock roam the whole yard for a few hours each evening before bed but probably not until next Spring. I’ve ordered some large wood crates to use for nest boxes, arrived today, so all hubs needs to do is tack on a lip and we should be good to go. I might need a few more golf balls to seed them with though. The other major project outside is prepping the garden for summer corn, beans and squash. Pie pumpkins too. In theory AZ is supposed to have a wetter than normal monsoon season. That doesn’t necessarily mean the valley of the sun will enjoy such a boon, but I’m hopeful! The fruit trees are holding out ok so far and the Vitex are back in bloom despite their recent transplant. Once the solstice passes I expect our temps to climb a bit so I’m adding shade for the fruit trees until the average drops back to 100 max each day.

 

[janiedoe]

Recently I’ve had issues with getting the chicken feed I like from TSC and the crew is still getting crumble which the little birds are helping themselves to. I’m switching to Kalmbach flock maintainer which is pellets and have ordered from Chewy. By the time I drive to TSC and pay for an all flock feed the cost is close to the same if I just subscribe. So subscription it is. My son should be taking the bunnies by the 10th and shortly thereafter we’ll build a run for the chickens. Eventually I’ll begin to let the flock roam the whole yard for a few hours each evening before bed but probably not until next Spring. I’ve ordered some large wood crates to use for nest boxes, arrived today, so all hubs needs to do is tack on a lip and we should be good to go. I might need a few more golf balls to seed them with though. The other major project outside is prepping the garden for summer corn, beans and squash. Pie pumpkins too. In theory AZ is supposed to have a wetter than normal monsoon season. That doesn’t necessarily mean the valley of the sun will enjoy such a boon, but I’m hopeful! The fruit trees are holding out ok so far and the Vitex are back in bloom despite their recent transplant. Once the solstice passes I expect our temps to climb a bit so I’m adding shade for the fruit trees until the average drops back to 100 max each day.

Do you have a backup plan for feed?
Chewy refunded me for mine. Said it was out of stock. It was out of stock last autoship time too.
I usually love chewy. Not right this minute.
Today I recieved an order that made me very aggravated. They put a 35lb pail of cat litter in a box with my canned cat food. The cat food was crushed all over everything else.
I do not use tractor supply, their feed has been moldy and full of bugs. It is too far to keep returning it, so I've been using the feed stores. Unfortunately, I have to drive 30 minute, no matter where I buy feed. Chickens don't care, chickens gotta eat.
I hope you get some rain soon. We had a light rain this morning. It sure cooked things off. Hoping for more.

 

[igorsMistress]

Do you have a backup plan for feed?
Chewy refunded me for mine. Said it was out of stock. It was out of stock last autoship time too.
I usually love chewy. Not right this minute.
Today I recieved an order that made me very aggravated. They put a 35lb pail of cat litter in a box with my canned cat food. The cat food was crushed all over everything else.
I do not use tractor supply, their feed has been moldy and full of bugs. It is too far to keep returning it, so I've been using the feed stores. Unfortunately, I have to drive 30 minute, no matter where I buy feed. Chickens don't care, chickens gotta eat.
I hope you get some rain soon. We had a light rain this morning. It sure cooked things off. Hoping for more.

Good morning Janie. Was it the Kalmbach that arrived moldy? We do have a small local feed store but their selection is so so. There’s another store hubs can hit on his way home also. The issue I have is that all the chick starter is medicated and all the adult feed is for layers with extra calcium, both of which I don’t use. I want unmediated chick starter forever. I like Purina after I used it with my ducks. Nutrena is a no go, I used that with my last chickens and with Purina this time for my chicks I feel like I saw big differences in growth rate and their feathers filled in quicker. I’ve never used Kalmbach before so we’ll see. If I get moldy feed from Chewy I can get something at least, but I’m going to empty the feed bags Into a bin so I can have a look at it. Now I’m nervous about it.

 

[janiedoe]

Good morning Janie. Was it the Kalmbach that arrived moldy? We do have a small local feed store but their selection is so so. There’s another store hubs can hit on his way home also. The issue I have is that all the chick starter is medicated and all the adult feed is for layers with extra calcium, both of which I don’t use. I want unmediated chick starter forever. I like Purina after I used it with my ducks. Nutrena is a no go, I used that with my last chickens and with Purina this time for my chicks I feel like I saw big differences in growth rate and their feathers filled in quicker. I’ve never used Kalmbach before so we’ll see. If I get moldy feed from Chewy I can get something at least, but I’m going to empty the feed bags Into a bin so I can have a look at it. Now I’m nervous about it.

Good morning, IM.
I got the moldy feed from our local TSC. Several times. It was Purina Flock Raiser.
I quit buying from them and started buying feed store. I really like the Bryant feeds starter/grower and so does the flock. It is just such a drive.

I tried ordering autoship from Chewy, but they keep notifying me that they are out after the order is placed.
I just ordered Modesta from them. Hopefully they will have that one. My hens loved the HenUp but it is very expensive for a Flock my size.
The only problem I've had with chewy so far is out of stock or yesterday's issue of poor packaging.

 

[igorsMistress]

Good morning, IM.
I got the moldy feed from our local TSC. Several times. It was Purina Flock Raiser.
I quit buying from them and started buying feed store. I really like the Bryant feeds starter/grower and so does the flock. It is just such a drive.

I tried ordering autoship from Chewy, but they keep notifying me that they are out after the order is placed.
I just ordered Modesta from them. Hopefully they will have that one. My hens loved the HenUp but it is very expensive for a Flock my size.
The only problem I've had with chewy so far is out of stock or yesterday's issue of poor packaging.

Oh yeah, poor packaging in my case with chicken feed. The Chewy box itself, not the feed lol. Thanks for the clarification. I’ve only had a couple of issues from TSC. The feed looked it had been wet at one point and there were clumps in it. I took it back, but it’s a pretty good drive to have to do that and super annoying.

Chewy has been good with customer service. We got a bag of dog food once that wasn’t sealed. We called and a new bag was delivered the next day.

I’m going to start mixing these pellets with the crumble this weekend to start the switch, I hope they like it.

 

[janiedoe]

Oh yeah, poor packaging in my case with chicken feed. The Chewy box itself, not the feed lol. Thanks for the clarification. I’ve only had a couple of issues from TSC. The feed looked it had been wet at one point and there were clumps in it. I took it back, but it’s a pretty good drive to have to do that and super annoying.

Chewy has been good with customer service. We got a bag of dog food once that wasn’t sealed. We called and a new bag was delivered the next day.

I’m going to start mixing these pellets with the crumble this weekend to start the switch, I hope they like it.

I'm going to look into Walmart and Costco delivery also. I'm not sure they'll have what I need, but it is good backup.

 

[igorsMistress]

I'm going to look into Walmart and Costco delivery also. I'm not sure they'll have what I need, but it is good backup.

My daughter has a Costco membership so I was going to look there too. Our Walmart has a small section of poultry items but the brands are nothing I’ve heard of so I’m reluctant to purchase. A lot of stuff is actually Walmart brands made in China. No thanks.

 

[janiedoe]

My daughter has a Costco membership so I was going to look there too. Our Walmart has a small section of poultry items but the brands are nothing I’ve heard of so I’m reluctant to purchase. A lot of stuff is actually Walmart brands made in China. No thanks.

We try to buy American. It is getting harder and harder.