Getting a budget idea

[mclanea]

You pay $15 for a bail of straw?! It's three dollars a bale here.

It's probably less. But more than $10. I could get it cheaper if I went out of the city, I'm sure.

 

[mclanea]

I agree, that's expensive and is there a lot of wasted feed? That seems somewhat fast for 3 birds to go through that much feed but I could be wrong.

I feed Nutrena Hearty Hen and It's like around $15? For a 40 lb bag. I like it cause it's a little higher protein than the regular layer feed. During the winter when laying slows I switch to Purina Flock Raiser

I have a feeling we're feeding a few rats at night. But yeah, it's 5-6 weeks per bag.

 

[bullets]

Maybe @mclanea is talking about one of those big round bails, not the small square bales.

The square bales around here cost about $6 to $8 at the feed store/farm supply store.

 

[mclanea]

Maybe @mclanea is talking about one of those big round bails, not the small square bales.

The square bales around here cost about $6 to $8 at the feed store/farm supply store.

Haha, no... that's how much a square bale costs here. Now I need to look it up. I want to say $13.50 or something like that.

 

[ShrekDawg]

I agree, that's expensive and is there a lot of wasted feed? That seems somewhat fast for 3 birds to go through that much feed but I could be wrong.


I feed Nutrena Hearty Hen and It's like around $15? For a 40 lb bag. I like it cause it's a little higher protein than the regular layer feed. During the winter when laying slows I switch to Purina Flock Raiser

I have a feeling we're feeding a few rats at night. But yeah, it's 5-6 weeks per bag. 

Ahh that could explain it then.

But ohhh hmm, that's not too fast then! Mine go through feed so fast I've never actually measured but probably less than a month.

I have 8 though and they don't free range. And one of the bowls isn't covered so gets wet and ruined and I dump it out. So probably more my fault haha but crumbles they waste even more of! Flock Raiser only comes in crumbles and the little brats like to fling it out of the bowls. They literally empty it in like a day or two. In matter of minutes it's half full (or empty i guess)

 

[Egghead_Jr]

Straw is expensive. We use mulch hay, about $5 a bale. Pine shavings for coop is $6 for compressed 3 cubic ft bale. Feed costs is subjective depending on wildlife fed, free range and waste. Budget for chunx poison and tamper proof bait box to go right in the run or you and your neighbors will become overrun with rats/mice/squirrels.

 

[bullets]

Where do you get mulch hay from?

 

[Egghead_Jr]

Local feed/farm supply. Mulch hay is the non prime cuts. May be area subjective depending on when what weeds grow. There are prime times of year for hay and other times of summer. The non prime is deemed mulch hay and less expensive.

The difference in price is maybe 50 cents to dollar a bale in hay. The real point was straw is super expensive and not needed to use. The birds love to scratch hay and pick out all the seeds in it.

 

[Howard E]

I just did a Craigslist search for "square hay bale" and it turned up about 20 or 30 hits, all within 30 minutes of home. $3 a bale for grass and $5 for alfalfa or lespedeza. BTW, the last two are fine for feeding, but you don't want them for bedding. They attract and hold moisture and will turn into a smelly mess in no time.

So hear is the deal with hay for mulch vs. straw.......the latter probably will be derived from wheat, oats, barley or some other cereal grain. The stems on "straw" are large and thin and tend to collapse, so the straw also tends to draw and hold moisture, will mat and rot down pretty fast. For that reason, it works well in compost systems. It holds moisture. Straw bedding exposed to weather will rot down and get nasty pretty fast.

Grass hay has much smaller, much harder round stems that tend to shed moisture. About the only thing that holds moisture are the flat leaves that go with it. Around these parts, guys who do a lot of hay baling don't seem to have a clue as to when it should be cut. Most of it is cut at least 2 to 3 weeks later than it should be and the result of that is the grass goes past the highly digestible stage to indigestible lignin. That takes forever to rot down, which also makes it good to use for deep litter in runs. It stays dry and lasts a long time. Droppings tend to flush out to the bottom where they combine with whatever leaf is present to start the rot.

Here is an example of what my birds run around on and what is looks like when you dig down beneath it.

 

[mclanea]

I looked at my tracking app.... I actually pay $17/bale. Good thing I love my local nursery, eh?