Greener Pasture's Farm Chick Starter Recipe #3

[danielnv]

That's funny-I haven't had that problem. I just am using the little quart waterer and put in a capful of the Bragg's ACV (I think it's a teaspoon) plus a clove of garlic at least every other time I change the water. I just slit the clove in half 2 directions so it's quartered but connected at the bottom. I'm still learning from all the pros here, but this seems to work great for me.

Enjoy your babies!

 

[naturemom]

Quote:
That's good to know. I have a new chick this morning, and need to mix up some feed for the chick and it's mom, and I was thinking I'd soak it. This will be the first time I'm using it from day one, since the chicks I got last year were a couple weeks old already.

 

[animal nut]

I read all of your recipe and would like to try them. I am not sure were you purchase the ingredents. Do you buy them at the feed store or do you order them.. also how do you grind your corn and feed? I would really like to know exactly what I am feeding my chicks.

 

[naturemom]

I don't need to make a lot-right now I only have one chick, plus the mom who will also be eating it. I get some of the grains out of the bulk bins at Whole Foods, some from a buying club (for people food), and for the corn I get locally grown organic corn meal. The kelp I get either from Whole Foods or order it online. It's not cheap, but it's doable for me because I have a small flock. Eventually I'm going to grow some grain myself as well.

 

[LauraN]

I was looking online at different places to buy bulk grain but my co-op leader decided to start ordering grains. I was so excited because the organic grains were so cheap! I already had some kelp, prob. from Whole Foods. WF will order 25# and 50# bags of bulk items for you at a 10% discount. Search BYC for sources of grains. I know I've seen it on here.

animal nut: This is fed to the chicks whole, not ground, from day one. I have been breaking my sunflower seeds in half, though. They just look huge!

I squirt my garlic into the water with my awesome Zyliss garlic press so maybe too much stuff is released. They seem okay with it now that I've reduced the amount, though.

Like naturemom said, this is not cheap. I just can't see feeding them any other way. My husband won't buy expensive organic eggs (they'd be soy-fed anyway) but he's willing to do this.

 

[naturemom]

It occurred to me this afternoon as a was taking the yolk of an easter egg that my dd didn't finish out to my broody and her baby, that it may not have been clear in the OP, but the eggs, milk and worms are a necessary part of feeding this way, and eggs are a good source of vitamin A.
Also, today I decided to grind the feed for a while, because I was watching the chick eat and realized that many of the ingredients are bigger than its beak. I'll gradually grind it courser over the next few weeks until we're back to unground.

 

[Glenda L Heywood]

with that recipe you will need GRIT
here is my kind I like
My friend in california wrote this for my magazine NPN

Grit and its use
Randy Henry

To the Readers of National Poultry News: Dear friends:

This is an article to dispel the notions that all Grits are alike. A lot of grit is desiccated granite, soft stuff, flows through gizzards like sand, the cheap stuff, usually just a by product of some other mining enterprise. Iodine is one of the toughest items to get in a correct amount, systemically yet is necessary for proper immune system development. The red iodized granite pigeon grit is all hard granite, infused with a chelated iodide formula that provides better grinding action and releases iodine molecules to bond with feed particles.

Red Iodized Granite Pigeon Grit is selected for particle size and is produced solely for the purpose of performing in a bird's gizzard. It out lasts all softer, more rotten stone products often sold as grit or in premixed grit formulas. Since pigeons feed squabs by regurgitation, a good grit base is provided to squab's gizzards even before they fledge.

I feed my pigeons cafeteria style, that is free choice Whole kernel dried Corn, whole
kernel Dried hard red Wheat, and whole, dried either Green Peas, commonly called wrinkle peas or Lentils. Just FYI, they eat twice as much Corn as Wheat, twice as much Wheat as Peas. An early supply of a good grit is imperative for squabs to digest the whole grains they are fed by their parents.

The parents are selective, they only produce pigeon milk for a short time, no grit is introduced to the squabs at that time. When the parents are providing the squabs with
whole grains, they provide them with grit to facilitate digestion. Since many more commercial squab producers utilize whole grains, than do other commercial avian producers, pigeon breeders have funded the most research re grit formulation.

The advent of raising squabs on pelleted feed is relatively new while feeding reprocessed feed to chickens and waterfowl is dateable to much earlier. It seems to appeal to the birds as well, as those I have seen or have butchered all contain a very high percentage of the grit from the containers compared to any grit sours they may have picked from. I have a lot of grit source, my place once belonged to a roofing company, they dumped small pea sized gravel's by the truckload around here over many years. These rocks range from white quartz to crushed granite and the birds ingest very little of any of it. Randy Henry
(JaRaCo)


Glenda: I wrote this on TPC's General Waterfowl board in response to GD's inquiry about why Red Iodized Pigeon Grit got the JaRaCo stamp for must have's for poultry. I thought you might be able to use it for the paper. There are a lot of misconceptions concerning GRIT for birds. If you can use it, please as always, feel free to do so.
Randy Henry (JaRaCo)

 

[LauraN]

Naturemom, I hadn't thought of the egg having vit A. Eggs are so full of good stuff! You're right about the eggs, milk and worms, VERY important. Ronda also gives them a clump of sod every few days, then replants it and gets a new one for them. I haven't done that. I was thinking of grinding the grains too because I got a couple of duccles and they are sooooo tiny. They were one week old but the 1 day old BLRWs were/are bigger. The smallest one is moving her head funny.

Also, I do give them free choice oyster shell and chick grit. The grit is the stuff from the feed store and it has iron oxide (?) added. It's red and crushed granite. Hope it's okay stuff. The breeder I got most of my chicks from didn't know the dif in oyster shell and grit. He said they were for their eggshells when they started laying. I couldn't convince him otherwise. He's not familiar with feeding whole grain mixed yourself though. He REALLY wanted me to just buy medicated starter at the feed store.

 

[LauraN]

Glenda, I'm still confused about the grit. Mine is by Nutri Source and says crushed granite. The ingredients are: ground granite grit, anise, red color (iron oxide). Is this junk?

 

[mamanaturale]

i know this is an older thread...... but i feed greener pastures recipe to my chicks and chickens. my question is, do any of you use it for your ducks/ducklings? i have a batch of duck eggs in the bator and i am trying to figure out what i will feed.
tia!