has anyone used fish meal

[Leah-yes I know I'm crazy]

Wish I had a tag here to tell you the exact percentage....my local feed mill uses fish meal in making their chicken feed. It is combined with corn, roasted soy, and a variety of other grains as well as nutritional suppliments. No nutritional problems here. Lots of happy egg producing chickens.
All of the grains they use are grown locally and they mix in weekly batches and dated so I know that the feed I buy has only been ground for a week at most.
I'd check your labels because if you are buying layer or grower you probably allready have animal protien in there because it is widely concidered a basic nutritional requirement. My girls get extra animal protein to replace the bug loss over the winter by means of dairy and scrap meat and fish from the house and go wild over it.
Yesterday I gave them potroast scraps and they went nuts...today lettuce scraps and they aren't interested.

 

[digitS']

Fishmeal is a common poultry feed ingredient. It is in the starter I use for the chicks.

I believe I read recently that the percentage should be kept below 15%. That surprised me since with the high-protein starters - I just assumed it would be more than 15%.

Doesn't smell all that wonderful . . .

You can't easily seperate "energy" from "protein" in whole foods. As an example, sunflower seed kernals are about 21% protein and 800 calories per cup. Roasted soybeans have about 800 calories per cup but higher protein. There are a lot of calories in both these high-protein seeds.

One thing about cold weather, the birds eat more as they "burn" the calories. The result is that they get a few more grams of protein. A real problem would be if we give them too much low-protein, high-calorie foods. They'll eat it - the problem may just be that they won't have enuf protein to produce eggs.

Steve

 

[flagday76]

I have looked into purchasing fish meal, but after researching the subject, and comparing prices, I have found what I believe to be a better solution. I have decided to feed my chickens salmon in place of processed fish meal, and here's why in a nutshell...

A 50# bag of fish meal through 7 Springs Farm (http://www.7springsfarm.com/catalog.html#AnimalS) is $38.50. Figure in shipping, and that really ups the price. I would not want to feed a lot at one time (because of the high 62% protein content), so a 50# bag would last a while. But, it is processed and contains preservatives. We try to feed organic as much as possible, and try to avoid overly processed foods with additives, fillers, and preservatives. Not to open a can of worms about being 'organic' (that is whole 'nuther topic that I won't get into here

) but MY interpretation of the organic philosophy translates into avoiding unnatural and overly processed products as much as possible. The whole point of feeding fish meal is to incorporate some meat and protein into the diet as a supplement, and to up the omega 3 content of eggs. So, I have been feeding mine salmon fillets. I can buy a 1 pound bag of 4 fillets for around $4.00 at the grocery store...when it's on sale, I can get it for less. I only purchase wild caught, raw fillets...I do not use the canned salmon (or other fish), because of the HIGH salt content. These fillets I have been feeding are skinless, boneless, and not injected with any salt/water/preservative solutions. Also, wild caught salmon has a much lower mercury level than farm raised salmon. I know that fish meal contains bone, skin, and entrails, as well as actual meat from the fish, but also has a lot of other additives that I would like to avoid.

So, after researching and pondering the use of fish meal in the diet, I have concluded that actually it would be better in the long run to invest in feeding the salmon fillets over the fish meal. I know what they are eating, and how it is prepared. Now this works fine for my small flock of 20-30 silkies and other bantams, and I feed it in moderation, but for a larger flock it may not be so cost effective. It seems to work very well, as I have seen great improvement in feathering on the silkies and the brahmas. The eggs don't seem to have any off taste or odor, as far as I can tell...but my allergies have me all stuffed up lately and I've had a cold, so they could reek to high heaven and I wouldn't know it LOL.

Anyone else have an opinion on this? I'm not an expert on the pros/cons of adding fish protein to the diet, just sharing what I am doing with my flock

(I have not figured the actual protein %, but each fillet contains 23 grams of protein...anyone want to do the math on this one?)

Also, I am editing this add that the salmon fillets smell SO much better than processed fish meal...makes you wonder why it smells so bad?

And, if I were to buy fish meal, I would only buy it from a supplier such as 7 Springs Farm or other supplier that deals with organic supplements and supplies...just what I would do.

 

[CovenantCreek]

I feed fish meal regularly -- free choice -- and have yet to taste an egg that bore any resemblance to the taste of fish (I hate fish so I'm sure I would've noticed). I'm not all that good about refilling the dish as soon as it runs out, so when the girls see me bringing more they run to get at it. This is one supplement I'll always keep on hand -- it's a great way to increase the essential fatty acids, especially DHA and EPA. You might find this page an interesting read (about fish meal in animal feeds): http://fis.com/snp/fishmeal.htm

PS: what I feed is fish meal with Naturox

 

[digitS']

(I have not figured the actual protein %, but each fillet contains 23 grams of protein...anyone want to do the math on this one?)

A quarter pound fillet would weigh 113 grams, so 23 grams would amount to 20%.

Fishmeal, made up of just about everything from the fish, is 60% and 70% protein. Moisture content is an explanation for the difference.

http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/PS007

Steve's digits​

 

[greyfields]

You can find 300' extension cords on sale for $15 bucks. It's not impossible to get power anywhere on my 25 acre farm.

I, too, would be concerned with the fish meal. They used to use it a lot in New Zealand for fattening lambs. You could taste it.

 

[freemotion]

Has anyone here tried growing worms for the protein part of their chicken's diet? I have read a lot of Harvey Ussery's stuff, but he has greenhouses, I have a storage tote and a basement....Just wondering if anyone tried it and produced enough worms to make it worthwhile.