Help on Suet Cake making What do you put in it to promote laying and health?

[floridachickhatcher]

I told my mom i thought about making our own suet cakes or mini flock blocks for our chickens as a treat and to help increse laying and health since i saw a couple ideas on what to put in them and how to make them

I figured Crisco for the suet fat part since a recipe i saw calls for it,Peanut butter,Layer mash,Corn Meal,Cracked Corn,Bird seed mix,Maybe Mealworms,Grit,and some Food grade DE ( diatomaceous earth ) to help treat for annoying mites,ticks,fleas and whatever,And while reading backyard poultrys magazine i saw where they talked about Omega Fields Omega-3 Ultra Egg mixture and we saw 1 bag of it at Tractor Supply today and bought it since its suppose to help with •INCREASE Omega-3 levels in eggs,•SUPPORT brilliant, high-quality plumage,•IMPROVE laying rates, flock health, and spent hen value,•PRESERVE egg flavor, aroma, and nutritional value,•ALL NATURAL without artificial preservatives,•NATURAL occurring amino acids – valuable protein building blocks,•FORMULATED with stabilized, ground, whole flaxseed high in Omega-3, folic acid, vitamin E, and vitamin B-12 using proprietary technology to maintain full nutritional value, guaranteed for 12 months

Does anyone have any ideas on what to put in them other than what i listed? Our hens are young and are only just now finally starting to pick up the laying but then the next day or 2 the laying is down by half of what they layed and i told my mom maybe the laying mash is forcing them to lay an egg when they shouldnt be??

 

[chicken-wish]

Ooooh! That sounds really yummy to me! (if I was a chicken that is, lol) I don't have any suggestions really but I was wondering where you got your knowlege for making chicken suets? I'm very ineterested.

 

[Tallulah Chicklet]

floridachickhatcher, just out of curiousity, why do you want to use Crisco instead of suet? If hydrogenated fats are not good for us, how would they be good for chickens?

Looking over your recipe, the DE taken internally by the chickens will not help with the external problems you mention, but there is a study mentioned here on BYC that suggests DE keeps down parasite loads and stimulates food intake, weight gain, egg production and egg quality, but that is when it is mixed into feed.

The article by Susan Burek in Dec/Jan Backyard Poultry magazine about making herbal suet cakes talks about mixing saturated and unsaturated fats for better digestibility (suet plus olive oil or peanut butter). The author mentions adding finely ground (for better absorption) oats, peanut and sunflower seeds. The herbs mentioned are cayenne, rosehips (or other dried berries), nettles (or dandelion or alfalfa leaves), and burdock root. I know some of the people on BYC use cayenne or other pepper to stimulate continued egg production in winter, but I personally would hold off on that until your hens are older.

If your girls are young and just starting to lay, it wouldn't be unusual to have inconsistent egg production. Layer mash would be appropriate for them, but you could probably finish out their starter feed if you started giving then oyster shell. Did you transition them from their old feed by mixing the feeds for awhile? Suddenly changing their feed could impact on egg production.

I'm planning to try out some suet cakes myself this weekend...I'll be thinking of you. Let us know how they come out!