Help with organic soy free grower feed

[gibel-girls]

Disclaimer: I'm not debating or wavering on what I believe chickens should/could eat or weather on not soy or GMO's are angles or devils. Had to get that off my chest

I have 6 Comets that have been on Green Mountain Organic Soy Free for over a year with great results. It's the only soy-free in my area without going to a mill. Problem is they don't make a soy-free grower or chick starter I'm assuming it's because they are a fairly new company.

So, I bought Scratch and Peck chicken starter online because I didn't need much for my new 6 chicks and the shipping on a 10lb bag wasn't horrible. In a few weeks I'll need the grower feed but getting anything shipped in 25lb bags is just financial suicide.

My question is, can I use the GM layer feed and supplement to bump up the protein? I can make my own feed but I'm looking for the easiest way. Any ideas will be helpful, thanks!

 

[Domanique Fan]

Check out Country Side Organics. Their website list dealers by state and is pretty comprehensive. I have honestly only researched them so far, right now ours are getting a commercial organic starter feed. Checked on one store that was listed in Georgia after a chicken keeping class and they sold out regularly even at $32 a 55# bag.
So to me that was a good sign. And I agree shipping is high unless you buy in quantity, which we have no need for unless we start a buyers co-op.

http://www.countrysideorganics.com

 

[gibel-girls]

Thanks! They had a dealer in New Hampshire, about an hour away from me. I bought a bag for my layers as well, we will see if they like the Green Mountain or Countryside better.

 

[Domanique Fan]

No problem, found a couple of places around us. We are going to get some this weekend and give it a try. Let us know how you like it.

 

[Domanique Fan]

All right we have had some trials and tribulations since the last post. We did get the organic grower for our hens from Countryside organics. Drove about an hour to the closest dealer. We liked it a lot and the chickens did too. We ran short on time and money so we switched back to regular feed from our regular feed store, same with the layer when they started.
So as the girls started to lay we where of course very happy. Well then we started thinking, we are going to eat these eggs.Which brings us back around to feed, organic or not. Well we still say its a personal choice but if you eat organic shouldn't your chickens eat organic too? We wrestled with the dilemma of driving an hour to get it or buying it direct and having it shipped. ( Shipping cost is a big thing) After a little math the cost difference with just figuring in the cost of gas was about 3 dollars. That's not including an hour there and an hour back. So a ordering we went.
We learned a few interesting but important things:

1) On-line ordering is quick and easy and if you life in a straight forward address situation go for it. We on the other hand don't, rural route, no mailbox or 911 signage and all. Plus our place does not show up on GPS where its supposed to be. So that was a trail, instead of three days it took five days (8 PM on day five) and about 3 calls to FedEx to get the driver where he needed to be.Finally a call to Country Side Organics got everything straightened out.
The take away here is if you have special instructions call and talk to a person, so you can make sure the instructions go out with the package.

2) If your ordering don't assume it will get there when its supposed to. We figured three day's but took five. We almost ran out of feed but we had three days worth after it arrived. So mixed with the new stuff it lasted six a short transition but better than nothing.

3) The change over went pretty well, thanks to BYC we knew they could be off lay due to the feed change. Course the dog pulling tail feathers might have caused that but I digress.

4) The new feed smells a whole lot better and they do eat more but we attribute that to the cold weather. A little to the fact that it looks a whole lot better but more to the weather. We'll see this summer as the greenery comes back.

5) So we have compared the eggs with regular layer and organic no soy layer. The eggs are better, they have richer color and flavor.
So in closing we are sticking with the organic feed made by a relatively small mill closest to us. Yes the shipping is almost as much as the feed but it's worth it to us. We are still looking to get few others who are interested in getting it too to reduce the shipping cost. So far all our chicken keeping friends have decided it's not worth it to them.

Our next adventure is going to be adding to our flock and trying to start a buyers co-op in Ellijay to buy the feed in bulk for a better shipping rate.

P.S. Our cats eat this stuff but wouldn't eat the other. Interesting no?

 

[pdirt]

Disclaimer: I'm not debating or wavering on what I believe chickens should/could eat or weather on not soy or GMO's are angles or devils. Had to get that off my chest

I have 6 Comets that have been on Green Mountain Organic Soy Free for over a year with great results. It's the only soy-free in my area without going to a mill. Problem is they don't make a soy-free grower or chick starter

I'm assuming it's because they are a fairly new company.

So, I bought Scratch and Peck chicken starter online because I didn't need much for my new 6 chicks and the shipping on a 10lb bag wasn't horrible. In a few weeks I'll need the grower feed but getting anything shipped in 25lb bags is just financial suicide.

My question is, can I use the GM layer feed and supplement to bump up the protein? I can make my own feed but I'm looking for the easiest way. Any ideas will be helpful, thanks!

If you mean can you up the protein on a layer feed and feed it to chicks (less than 18 weeks old), no, you can't. It will be enough protein, but too much calcium for chicks.

I've been able to make a good GMO-free feed, partially organic for about $0.65/lb. Scratch n Peck costs us about $0.80/lb.

I buy a local broiler feed, non-gmo, no soy or corn. I don't care if there is soy or corn, I just don't want gmo. With this I mix in organic corn, organic wheat, Menhaden fish meal and Fertrell Nutribalancer. It brings the protein from 20% down to 19%. I keep crushed oyster shell on the side for calcium.