Heritage Feeds for Heritage Breeds

[Jake Levi]

Thats best, do what you can and get help for the rest.

I am going to be doing a combination myself,

the bottom line is getting the most economical chicken ration that I can which almost certainly means minimal use of prresent commercial products.

 

[Jake Levi]

Well, good news for folks in the SE, Countryside Organics is pretty much in the SE with resellers, here is their url:

http://www.countrysideorganics.com/

I will keep on looking and see what I can come up with, it will be. I did sign up for their newsletter, you never know.

 

[Tracydr]

I've planted a test patch of amaranth and it grew really, really well. Has anyone used this as an alternate grain? I'm thinking of trying some chia this winter, since it's native to AZ. I just don't have much sunny space to grow grains. I'd love to try some comfrey in the shade but not sure it could handle the heat, even if I water it a bunch, any thoughts on this?
Going to search for sale pumpkins this week, great addition to the diet this time of year.
I can get Azure-Standard for the layers but at $24.00 it's not affordable until all the meat chicks get butchered.I have 29 Cornish x, red broilers and assorted red "packing peanuts" that I'm feeding in the same run as the Pullets so I'm just feeding a 20% flock raiser with free feeding pigeon grit, which is a mix of grit, oyster shell and minerals.
I was mixing my own feed for about a month and everyone was doing really well but without a ready source of molasses I couldn't get the soy bean meal to stick. I'd really like to find field peas, meat meal and fish meal to use instead of SBM. I guess being in a state where peas are hard to grow makes it difficult and fish isn't easy to find either. We're not a big beef state either.
Anybody order these items online?

 

[Jake Levi]

I went to two large dealers yesterday, both were in the $14-16/50 lbs range on feed grains, way too high to be cost effective, need to find other sources for the base diet, so will be looking over the next couple of weeks.

Amaranth is used for chicken feed across the country, I havent tried it yet but may well plant some this coming year. Which kind did you raise?

 

[Chris09]

Quote:
Amaranth can be used as a feed ingredient if heat treatment is applied to the grain prior to feeding. The heat treatment is necessary to partially or completely destroy the anti-nutritive factors present.

Chris

 

[ChickenCanoe]

Quote:
Egyptian Fayoumi is another ancient breed, not APA.

Others are Penedesenca and Quetro.
I think there needs to be enough interest over long enough time to justify and enough birds in US to create a standard.

 

[Jake Levi]

I didnt reply to any of these yesterday as Verizon was down

I found a couple grain mill sellers Friday,

Grainmaker.com

and

www.4phg.com

I am still looking for others for bigger older models.

I have read about the heat treatment for Amaranth, but no details yet, anyone have any on the how to?

 

[Farmerboy16]

I had gotten some of the corn harvested yesterday, and the mill will shell, dry, grind, and mix a batch for my birds. Does anyone have a formula feed for breeder chickens, and ducks? I promised the miller that I will give him the formula tomorrow. Thanks.

 

[Jake Levi]

Hi Daron

I didnt see your post til much later in the day,

I use Corn, Oats and Barley, four parts Corn, half cracked and half whole, 2 parts Rolled Oats, and 2 parts Rolled Barley,

then I add minerals(got to find a new mix), calcium, and looking for a new source of meat meal. I free choice oyster shell.

That is my basic mix. I do like to feed separate alfalfa chaff, which is mostly leaves, and whatever veggies and produce I have, right now pumpkins are cheap along with winter squash. I would really like to try sprouted grains too. Right now most of my work time is on the new Goat and CHicken shed, hoping it is done next week. I havent found a mill yet that custom grinds, just a couple bix box stores with their own high priced line, I am in NE Wa so if anyone has a heads up for an area mill shoot me a pm or post here please.

 

[Farmerboy16]

I got a formula from Chris09

I talked to the miller, and it will cost me about $200.00 for a 1000 lbs of feed, it includes the mixing and grinding.

"Breeder Mix" is around 20% protein,
Ground Corn 575 lbs
Hubbards Chick-En-Egg Concentrate 300 lbs
Fish Meal 50 lbs
Limestone (feed Grade) 50 lbs
Alfalfa Meal 25 lbs

You can either add just enough Molasses to cut the dust and bind it together or a mixture of Molasses, Wheat Germ Oil and Cod Liver Oil.

For layers-
basic layer feed is around 17% protein,

Ground Corn 637 lbs
Hubbards Chick-En-Egg Concentrate 312 lbs
Limestone (feed Grade) 50 lbs
To this, do top dress with some Fish Meal to the feed as you feed.