Heritage Large Fowl - Phase II

[gjensen]

What type of oats do you find the birds enjoy?

We already use wheat as scratch and to cut the protein content of the feed for the ducks, but otherwise we don't do many treats except what the birds forage. Also the feed is wheat based for easier GMO-free formula without the potential for fraud ... Lots of wheat around here. The birds like it.

The birds haven't seemed to enjoy oats much. I think variety would be good.

Our mill makes a fancy scratch mix, but its price is silly. My breeding partner gets all kinds of great things by the pickup load straight from the field and combines them for her own scratch. If I had the sense she does I'd do the same thing.

Some will turn their nose up to oats. Mine do not, but I have had some that would. Soaking the oats for a few days generally works. Oats has a more complete amino acid profile than the others, and would be by far a better feed if it were not for the hulls.

Hungry birds are not as selective.

 

[LeslieDJoyce]

I think soaking is a good idea, to help reduce antinutrients. Though we don't soak our scratch.

There are naked oats that might make nicer scratch ... where the hulls fall off before/during harvest. We've tried to source those before. Either we couldn't find them or we were too cheap to buy them.

Oats are the third ingredient in our custom feed (peas, wheat, oats, pumpkin seed, fish meal, yeast are the main non vitamin or mineral ingredients). I think oats have good methionine, so would make good scratch during molt.

Speaking of things that give a good flavor, I'm certain I can taste the pumpkin seed in my eggs, which is why they're so deliciously rich & buttery tasting. If I remember right, the pumpkin seeds are also good for improving the omega 3s without that funky fishy flavor of flax seed.

 

[finnfur]

What type of oats do you find the birds enjoy?

We already use wheat as scratch and to cut the protein content of the feed for the ducks, but otherwise we don't do many treats except what the birds forage. Also the feed is wheat based for easier GMO-free formula without the potential for fraud ... Lots of wheat around here. The birds like it.

The birds haven't seemed to enjoy oats much. I think variety would be good.

Our mill makes a fancy scratch mix, but its price is silly. My breeding partner gets all kinds of great things by the pickup load straight from the field and combines them for her own scratch. If I had the sense she does I'd do the same thing.

I not sure they enjoy them but they do eat them -fermented- I just buy the cheapest whole horse oats at wherever they have them for less . TSC or the mil
I have had one or two that are picky about it - but it disappears befor the next feeding.
The winter wheat I get in trade for eggs from the farmer that hays our excess fields.
In fact I have four 55 gal drums down there I need to pick up and mix with DE flour for storage.

 

[3riverschick]

I am just a small hobbyist with 12 chickens. I like to feed them Plotspike Forage Oats. http://www.plotspike.com
I like the science behind them. Created in 2002 at Louisiana State University. They are great sprouted to 4 thru 7 days old and fed as "green feed".
I pay 24.99 for a 50 lb. sack at Tractor Supply. They also have a 25 lb. bag.
Best,
Karen

 

[gjensen]

We have been feeding soaked and sprouted oats in this country as long as we have been intelligently feeding and breeding poultry.

 

[3riverschick]

Rant

Well I am really surprised. I was over to the Breeders and Hatcheries BYC thread today. Looking to see who was looking for Light Sussex. Using the search feature. wow.... so many folk not knowing how to buy them, other than from hatcheries. I must be doing something wrong in advertising my birds. Last season I spent a bundle hatching and growing out 42 chicks to 4 months to sell as started birds like all the veterans said I should. When I adverted them, ...nothing... one inquiry for a color project and another for a strain-crossing project. I ended up taking most of them to a chicken swap and to a local farmer, selling all at a big loss.
No one seemed to care they were carefully selected brand new SQ strain for the breed. This year we didn't hatch any chicks. I don't get it. Folk flocked to those monstrous Aussie Lights. Which couldn't even be APA shown. But when I offered proven SQ, nothing. Rant, Rant. Maybe it is the fact so many folk went thru the mess of incorporating the Aussies with American strains. Maybe everyone has moved on to the next flavor.
Hrumph,
Karen

 

[hellbender]

Rant

Well I am really surprised. I was over to the Breeders and Hatcheries BYC thread today. Looking to see who was looking for Light Sussex. Using the search feature. wow.... so many folk not knowing how to buy them, other than from hatcheries. I must be doing something wrong in advertising my birds. Last season I spent a bundle hatching and growing out 42 chicks to 4 months to sell as started birds like all the veterans said I should. When I adverted them, ...nothing... one inquiry for a color project and another for a strain-crossing project. I ended up taking most of them to a chicken swap and to a local farmer, selling all at a big loss.
No one seemed to care they were carefully selected brand new SQ strain for the breed. This year we didn't hatch any chicks. I don't get it. Folk flocked to those monstrous Aussie Lights. Which couldn't even be APA shown. But when I offered proven SQ, nothing. Rant, Rant. Maybe it is the fact so many folk went thru the mess of incorporating the Aussies with American strains. Maybe everyone has moved on to the next flavor.
Hrumph,
Karen

Please help me out here...what's an "Aussie Light" ?

 

[Lacy Blues]

I think the Aussie Light is the Light Sussex bred to the Australian standard.

I think the problem, Karen, is everyone thinks if they get the rarest thing and breed it up then they will make lots of money selling those "imported" birds. I feel your pain. When people are looking for birds of mine to use in a cross breeding because they want better blue fill-in-the-blanks, it drives me up a wall. Why on earth would I sell a bird that has been so hard to get right so they can use it to improve something else causing the genes expressed in that bird to die with it as far as its own breed is concerned.

 

[bnjrob]

Rant

Well I am really surprised. I was over to the Breeders and Hatcheries BYC thread today. Looking to see who was looking for Light Sussex. Using the search feature. wow.... so many folk not knowing how to buy them, other than from hatcheries. I must be doing something wrong in advertising my birds. Last season I spent a bundle hatching and growing out 42 chicks to 4 months to sell as started birds like all the veterans said I should. When I adverted them, ...nothing... one inquiry for a color project and another for a strain-crossing project. I ended up taking most of them to a chicken swap and to a local farmer, selling all at a big loss.
No one seemed to care they were carefully selected brand new SQ strain for the breed. This year we didn't hatch any chicks. I don't get it. Folk flocked to those monstrous Aussie Lights. Which couldn't even be APA shown. But when I offered proven SQ, nothing. Rant, Rant. Maybe it is the fact so many folk went thru the mess of incorporating the Aussies with American strains. Maybe everyone has moved on to the next flavor.
Hrumph,
Karen

People are fickle. I've found that if you don't have what they want, when they want it, they frequently move on to another breed very quickly. I had specifically hatched out plenty of birds one year and then the people that said they wanted them backed out on me. So now with me hatching just what I can reasonably handle here on my own property, then people contact me and get upset that I don't have what they want available or I can't ship to them. I did have one guy tell me he was willing to wait a couple of years till I got NPIP and could ship him some birds, but most people want them immediately, no matter what time of year it is, etc. So many folks just do not understand about breeding and if you can't run things the way a hatchery does and have a variety of ages of birds, ready to ship, then people get upset. And when they decide that they can't wait for when I'm able to hatch them some birds, after they have told me that nobody else has what they want, then I know that they aren't really committed to the breed and they probably just read an article in a poultry magazine about Javas and got the *romantic* notion of having a backyard flock of heritage birds. You just gotta weed out the serious folks from the wannabes.

 

[gjensen]

My solution is to stay out of the business of selling birds all together. Other than some cull layers etc. locally, the extra get killed and eaten. I have never felt that it was worth the trouble. I get a lot of inquiries and refer those people to other sources that are more motivated sellers.

If I become convinced by someone of their seriousness along the way, and I have, I am more inclined to be more supportive.