Home Feeding Ideas and Solutions Discussion Thread

[galanie]

Sometimes we overthink things. If you figure in your labor for a lot of jobs, then you're losing money depending on what you pay yourself. The way I figure it, I wouldn't be making any money if I were NOT doing these things, so it's all profit to me. I never figure in labor. If I had a job and quit it, or would be available for other work were I not packaging eggs, etc. then it would be a different story. But since that's not so in my case, then I don't figure in labor costs for myself for doing things.

 

[WI FarmChick]

I am sorry i should have said that differently.....I was talking more along the lines of a large commercial business. When there is just not enough of ones self to go around....And still live to see the end of the day...Lol

 

[galanie]

LOL Oh sorry! Commercial business, well of course you'd figure in labor! I was thinking more along the lines of the backyard person. oops.

 

[outdoorpodcast]

So for those of you who make your own mixes of chicken feed, how do you know how much to feed them?? I'm experimenting with grinding up cooked venison, cracked corn, BOSS and Oyster shell. I've computed the appropriate percentages, but am wondering how much to feed them. I don't want to do free choice like I do with their layer pellets because of the meat that is mixed in with the feed.

So far they are tearing into the feed and they clean every little bit of it out of the feeder. I'm doing 1/2 cup of the mix per bird, and so far I'm only 3 days into this. I also have some layer pellets that is in the feeder so they are not deprived of feed if this isn't enough for them, but I'm hoping to wean them completely off the store bought feed this year and try and save some money.

 

[Clay Mudd]

With a little trial and error, you can get a feel for how much they'll eat in a day, or at a feeding. At least that's working out for me.


edited to add: keeping track of how much of the pellets they're eating will help you figure out how much of the other feed to give them.

 

[FouPourPoulets]

I'd be curious how that turns out.

Right now I'm feeding mine a three-way mix of greens/energy/protein, which is working pretty well as is. It cut the amount of feed we were buying in half overnight, for one, without noticeably sacrificing egg production. In theory these could all be fed separately, but I don't leave food out during the day anyhow because a lot of the stuff I feed is perishable fresh things that might spoil and attract flies and such (or literally crawl out of the feed trough and disappear, in the case of live soldier grubs). I feed twice a day, and let them clean up all the feed. Also, mine aren't free-ranging anyway, and the seasonal differences aren't that great besides. I thought it was an intriguing notion though, and could be really useful for some....

Wow. What a fascinating, entertaining, and educational thread! I'm a "New Egg" here, and only got interested in keeping chickens about 3 months ago. I now have three 3 1/2 week-old chicks.

Something I read recently suggested that the crumbles form of feed allow the chickens to pick through and find what they want. I guess this is different from the pellets, since with those they get a condensed bit of all the ingredients, whether they need them all or not. So, in a way, it seems to me that using the crumbles (and I realize that's not homemade feed) is a little like providing the different types of feed separately. Though, I think what I was reading was also suggesting that feeding crumbles in this way wasn't necessarily a good thing, since there could be excessive waste of feed. Still, it seems like the chickens would eat what they need to eat and it might all be worth it. If you're going to use store-bought feed, that is.

Not sure exactly why, but I really like the approach of offering different feed components in separate feeders, allowing the chickens to eat what they need/want. (I'm assuming chickens instinctively eat what their bodies need, like I think humans actually do in their natural state!) I'd like to use homemade feed as much as possible, so this thread is absolutely wonderful. I'm just starting out with gardening, composting and the like, so I'll definitely be taking baby steps. My chicks have had a taste of earthworm from me putting a clump of earth and grass in their brooder, and from their first outdoor adventure last weekend. My primary form of homemade feed doesn't really fall under the topic here, since I'm grinding up peas, oats, wheat, and flax seed, and mixing in some kelp meal and nutritional yeast. Although the chicks go crazy for this, it's definitely not saving me any money! I have some greens in my little garden that I grew over the winter, and I'm anxious to see if the chickies will eat them once they're grown into pullets and ready to free-range. I've been tossing veggie scraps from the kitchen into my little compost pile for a couple of months now, so I'm looking forward to using those to supplement the chickens' feed, too.

I really like the sound of growing duckweed, and think I'll start making plans for that!

Thanks, Sky, for getting and maintaining this discussion thread, and all the other members who've been contributing to it!

 

[400constantne]

In reality, the wisdom of the old is greater than the inovations of the youth. Quite simply, the old farmers had it right. You have a few chickens, and feed these chickens tablescraps and other things to keep them alive during the winter. When the spring, summer, and fall arrive, you have a fenced off section in order to protect the chickens, and you allow them to feed themselves. This is really the only practical way. Am I really going to grow and store 2500 pounds of potatoes? Probably not...
The deep litter is absolutely necessary imo, lots of different organic matter, and a rather large coop. The rabbit thing... rabbits are a good idea, especially if you have goats (like me) because the rabbits will eat the parts of the hay that the goats will not. However, rabbit manure is not a problem. Rabbit manure is very valuable and doesn't burn crops/trees. The regular meat rabbit cages are made of wire with a tray underneath to collect the manure... so having your rabbits above your chickens actually does you no real good. Worms you may say... but chickens will demolish any worm base before they even get started. Chickens do eat rabbit poop... I don't know if that is an advatage or disadvantage. I do have one cage without a tray underneath, and three cages stacked on top of eachother with trays underneath. Rabbits poop a lot, if I had all four cages without bottoms, then the coop would shortly be over run with manure. Also, by using the trays I dump the rabbit manure into a 5 gallon bucket and it is easily brought to my trees, about once a week. Having all of the rabbits over the coop would take away this benefit. The "problem" of rabbit poop has already been solved, by using wire cages and trays... taking away the tray solves no problem... because there is no problem. Also, you don't need to buy a book to tell you about rabbits pooping in your chicken coop (Saladin), it is not a difficult concept to grasp.
It is sad, that in todays world we have to work so hard in order to have chickens, goats, rabbits... the things that were in the past the mark of a poor man.

As regards the "experts" who say that people can not have a hot compost bin without chemicals: Old wise chinese man say "man who say it can not be done, should not interupt man who is doing it." These "experts" apparently do not use chicken poop...
Also, politically correct woman who say that man should not use the word "man", but rather "person", should also not interupt man who is speaking.

 

[FouPourPoulets]

As regards the "experts" who say that people can not have a hot compost bin without chemicals: Old wise chinese man say "man who say it can not be done, should not interupt man who is doing it." These "experts" apparently do not use chicken poop...
Also, politically correct woman who say that man should not use the word "man", but rather "person", should also not interupt man who is speaking.

sorry this is not a comment on the topic of the thread, but that ^ is good stuff.

 

[DawnCols]

Question: Does anyone know about buying soybean meal to feed the chickens and/or mix in a home mix? I understand soybeans need to be roasted for chickens. Is all soybean meal roasted, or does it matter?

I did a little research on the question, and as far as I can tell, soybean meal is probably all roasted, but I can't find a definitive answer. Frustrating.

Maybe someone else knows more.

 

[WI FarmChick]

I do use soybeans in my homemade feed mix. I picked it up at my local feed mill. From what I understand some are roasted and some are not. I purchased roasted. They roast them to "kill" the things in the soybean that inhibits the chicken from getting nutritional value from them when eaten. ( This is the short version Lol )