Home Feeding Ideas and Solutions Discussion Thread

[RaZ]

Has anyone thought about raising tadpoles for the chickens? The kiddie pool that was just sitting out full of filthy water is full of them, should make decent chicken food? I haven't put serious thought into it, but might work.

Personally, I would not use tadpoles as food. Simply because the frog and toad populations are suffering a world wide decline. I raise as many as possible in my pond and aquarium for release to the wilds of the backyard. If some adult frogs or toads get into the chicken run and get eaten, then there is nothing I can do about that. I just will not raise them as a direct food source for the chickens.

 

[Lacy Blues]

Has anyone thought about raising tadpoles for the chickens? The kiddie pool that was just sitting out full of filthy water is full of them, should make decent chicken food? I haven't put serious thought into it, but might work.
Has anyone heard of or tried the BSF? I've got to try the black soldier fly grubs, they self harvest and you don't have to worry about the egg laying adults, they come to your bin and don't take up any of your room or time. Oh, and feed is free, just give them manure and/or kitchen scraps. GREAT

I haven't, but I would if I had tadpoles. The BSF is also something worth looking into. Some people have fed them to their chickens and they love them.

 

[ducklucky]

Bought feed today, holy mackerolee, up $4 for 50# cracked corn, $2 for pellets or crumble, and they were out of oats, guess folks are buying the cheap stuff. Incredible. Will be buying some cow corn and freezing it for sure, we have tons of it locally here, and the birds need it in the winter. You guys in the south are lucky you can start fish and such in your ponds. Does it make the eggs taste different?

 

[Zanna]

Bought feed today, holy mackerolee, up $4 for 50# cracked corn, $2 for pellets or crumble, and they were out of oats, guess folks are buying the cheap stuff. Incredible. Will be buying some cow corn and freezing it for sure, we have tons of it locally here, and the birds need it in the winter. You guys in the south are lucky you can start fish and such in your ponds. Does it make the eggs taste different?

We do a ton of deep sea fishing all summer, I save and freeze all of the trimmings from the tuna/halibut/salmon and feed quite a bit of this. Does not make the eggs taste different but I am sure it ups the Omega content! We live in the heart of farmland in the Willamette Valley, Oregon. Just bought 5 barrels of wheat, will be getting a pickup load of dried peas next week and have two barrels of corn left from raising hogs last fall. Still trying to find some oats out of the field. My regular all purpose poultry feed (19% protein) that I buy has gone up $4.00 a 50LB bag in the last 6 months, $1 of which happened between last week and this week......... It is getting really scary. I will be doing things a little different from now on!

 

[Jaymie]

Okay, bit of a change of topic, but something thats starting to concern me being as this will be my first (Canadian) winter with chickens...do I need to provide them with water, or will snow work?

I plan on having a heat lamp in there, but not sure if it will keep the water thawed.
The fish idea is great! we ice fish alot, and i think they'll love a frozen fish once in a while! thanks for great ideas

 

[Beekissed]

Snow won't work and you really need to provide liquid water. You won't see too many animals utilizing snow when they are thirsty unless they are desperately thirsty and cannot get to another water source.

 

[ducklucky]

You definitely want water, chickens will pick at the snow, but it's not adequate and brings their body temp down, just like a human trying to survive if stranded, you do NOT eat a lot of snow, will give you hypothermia. Metal waterer with heater underneath works fine, just run a heavy duty extension cord, you will have no worries. A lot of them come on at a certain temp, shop around on the net, there's a lot out there. We've had ours for about 8 years, and it still works fine, can unplug on clement days, which you and I don't have many come Dec., they work like a charm. Just elevate it on a large brick, or even a block of wood to keep it off the floor. Our chickens will not set foot outside in even a dusting of snow, even tho their coop is open, they sit at the door and look longingly out. We will shovel a space for them, but on bitter, bitter days, best to leave them in, they will get "cold stupid." Give them some green stuff in winter, leftover salad, peas, whatever, and plenty of corn (corn produces body heat) we just mix it 1/3 right in with their feed, it's like candy to them. Don't overdo the corn, they will get fat from it.

 

[furbabymum]

I'm thinking what I'll do is have a shallow pan with water in it, in the birds' yards. Then I'll catch several fish from my pond (to be

) and put them in the pans and let the birds catch them. That will be some fun chicken tv for me!

As soon as this weather cools down I'll be having my strapping young son start digging a big hole for a concrete pond. Then, hopefully before winter, I can get it stocked with some fathead minnows and they can do their thing and make lots of babies for my birds!

DON'T DO CONCRETE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I'm probably biased. I did a concrete pond. Biggest pain the rear end I've ever encountered. It leaked. A lot. I started out with standard concrete. Then I put masonry concrete over it. Still leaked. So I had to buy about 10 gallons of concrete sealent and paint the pond. It holds water now. Insanely expensive. I found and bought a pond liner for $69 off Amazon.com. 14x14 sized. Just do the pond liner!!!

 

[Lacy Blues]

DON'T DO CONCRETE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I'm probably biased. I did a concrete pond. Biggest pain the rear end I've ever encountered. It leaked. A lot. I started out with standard concrete. Then I put masonry concrete over it. Still leaked. So I had to buy about 10 gallons of concrete sealent and paint the pond. It holds water now. Insanely expensive. I found and bought a pond liner for $69 off Amazon.com. 14x14 sized. Just do the pond liner!!!

Thanks for the warning. This is the site I got my info from http://www.biopatent.com/pond.html Also there is a sealant I can put on it before adding water so I won't have issues with high pH and leaking (hopefully). I can't find the info right now but then I'm somewhat braindead at the moment.

 

[binders]

Quote: We did a concrete pond a few years ago and also had real leaking problems. I had to patch it and then coat it with a epoxy coating that was safe for fish before it stopped leaking. Then I had to deal with the air bubbles that formed over the years in the epoxy. I would definately use a liner material before using concrete again. Ended up spending a lot more with the concrete in the end (between the concrete, expoxy and the lost water.) Water is scarce in NM and I was losing a lot, but not right at first.