Home Feeding Ideas and Solutions Discussion Thread

[FireTigeris]

I might just have found a source myself for coon innards...

 

[efanie]

I am very interested in making my own feed but i don not know were to start. I live in the north and we have snow about 5 months of the year so growing food all year around is out of the question what else can i do for them. Can chickens have milk?

 

[Lacy Blues]

Yes, chickens can have milk. Raw milk is best for them. Soured milk is great! Buttermilk is fine and yogurt is exceptional! It's the pasteurized stuff that doesn't do so well, so if you have raw sources, go for it!

Could you grow enough to store some?

Some of the information flying around on the fermented feed thread is about pumpkins , kept out of the rain and allowed to freeze/thaw several times over the winter which causes them to begin to ferment... apparently, the chickens love this! I haven't had the chance to try it myself but plan to. Other produce from your garden could be frozen and kept good. Thaw for feeding.

 

[efanie]

No I do not have extra stuff from garden this winter but I will be. Growing garden food just for my chicken next summer. I have a deal with a store in town they save me all there milk that has expired to feed to my pigs and I now will be feeding some to chickens

 

[Lacy Blues]

Something else you could look into...

Grocery stores pick over their produce department and throw away a lot of great food. You might see what you can get from the produce department for your pigs as well as your chickens.

By the way... how do pigs handle the winters you have up there?

 

[efanie]

If you have pig in doors it ok but the same problems as chickens always dealing with frozen water. We get our in the spring the butcher any time now I hope. I am getting done dealing with braking frozen water for them. I have go to the supermarkets around my town and they do not save for farmers because they used to and the framer stopped picking it up and some thing about northern health so many rules

 

[BeccaSmith]

I am very interested in making my own feed but i don not know were to start. I live in the north and we have snow about 5 months of the year so growing food all year around is out of the question what else can i do for them. Can chickens have milk?

While your question was already answered about milk, I have read that buttermilk or Kefir is best for them as I read that milk will not go through their system well, maybe that is because most milk is processed and perhaps that is why raw milk was recommended? I personally prefer raw milk for my self, the taste is so much better then the store bought stuff, just like our chicken eggs taste better then store bought. Anyways I was going to say while raw milk and Kefir are probably pretty expensive to buy, if you can find a good source or raw milk, whether you buy it fresh and get just past it's sell buy date, you can make your own Kefir if you buy the Kefir grains which are not to expensive. Do some research on Kefir (I know there is a thread on BYC) and you will see it has great probiotics in it. I personally do not like the taste but will drink it like a shot since I know it is good for me, but the chickens love it! I have been looking into making my own, it is very expensive at the grocery store and it is supposed to be pretty simple to do. Now if only I had room for my own dairy cow.....lol.

 

[galanie]

While your question was already answered about milk, I have read that buttermilk or Kefir is best for them as I read that milk will not go through their system well, maybe that is because most milk is processed and perhaps that is why raw milk was recommended? I personally prefer raw milk for my self, the taste is so much better then the store bought stuff, just like our chicken eggs taste better then store bought. Anyways I was going to say while raw milk and Kefir are probably pretty expensive to buy, if you can find a good source or raw milk, whether you buy it fresh and get just past it's sell buy date, you can make your own Kefir if you buy the Kefir grains which are not to expensive. Do some research on Kefir (I know there is a thread on BYC) and you will see it has great probiotics in it. I personally do not like the taste but will drink it like a shot since I know it is good for me, but the chickens love it! I have been looking into making my own, it is very expensive at the grocery store and it is supposed to be pretty simple to do. Now if only I had room for my own dairy cow.....lol.

Yes, Kefir has the greatest amount of beneficial bowel flora and it's converted the lactose into a digestable form. Buttermilk, etc. all do the same. But here's the deal on raw milk:

Raw milk contains an enzyme called Lactase in it, and lactase allows a person to digest lactose. Funny, isn't it? Right there in the milk is what you need to digest the milk.

BUT, pasteurization destroys lactase. So, pasteurized milk is difficult to digest. Many folks who are "lactose intolerant" can drink raw milk just fine. And chickens, too

 

[SowdersHomestead]

Well the rabbit innards idea works great. They eat everything but the large intestines.

 

[Chaneys Ranch]

I might just have found a source myself for coon innards...

Please, be careful about that.... I was the director of Animal Control for a large community about 15 years ago. We provided live trapping and removal of nuisance animals. There's several very deadly parasites raccoon carry. And they can, and will, contract canine distemper. I would feel horrible if i didn't mention it. Some of the parasites can infest a human host as well.