INDIANA BYC'ers HERE!

[gunchief25]

Raked up a bunch of leaves from the woods and got some mulch and wood chips from a relative to spread in my chicken run today.

My flock is having a blast scratching around in there.

 

[Old Salt 1945]

Free Feed!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Now that I have your attention.....................

I have a neighbor who has a brother-in-law that is a farmer. When the corn is harvested, he runs it through a dryer which tumbles the corn as it is being heated to drive off the moisture. While it is tumbling, small bits of corn, crud, and cob dust fall through the sieve holes in the tumbler. This stuff is called "fines". It is trash to the farmer. At the end of the season, it is scooped up and scattered on the field to get rid of it.

Left: Grain silo complex Right: Grain dryers (note fines piles at below and left of orange control box)



The fines piles don't look like much. Very closeup of fines in the pile.


Those 2 little piles made 10 bags of fines. Each weighs about 60-70 pounds.


It makes moderately good chicken feed. I know of some farm workers that feed it exclusively to their chickens because it is free.
The chickens haven't died yet. (My usual test of whether something is good or bad.)


They like it.



Very close up. I estimate 90% food; 10% fiber/crud.


I have 4 buckets fermenting right now.

Sooooooooooooooo, how do you get it?

Find a silo near you and see if anyone is around it. Park where you won't be in the way of truck loads coming and going. Always keep in mind that these people are trying to make a living and you are asking for a favor. Ask for permission to glean their "fines" from the dryer.

When they clean the dryer, they scrape out the fines onto the ground. Once they are rained on, they will begin to mold and rot.

Use a foot or shovel to determine the quality of the fines on the ground. You may need to shovel the whole mess into a truck or trailer and haul it off to get rid of the moldy stuff and wait for the next cleaning. Check for it the day before rain is forecast.

Provide your own shovel and bags or buckets or barrels or whatever. Skim off the good stuff and leave the grass, gravel, rain-soaked crud. Smell it. If it smells sour, it's no good.

It's not super easy, but I have, with little effort, 29 60# bags of feed for free.

Don't forget, the farmer is working 20 hour days harvesting. Don't get in his way.

John

 

[danand]

John- what a great idea! I have several farmers I might check with!! Mine must know that winter is a comin cause they been eatin like horses!!!

 

[danand]

Question..... Can it be corn and soybeans or just corn?

 

[Leahs Mom]

Quote:
That is hard to lose them that way. Very sorry...

 

[Leahs Mom]

Question..... Can it be corn and soybeans or just corn?

I love that idea! For me, I'd have to find someone that wasn't milling soy and had corn that wasn't GM. There are some around but not many, unfortunately.

Oh...and if there IS soybean in there, it can't be fed to animals raw. It MUST be roasted or it is toxic.

 

[danand]

Ok. Just did some reading on BYC. Soybeans can be used but they must be boiled or roasted for determined amounts of time!

 

[Mother2Hens]

kabhyper~ I watched every hour minute of your "Mama Hen Demonstrates Dust Bathing" video aka "The Dust Bowl." I laughed out loud the first time she shook her feathers out and her chicks went running! Lavender is a regular sized Cochin, correct? Is she a lavender/blue splash? She is just gorgeous and looks gigantic next to the tiny chicks, but some are bantams, right? I need a chart and graph to keep everyone's hatches straight. Thanks for sharing. It's so fun to see the mom teach the babies-- or try to!
HappyHappyHappy~ You do have a lot to be happy about-- new grandchicks and your first chicken show! More info you requested below . . .




Central Indiana Poultry Show
Saturday, October 19, 2013

Boone County 4-H Fairgrounds
Lebanon, IN 46052
(I-65 at exit 138)
765-482-0750

I found this pdf online that has detailed info about the Lebanon show. Copy and paste this URL: http://ibccn.org/poultry/
Show catalog with breeds, etc.: http://ibccn.org/poultry/documents/Show Catalog 2013.pdf

Kiniska~ Did you find your missing hen? IMO, kids today live in such a fast-paced world filled with the constant use of electronic media and have over-scheduled lives, which has resulted in loss of focus. That kid who was your chicken sitter simply did not pay attention to your instructions. A famous Stanford study concluded that, "Media multitaskers pay mental price" and "By doing less, you may accomplish more."

People who are regularly bombarded with several streams of electronic information do not pay attention, control their memory or switch from one job to another as well as those who prefer to complete one task at a time, a group of Stanford researchers has found.High-tech jugglers are everywhere – keeping up several e-mail and instant message conversations at once, text messaging while watching television and jumping from one website to another while plowing through homework assignments.
More about this study: http://news.stanford.edu/news/2009/august24/multitask-research-study-082409.html

 

[kabhyper1]

kabhyper~ I watched every hour minute of your "Mama Hen Demonstrates Dust Bathing" video aka "The Dust Bowl." I laughed out loud the first time she shook her feathers out and her chicks went running! Lavender is a regular sized Cochin, correct? Is she a lavender/blue splash? She is just gorgeous and looks gigantic next to the tiny chicks, but some are bantams, right? I need a chart and graph to keep everyone's hatches straight. Thanks for sharing. It's so fun to see the mom teach the babies-- or try to!

She is a LF Cochin. She is just blue as far as I know. Thank you. I think she is very pretty also. The babies are, three LF mix chicks, all Gus' babies. Minorca, wyandotte, and EE mixed with him. So the two chipunks and the larger black chick. Three silkies, black blue and white. The little guy trying to get under her while she was bathing is Chance, the little black silkie that couldn't walk. After a day in hobbles under momma, he is running around like crazy. They are very entertaining. It was a long video. I was hoping they would maybe join in, but after five minutes of being pummeled with sand and having my shoe pecked at by Pebbles the wyandotte, I gave up. I had to keep cutting the video because the dust was blurring the image. She hadn't dust bathed since the chicks hatched last week, so she was really enjoying it.

 

[Chaneys Ranch]

This is going to be an awesome week. I am so stoked.. Wed-Thursday my mutts should hatch under my broody, then the Lebanon show Saturday. Awesome I cant wait. My 10 year old son is even showing a lot of excitement for the events of the week to come. My Jersey giant also just went Broody thinking i will wait and see if there are hatching eggs for sale at the Lebanon show to put under her.
I have never been to a chicken show before, I hear you can buy chickens there. Can someone give me a bit of an overview of how the whole thing goes. Will there be a lot of chickens/chicks/hatching eggs for sale??? I so hope so.. Will there be H-Barred Rocks, BLRW, and the Polish Tolbunt chickens there do you think?? What Time of day do things happen at the show and when is the best time to get there?

I haven't either! But many of our members non our thread have. Hopefully someone can answer your questions.

Someone finally responded to my'bantam cochins wanted'advert on CL. Asked them for a picture of their bantam Cochin rooster.... Here is what they are offering.



Going to mail them back in the morning with the news that his guy is most certainly not a Cochin.

LMAO hardly, thats a Sebright and not a very well patterned one either.

Quote: Good luck! Sounds promising. cant let her feel left out!