INDIANA BYC'ers HERE!

[CRSelvey]

What food do you normally use? I have been buying at Tractor Supply and/or Rural King, but I would love to find a smaller feed store that sells something reasonably priced. I am more than willing to pay a little more for it to last longer and get better production! I can't wait until Spring when they can free range more and offset feed costs a bit. I have also been feeding them spillage from the horse grain (horses spill a lot when they eat) but they aren't huge fans of horse grain. My old horses are on pellets though, and the chickens don't seem to like the pellets as much

Until this last time, I have been buying all of my chicken food at Central Indiana Organics in Lebanon. They sell all kinds of animal feed, not just chickens, and not just organic. The kind they make is called Fertile Fields. I usually buy 3 bags at a time and its lasted about 8 1/2 weeks in the winter and longer in the summer. It is more dusty than the crumbles were, but I've been adding warm water to it this winter and it is also cutting down on the waste. The food smells like something you would use to make Herb Bread with and I'm really interested in learning how to ferment the feed to keep costs somewhat lower.


Sorry, I can't figure out how to make it rotate.








I bought the Purina Flock Raiser at Tractor Supply for $15.99 one week ago and its almost gone. This one didn't smell like much of anything.


I know that I will never make the organic feed as cost effective as regular feed, but I can live with that.

Here are their prices for 50 lb bags:
Chick Starter $27.30
Flock Grower $26.00
Layer $25.85
Soy-Free $37.00

 

[ChickCrazed]

Until this last time, I have been buying all of my chicken food at Central Indiana Organics in Lebanon. They sell all kinds of animal feed, not just chickens, and not just organic. The kind they make is called Fertile Fields. I usually buy 3 bags at a time and its lasted about 8 1/2 weeks in the winter and longer in the summer. It is more dusty than the crumbles were, but I've been adding warm water to it this winter and it is also cutting down on the waste. The food smells like something you would use to make Herb Bread with and I'm really interested in learning how to ferment the feed to keep costs somewhat lower.


Sorry, I can't figure out how to make it rotate.








I bought the Purina Flock Raiser at Tractor Supply for $15.99 one week ago and its almost gone. This one didn't smell like much of anything.


I know that I will never make the organic feed as cost effective as regular feed, but I can live with that.

Here are their prices for 50 lb bags:
Chick Starter $27.30
Flock Grower $26.00
Layer $25.85
Soy-Free $37.00

Thank you to SallyInIndiana and CRSelvey! I will have to check them both out. I have been going to Tractor Supply and Rural King to get Horse/Chicken feed and bags of bedding. It is convenient because they are open weeknights and Sunday, which most small feed stores are not. It is sometimes hard to make the one day a week limited window on Saturdays! But I want to check both of these stores out to see how prices are and if the product is better. It seems to make sense to pay 2x more for the Organic products if they really last almost 3x as long and you get more eggs! It is worth an experiment and I am one of those realists who is skeptical of the whole "organic" thing (labels can be deceiving on anything and don't always mean what you think they do). I am also not anti GMO (muahahaha) although it is everyone's right to have their own opinions and beliefs on that subject.

 

[chick rookie]

have had a set back with my broody. she stopped eating at all and I cant get water down her either. she wont come off the nest on her own. I have been taking her off 2x a day. and she would eat drink and do her thing then go back to her spot. I was all ready to put her real food back in with her and now I cant, I tried to force some water down her, she threw it back up a few minutes latter. didn't give her allot due to her thrashing around and I was worried I would drown her. I don't think I'm going to be able to save her. why wont she just come off that darn next and eat??? I don't get why she is killing herself, I really don't.!!!!

 

[ChickCrazed]

have had a set back with my broody. she stopped eating at all and I cant get water down her either. she wont come off the nest on her own. I have been taking her off 2x a day. and she would eat drink and do her thing then go back to her spot. I was all ready to put her real food back in with her and now I cant, I tried to force some water down her, she threw it back up a few minutes latter. didn't give her allot due to her thrashing around and I was worried I would drown her. I don't think I'm going to be able to save her. why wont she just come off that darn next and eat??? I don't get why she is killing herself, I really don't.!!!!

Oh man, you just have to keep her going a few more days!!!! Maybe try something very nutrient rich like liver, in real small doses? And treats with high water content like watermelon or grapes? Maybe others with more experience have better ideas!

 

[bradselig]

So ive been talking to my local feed mill about custom feed. They can mix me 1000# of 20% protein for $230 if i provide the bags. Only thing is I cant get it with animal protein which id rather have. But it figures out to around $11.50 a bag which im paying $14.50 a bag now for 20%. Ill probably start doing this and orderbit by the half ton. Just gotta figure out how to store it now lol

 

[FlockMaster-614]

Oh man, you just have to keep her going a few more days!!!!  Maybe try something very nutrient rich like liver, in real small doses?  And treats with high water content like watermelon or grapes? Maybe others with more experience have better ideas!

Aww I'm Sorry Chick Rookie, I have no idea what might be going on but I hope your broodie gets better. How long til the eggs hatch? Is she acting relatively normal? Is it just that she isn't eating or coming off the box?

I don't know what to tell you I have never done that before so I'm sure someone else can give you some good advice

 

[CRSelvey]

It would be interesting to hear what happens with your egg production after you switch back.

I will let you know. Now that we are charting the eggs it should be pretty easy. I'm going to let them finish today's feed before switching.

 

[chick rookie]

Oh man, you just have to keep her going a few more days!!!! Maybe try something very nutrient rich like liver, in real small doses? And treats with high water content like watermelon or grapes? Maybe others with more experience have better ideas!

I remembered something Twocrows said about feeding in the winter or something but anyway I didn't have everything she listed so I made my own, and she is eating it now, I tore up a bit of wheat bread, water, goat milk vanilla pudding and scrambled an egg, mixed it all together and warmed it up. I only gave her a sm amount and put the rest in the fridge. oh and I took her out of the kennel with her nest in it and put her in one that she couldn't see her nest in with the food. now I'm worried cause she ate her mix and is now scratching in the pine eating something? I don't know what she could be eating unless its the pine dust???

 

[FlockMaster-614]

She may be looking for small pieces of rock or something. To help digest, whatever that is called but my chickens do that all the time. Is she keeping it down?

 

[SallyinIndiana]

have had a set back with my broody. she stopped eating at all and I cant get water down her either. she wont come off the nest on her own. I have been taking her off 2x a day. and she would eat drink and do her thing then go back to her spot. I was all ready to put her real food back in with her and now I cant, I tried to force some water down her, she threw it back up a few minutes latter. didn't give her allot due to her thrashing around and I was worried I would drown her. I don't think I'm going to be able to save her. why wont she just come off that darn next and eat??? I don't get why she is killing herself, I really don't.!!!!

I have 1 week old chicks if you want to make the drive and switch out chicks for eggs. But to me it sounds like it is beyond saving the hen. And other than pet status, I'm not sure why you would want to save a mean hen that is starving herself. Maybe I missed it and she is a show chicken or breeding quality hen. Still I get rid of meanies.