Maine

[thatsjustducky]

All of their birds are grossly over priced.

 

[Chambertin]

Broody girls know exactly what to do 90% of the time. And if they dont its usually obvious within the first 10 days.
We have really fantastic hatching rates coming out of our Silkie broodies.
If they had an on/off switch I'd be the happiest man in the world.

The real benefit to me are the post hatch benefits.
The chicks dont have problems with poopy-butt, watering, temperature, leg or walking issues, nor anything like they do in the brooder.
Like I said, if I could engineer a switch into Silkies, wow!

 

[Widget]

Broody girls know exactly what to do 90% of the time. And if they dont its usually obvious within the first 10 days.
We have really fantastic hatching rates coming out of our Silkie broodies.
If they had an on/off switch I'd be the happiest man in the world.

The real benefit to me are the post hatch benefits.
The chicks dont have problems with poopy-butt, watering, temperature, leg or walking issues, nor anything like they do in the brooder.
Like I said, if I could engineer a switch into Silkies, wow!

If you did manage that with Silkies then they would be worth $5000 a pair.

 

[lazy gardener]

Here's my question(s) of the day: How many of you Mainer's... and Maine thread readers... are using whole grain feed vs. buying prepared pellets or crumble? If you're using whole grains, are you fermenting, and how are you figuring out your mix to give the flock the right protein %? Now for question #2: How is the price of using whole grains and mixing your own feed compared to buying prepared feed? Now for question #3: What are you paying for a 50# bag of layer crumble??? If anyone is using whole grain, I'd love to hear how you're mixing it, if you're cracking any of the grains, and how well it's working for you. Thanks.

 

[Chambertin]

We use a mix of bought feed (about 10%) when it goes on sale we buy a bunch.
Then suppliment it with all the veggies that the market cant sell anymore. We have a deal with them and they drop off crates of lettus and other oddbal veggies every so often. We give them a few cents a pound and we're both happy. We put it in the junk fridge that was here when we moved in and use that as the primary feed (about 60%).
The rest is kitchen scraps and leftovers from our food and whatever isn't eaten by the dogs goes outside to get picked at by them (about 20%)
We eat whatever we can of our leftovers like a normal family, but we have times when we forget stuff in the back of the fridge way too often. Luckily we have the doggies and chcikies.
The last 10% is cooked rice, we have a LOT of leftover rice being an Asian family.

EDIT:
This was the plan. My household and future has changed. No more China for me.
No more chickens either... Government wont let me import them back to the US

 

[Widget]

Here's my question(s) of the day: How many of you Mainer's... and Maine thread readers... are using whole grain feed vs. buying prepared pellets or crumble? If you're using whole grains, are you fermenting, and how are you figuring out your mix to give the flock the right protein %? Now for question #2: How is the price of using whole grains and mixing your own feed compared to buying prepared feed? Now for question #3: What are you paying for a 50# bag of layer crumble??? If anyone is using whole grain, I'd love to hear how you're mixing it, if you're cracking any of the grains, and how well it's working for you. Thanks.

I feed the prepared pellets and pay $12-14 for 50 lbs. Once in a while Blue Seal and Poulin have sales and I pick up a couple extra bags when they do. Other than that the birds get all the veggie leftovers and what they forage on their own when I let them out to free range.

 

[yankeehill]

Interesting looking birds but not for $5000 a pair. I got upset when I lost a TSC bargain Tetra Tint chick that I bought for $0.50.

Those are gorgeous birds! IF I were loaded, and could just drop $5000 for a gift for the kids or hubby, I might be able to buy a pair...but, I would like have to win the lottery or something. And then I would have to get over the guilty feeling of spending $5000 on 2 chickens! So, it's still unlikely to happen.

Are they really overpriced though? If they are an exotic bird, hard to get/rare in the US, I think $5000 would be more understandable. On our farm, the most we'll ever pay for a chicken is $5, maybe $10 for something hard to get (for us), like a Faverolle or Wheaton or some of the Marans. I think it's safe to say most people who have chickens as part of a farm (not pets) won't be paying much more than $5-$10 a bird.

 

[yankeehill]

Here's my question(s) of the day: How many of you Mainer's... and Maine thread readers... are using whole grain feed vs. buying prepared pellets or crumble? If you're using whole grains, are you fermenting, and how are you figuring out your mix to give the flock the right protein %? Now for question #2: How is the price of using whole grains and mixing your own feed compared to buying prepared feed? Now for question #3: What are you paying for a 50# bag of layer crumble??? If anyone is using whole grain, I'd love to hear how you're mixing it, if you're cracking any of the grains, and how well it's working for you. Thanks.

The chicken feed we buy at our local feed store is $15.99 for a bag of chicken layer pellets. Poulin grains has chicken, pig grower, and goat feed on sale for $11.99 a bag (I think until late September). We plan on buying a couple hundred pounds of chicken layer and pig grower at this price. For the chicken feed, 5 bags is a $10 savings while for the pig grower, 5 bags saves $20. We've got three pigs we're fattening, so that is certainly a saving. The chickens don't eat much at all, except the meat birds.

I'm wondering if we could start offering them wheat, BOSS, and the layer pellets and would that make the same protein as chicken grower? The meat birds are free ranging as well, with access to a great compost and rabbit manure bed full of creepy crawlies.

 

[Mainechick168]

we've got one new baby this morning! Welsummer x Chantecler I believe.... Lets hope the rest get hatching soon!

 

[lazy gardener]

Thanks all for responding. It sounds like no one responding is mixing their own feed. I keep rolling it around in my head that at least where I am, prepared feed is most likely stale by the time I get it, and with such a small flock, it certainly is by the time I get to the bottom of the bag. I know whole grains have a much longer shelf life. Too bad we didn't have a local co-op to buy fresh feed. If we could set something up with a local distribution once a month, we could all save some money and increase the nutrition of our flocks. Just throwing that thought out there!!!