NY chicken lover!!!!

[Tab's chicken obsession]

I am in a pickle... I love my DH to pieces but I sent him for chicken feed 200lbs mind you to get us through his surgery and recuperation time and he came home with 200#'s of scratch. Instead of feed.
Is there any way to up the protein enough to feed it.
I'm going to have to go out hopefully with my daughter to get new feed.
But what the fudge am I supposed to do with 200#'s of scratch???
Oye-Vay

We mix 150# of layer with 50# of scratch. Our scratch comes with boss in it. We get our feed in vernon center.

 

[rancher hicks]

Yay! I'm narrowing my breed plans too. I'll have an Olive Egger/Easter Egger pen and a Brabanter pen. Luckily a majority of my current flock fits in the OE/EE group.

Generally speaking if you don't mind the occasional brown egg you can stick any variety in with your EE/OE's. Keep a pure Ameracauna rooster and some hens in the mix and you should be able to hatch your own replacements.

Point being, if you like Barred Rocks, Dominiques or other breeds you could stick the occasional hen in there and still get EE's. I prefer a deep gene pool.

 

[BakerzDozen]

Generally speaking if you don't mind the occasional brown egg you can stick any variety in with your EE/OE's.  Keep a pure Ameracauna rooster and some hens in the mix and you should be able to hatch your own replacements. 

Point being, if you like Barred Rocks, Dominiques or other breeds you could stick the occasional hen in there and still get EE's.  I prefer a deep gene pool. 

I haven't been caring for chickens long but I agree completely with the deep gene pool. I believe like any animal having closely related individuals mating to produce new generations causes many problems. I understand that chickens are supposed to be different but if they were in the wild the roosters wouldn't be in place long as they would be taken out by predation or by rival cocks. Either way there would be a genetic mix diversified by nature. Humans as per usual mess with natural selection and weaken the animal. Just like your average pure breed dog has multiple issues a mutt never has.

 

[BakerzDozen]

We mix 150# of layer with 50# of scratch. Our scratch comes with boss in it. We get our feed in vernon center.

Tab you and I must be close. Do you shop at Pohl's for your layer?

 

[BakerzDozen]

My poor husband was lead very much astray by the person selling the feed. She gave him this and when he asked if it could be fed everyday the woman said "Yes!" He questioned it because it looked different than the feed we had been feeding.
I never dreamt we would have the issues we have to find a simple mash for our girls. They went from chick feed to Nutty's organic feed that we ferment. So they won't even touch pellets.
When it became an issue of cost and travel. Finding new feed has be a monumental challenge just the find some mash.
I would return it EXCEPT my husband opened and dumped the scratch in our feed barrels, already as they are too heavy for me to lift at this point. (I have ruptured discs pressing on my spinal cord)
The other thing is that I have been reading about homemade feeds and the main concern is the protein and mineral content. I can get protein, brewers yeast and dried kelp through Amazon. I was thinking of adding that and using a food processor to pulverized the scratch into a more like mash consistency.

 

[tao chick]

Generally speaking if you don't mind the occasional brown egg you can stick any variety in with your EE/OE's. Keep a pure Ameracauna rooster and some hens in the mix and you should be able to hatch your own replacements.

Point being, if you like Barred Rocks, Dominiques or other breeds you could stick the occasional hen in there and still get EE's. I prefer a deep gene pool.

This is exactly my plan, Rancher. I have an Ameraucana rooster who will have at least 8 hens of various backgrounds (actually there are three hens that might be sisters.)

I have a Buff-Laced Brahma boy that is the best mannered bird I've ever had. He's big and yet doesn't want to mess with the other cockerels. He's a big teddy bear of a cockerel. I'm not sure where he fits in my plans yet, but I can't or at least won't get rid of him anytime soon. I thought about trying to grow out a lot of double blue-egg gene pullets (some Legbars or Ameraucanas) so he could father some EEs too. We'll have to see how the flock dynamics go as he gets older.

The Brabanters are going to be tough. Finding quality breeders is tough, and I feel very lucky that I have the group I have. I'm on a mission right now to find as many breeders as possible to deepen my gene pool.

 

[tao chick]

http://www.livestockconservancy.org/index.php/heritage/internal/north-american-poultry-census

If you're interested, there's a poultry census happening.

 

[Gramma Chick]

My poor husband was lead very much astray by the person selling the feed. She gave him this and when he asked if it could be fed everyday the woman said "Yes!" He questioned it because it looked different than the feed we had been feeding.
I never dreamt we would have the issues we have to find a simple mash for our girls. They went from chick feed to Nutty's organic feed that we ferment. So they won't even touch pellets.
When it became an issue of cost and travel. Finding new feed has be a monumental challenge just the find some mash.
I would return it EXCEPT my husband opened and dumped the scratch in our feed barrels, already as they are too heavy for me to lift at this point. (I have ruptured discs pressing on my spinal cord)
The other thing is that I have been reading about homemade feeds and the main concern is the protein and mineral content. I can get protein, brewers yeast and dried kelp through Amazon. I was thinking of adding that and using a food processor to pulverized the scratch into a more like mash consistency.

Well sorry you are kind of stuck then .. What is your scratch made of ?
I would bet if you asked nutty she could get you some grains

You can add soy , oats ,
This is the list I saved
LOCAL FEED MILL FEED
100lb Bags
Chicken Layer Mash $17.00
Pig Hog Feed Mash $16.00
Goat Sheep Feed $15.50
Corn Meal $13.00
Oats $17.50
Whole Corn $13.00
50 lb. Bags
Soy Bean Mash $14.50
Cracked Corn $7.50

Make your own feed link
http://www.nation.co.ke/business/se...ture/-/2301238/2832858/-/slyb9nz/-/index.html

Is Pohs Freeway in Vernon is that too far for you ?

 

[Tab's chicken obsession]

Tab you and I must be close. Do you shop at Pohl's for your layer?

No i don't go to pohls because i can't get there while ther're open. I go to richardson's on skinner road vernon center.

 

[BakerzDozen]

No i don't go to pohls because i can't get there while ther're open. I go to richardson's on skinner road vernon center.

We will have to try Richardson's because Pohl's is where he bought this scratch from and they don't carry a good chicken feed at Pohl's they have a hog feed that people feed their chickens.