Organic Feed

[amyc]

Hello,

I'm new to chickens, and was wondering what people thought of organic feed. Do you notice a difference between organically fed chicken eggs and chicken eggs with regular feed store feed? Also, is there a big price difference? I'm thinking about possibly going organic with my chicks (although I know it will never be 100% organic), plus I'm thinking about selling my excess eggs and was wondering if organic eggs would make a difference.

Any help or comments would really be appreciated!

Thanks!

 

[blueheaven]

i bought organic chick starter at my pet chicken.com

if you sell the extras, you can tell them that you do not add harmful chemicals.
if they are free range...say that.
don't put chemicals on the grass they eat.

still searching for chick starter recipes that i can make...organic of course. i just don't like chemicals and other additative that are not essential to their growth.

good luck.

 

[happyhenslivehere]

I really wish we had a good source for an organic feed mix here, but we just don't. My husband and I are considering buying bulk from a mill on the west coast and repackaging it to sell local, because there is a big interest in it! I know for a fact that if I could feed my chickens a labeled organic feed, I would be able to sell the eggs to the local health food stores and make a great profit.
I have found a few online sources for organic feed, but it is a lot more expensive due to freight and the like. I found a website at one time that had some homemade recipes for chicken feed, you can usually just google it and find some great resources. Perhaps it would be easier to find some of the individual ingredients sold organic. I just know there is a very significant cost increase.

 

[GardeNerd]

Around here organic feed is about double the cost of conventional feed. I pay $25.00 for a $50 lb. bag of starter/grower crumbles.

I couldn't find organic feed locally when I first ordered my chicks. So I started calling and asking at the local feed stores, even though I didn't see it out when I went in. Turns out most can special order it if they don't have it. That way I didn't have to pay for shipping.

I eventually found one place that keeps it in stock regularly and it is cheaper than the special order places by about $3.00.

My pullets are not laying yet so I have no input there. I do a lot of other things organically so it is important to me at this point. If money gets tighter, organic chicken feed will be the first thing to go.

 

[Glenda L Heywood]

to sell organic eggs you must be ttally organic by the government
other wise it would be false labeling
and you need to go on line to find out the selling eggs law in your area
hopefully it is all worth it

we cn buy organic eggs for $4.00 plus at walmart here in Brookings
I don't see the difference
we get ours from a friend that has her own feed ground at the mill and the hens free range

 

[blueheaven]

i think most people that want 'organic' would be more apt to purchase your farm fresh eggs than organic mass produced eggs from a grocery store!!!

 

[cybercat]

One is suppose to be certified organic to use the term. But I know of many that use it that are not. They just say organic not certified organic. There is a differenace one you have to do alot of paper work for the other not. Most of those that are certified organic many true organic people do not concider real organic. Goverment has made allowances for the certified farms to get away with some chemicals.

Some terms that you can use and what they mean:

farm fresh= you feed your chickens any type of food and might free range some.

organic =you feed orgainic only food and might free range some.

free range=you do not feed your chickens any food they hunt for all of it and are not fenced in.

pasture=they are out in a pasture most of the day and might be fed some food (pasture chickens are usually in some king of enclosure)

cage free=usually refers to chickens inside a building in one big room where they can walk about or for private owner a coop with a pen.

There are a few others but these are the main ones. Some people will overlap some terms but correct term definitions are these here. These are the definition set by the goverment for chicken producers.