Organic vs. Regular chicken feed...input?

[cluckcluckluke]

i pay $13- $15 for feeder pellets

 

[cluckcluckluke]

i pay $13- $15 for feeder pellets

 

[revmichael]

I don't use chemicals in my garden, and any pesticide that says to wear gloves mask and goggles scares the hell out of me. Even as a child and growing a garden I didn't use chemicals, my neighbor did, guess who had bigger crops with less bugs? Me! I've been debating this about my 4 week old barred rocks on whether to do organic feed or not, my reason for raising them is to have healthier eggs to eat, I'm raising mealworms as well as other worms to feed them on occassion, they will also have thrown in their run cut grass, weeds, food scrap, trimmed plants and what ever bugs they find. I'm beginning to feel thatgiving them organic will be worth it. I'm planning on using their manure as compost and who knows if these chemicals will survive the compost process.

 

[Krazzy]

some of you are lucky. it cost me over 40 bucks for a 50 pound bag of organic feed. i cant justify paying that amount for 33 chickens. maybe if i had a smaller flock it would be manageable. at this point in time i try to keep them antibiotic free, and i dont use added hormones. at some point i would love to switch to organic, but in my area at this point in time i cant justify it.

 

[flickerloo]

I happen to live in the town where Scratch and Peck is headquartered. I really can't remember how much I paid for it, but I'm pretty sure it was under $23 for 40 lbs of the layer mash with corn.

Kind of go back and forth on the inconvenience of feeding wet mash, though I am currently binding it with hot oatmeal, and that is wildly popular with my hens. But I want to stick with this feed because it is certified non-GMO, and I am rabidly against the whole GMO thing!

 

[kfreckle]

I've been feeding all organic mash with no soy.This past week I ended up giving them some alfalfa and grain that I feed my horses which is not organic.
My goal was to keep them all organic with no Soy and try and sell some of the eggs.

How long will it take to consider them Organic again if I only feed them the organic feed.?

Thanks

 

[GreenMountainEric]

How long will it take to consider them Organic again if I only feed them the organic feed.?

Thanks

If you want to be in compliance with "Organic" guidelines, set forth by the USDA, you have to wait 3 years, or start new chicks. That being said, most of your customers will probably not care, as long as it has been a few weeks or more. You just couldn't legally market them as "Certified Organic".

 

[kfreckle]

Thank you for the great information.

 

[Michael Apple]

some of you are lucky. it cost me over 40 bucks for a 50 pound bag of organic feed. i cant justify paying that amount for 33 chickens. maybe if i had a smaller flock it would be manageable. at this point in time i try to keep them antibiotic free, and i dont use added hormones. at some point i would love to switch to organic, but in my area at this point in time i cant justify it.

Shop around. Some mills charge more for certified organic rations than others. I'm in California and paying $32 per 50 lb sack of 17% organic layer pellets.

 

[juliefurry03]

I realize this thread is a little old but I am still new and this is something I have been debating for a couple weeks. My chicks aren't even here yet but we bought just the regular chick growth/starting crumbles because that is what the feed store offers them and I was unsure if they could get tummy upset from a dramatic change in food (like dogs and cats can). But I was thinking of switching them to the organic layer formula when they were old enough. I have 5 chicks coming but I'm thinking that I will only have 3, since we are only allowed 3, but I ordered 5 incase we lost one or two. So I think spending an extra $10 on feed won't be too hard.

My question is if you feed the organic feed than technically don't you have to feed organic scraps to them too? Also do they eat less of the organic compared to regular feed? They really won't be getting much free range time, just time in their run, because of town laws they can't be allowed to free range. So the bulk of their diet will be pellets and whatever scraps I give.