Raising Meat birds on alternative feeds (ie CHEEP-ly)

[RachelJG]

Hi guys! I'm raising some Rock X's. I've spent enough time reading this site, I figured I should join. I would really like to find an alternative to the bagged "chick grower" with synthetic vitamins and "grain product." My original plan was going to be ordering stuff from Azure Standard and adding fish that I would catch for protein. There's a river near here where you can catch the bag limit in a few hours if you hit the spawning run just right... which I didn't, so now I have no fish (and I missed the order deadline...) I would feed them bones and such, but the scrap bones I have on hand are chicken from bone broth. is that ok? I'm hesitant to feed chicken to chickens, but it has been cooked for 72hrs.
I've planted some sunflowers and plan to toss the heads into the pen for a fall batch of broilers and turkeys. I planted some wheat in my garden too... I'm wondering if I could plant it on the yard where I will pasture chickens next year and let them harvest it themselves? or just cut it down and throw it in for them stalk and all to save myself threshing it?
The grains/peas from Azure standard are not cheap but the feed store staff here looks at me funny if I ask for anything besides pre-fab chicken feed. (I live in an economically DEAD area of TX) I can't even get roasted soy beans or wheat. Just GMO corn and oats. Do I need whole grains to ferment? will my little chicks be able to chew it? I need to learn about fermenting...
I make mozzarella on a regular basis, but my chicks seemed only nominally interested in the whey... perhaps because it is slightly acidic? (as opposed to the "sweet" whey that results from other cheeses???). I was offering it in a separate "waterer."
I'm going to try setting kitchen scraps under boards to raise bugs as soon as I take care of the fox (or dog?) that just massacred most of my flock and can get the 9 survivors back out on the pasture. They are 2 weeks old.

 

[RachelJG]

My inspiration for all this is switching over to a real, whole foods way of eating. I've already cut out most sugar in the last 2 weeks (hubby keeps forgetting I don't take sugar in my morning coffee anymore.) and also cut out white flour. I'm lucky that I found a product here that comes from a mill that grinds whole wheat into flour and doesn't bleach it. They're called Eureka mills, but they're a local company here in SA. They grow non GMO wheat and then stone grind it into whole meal flour, so I've been baking bread daily with that. I want to make a chicken bone broth and thinking about sacrificing two young cockerels for that purpose. They were hatched on the 2nd of January, one is a Rhode Island Red and the other a little mutt cockerel. I've read that free range or pastured birds are the best for bone broth as they contain a lot more nutrients. Or I'll use the annoying wild rooster that comes over and kicks my poor Silkie roo every day...

Reading about whole food eating has inspired me a great deal. I really want to be healthy and able to start a family, first priority. My weight is uncomfortable but I've never really wanted to be skinny as that is so ugly to me! I want to just be healthy and able to carry children. Hubby and I have been married for almost 3 years now, managed to get pregnant once, but had a miscarriage very early on in the pregnancy - it was devastating and I vowed not to try again until I'm healthy. Can't live on processed and hormone-filled junk and expect your body to carry and nourish a little life.

Way to go Whoopsie daisy! I started learning more about nutrition etc. when I married an overweight guy and started working at a health food store. I'm convinced that shifting to whole foods is the very best starting place for anyone. Hubby was still having trouble after two years of whole foods, so we took him to a naturopath and are trying increased sun exposure, and more animal fats... we'll see how that goes! A bit off topic, but chickens are part of a similar journey for us. Most women take morning sickness and pregnancy complications for granted, but I'm not willing to be miserably sick for 9 months, so we're also working hard to get as healthy as possible before passing on genes!
When you make your bone broth soak the carcases with a little apple cider vinegar for about 1/2 an hour (to release the minerals) and then let the broth simmer for three whole days to get the most out of those bones. I use a crock pot. I ate some Chicken noodle soup at a friend's house on Monday. ew. I had forgotten how absolutely flavorless and nasty store-bought chicken/chicken broth is. You're going to love your bone broth!

 

[LindaB220]

Hi guys! I'm raising some Rock X's. I've spent enough time reading this site, I figured I should join. I would really like to find an alternative to the bagged "chick grower" with synthetic vitamins and "grain product." My original plan was going to be ordering stuff from Azure Standard and adding fish that I would catch for protein. There's a river near here where you can catch the bag limit in a few hours if you hit the spawning run just right... which I didn't, so now I have no fish (and I missed the order deadline...) I would feed them bones and such, but the scrap bones I have on hand are chicken from bone broth. is that ok? I'm hesitant to feed chicken to chickens, but it has been cooked for 72hrs.
I've planted some sunflowers and plan to toss the heads into the pen for a fall batch of broilers and turkeys. I planted some wheat in my garden too... I'm wondering if I could plant it on the yard where I will pasture chickens next year and let them harvest it themselves? or just cut it down and throw it in for them stalk and all to save myself threshing it?
The grains/peas from Azure standard are not cheap but the feed store staff here looks at me funny if I ask for anything besides pre-fab chicken feed. (I live in an economically DEAD area of TX) I can't even get roasted soy beans or wheat. Just GMO corn and oats. Do I need whole grains to ferment? will my little chicks be able to chew it? I need to learn about fermenting...
I make mozzarella on a regular basis, but my chicks seemed only nominally interested in the whey... perhaps because it is slightly acidic? (as opposed to the "sweet" whey that results from other cheeses???). I was offering it in a separate "waterer."
I'm going to try setting kitchen scraps under boards to raise bugs as soon as I take care of the fox (or dog?) that just massacred most of my flock and can get the 9 survivors back out on the pasture. They are 2 weeks old.

Hey Rachel,

Where are you in Tx. I'm out of Shreveport La.. So sorry to hear about your chickens. Awful. Keep them penned up until they are a tad older if you can. I have a friend that raises a lot of chicks and lives next to the woods. She told me that she raised 150 last year and lost 75% to coons or dogs. She ended up getting one of those Pyranese (sp) dogs for livestock. And he ate another 20 before he learned you don't eat chickens. Bad luck. It made me leary of free ranging at all. Even though I know that they love it. My 16 babies are 3 wks old and ready to get out of the brooder to the coop. These are my first so I'm learning as I go also. I researched for 7 mo or so before they came in. You can do your fermented feed with any grains. Or feed. Ask your local feed store if they have Plotspike forage oats or grains. They are easier to sprout and more wholesome than most. But rereading your post you said that just corn and oats. I'd go with oats. You can supplement with other stuff. Canned tuna if nothing else. Any leftovers (meat) can be ground up for them. Do you have a pressure canner or cooker. Any bones (deer, fish, chicken, butcher bones) can be cooked at 10 pounds for about 10 or so min. Softens the bones so you can smoosh them up and add to the fermented feed at feeding time. You only need about 1/2 cup of bones With CX you need at least 22% protein and if they pasture graze that will help some with the bugs. Maybe 10% of daily intake.
This week has great specials on chicken at the store. Buy bags of leg quarters cheap and boil them up for meat for extra protein. No bias on them eating chicken. They have always been cannibals. Nothing we do will ever change that. Gotta go but stay in touch. When you answer quote this message so I will get it sooner. Good to have you.

 

[RachelJG]

Keep them penned up until they are a tad older if you can.

They were penned... in a Salatin-style movable pen. but the fox tore the chicken wire. I made a 2.5' x 5' brooder box and had them in our apartment for almost two weeks, but even on deep bedding they were stinking up the apartment unless we kept windows open at all times, so they had to go out. They were also just too cramped--pooping on each other and getting all dirty and unable to sleep in peace for all the bustle. I followed directions, but that is NOT enough space for 50 chicks up to 4 weeks! I set their brooder box with lamp out in the other pen so they could get 100% warm and dry and out of drafts if they needed too. It was a good arrangement... except for the fox. The pen is at a friends house just outside of town and there is plenty of tall grass cover for predators to approach her yard. The nine survivors are back in the brooder box in my friend's shed for now.
I'm about 2 hours drive from Shreveport. There are lots of naturally minded farmers and ranchers north of I-30, around shreveport, and west of I-45, but I'm smack dab in the middle of a big dead zone. There are others in town who raise for themselves, but no larger operations that I know of. Probably because there is no market for it here
I don't have a pressure cooker, but I think I can achieve the same effect with long cooking times... that's what I do with the chicken bones.
Thanks for the input.
~Rachel

 

[LindaB220]

They were penned... in a Salatin-style movable pen. but the fox tore the chicken wire. I made a 2.5' x 5' brooder box and had them in our apartment for almost two weeks, but even on deep bedding they were stinking up the apartment unless we kept windows open at all times, so they had to go out. They were also just too cramped--pooping on each other and getting all dirty and unable to sleep in peace for all the bustle. I followed directions, but that is NOT enough space for 50 chicks up to 4 weeks! I set their brooder box with lamp out in the other pen so they could get 100% warm and dry and out of drafts if they needed too. It was a good arrangement... except for the fox. The pen is at a friends house just outside of town and there is plenty of tall grass cover for predators to approach her yard. The nine survivors are back in the brooder box in my friend's shed for now.
I'm about 2 hours drive from Shreveport. There are lots of naturally minded farmers and ranchers north of I-30, around shreveport, and west of I-45, but I'm smack dab in the middle of a big dead zone. There are others in town who raise for themselves, but no larger operations that I know of. Probably because there is no market for it here
I don't have a pressure cooker, but I think I can achieve the same effect with long cooking times... that's what I do with the chicken bones.
Thanks for the input.
~Rachel

Keep in touch so we'll know how's it going. I'm sorry you lost so many. Darned predators. They go through chicken wire like paper. And hardware cloth is good but expensive. I'm dealing with that myself.

 

[Whoopsie daisy]

Way to go Whoopsie daisy! I started learning more about nutrition etc. when I married an overweight guy and started working at a health food store. I'm convinced that shifting to whole foods is the very best starting place for anyone. Hubby was still having trouble after two years of whole foods, so we took him to a naturopath and are trying increased sun exposure, and more animal fats... we'll see how that goes! A bit off topic, but chickens are part of a similar journey for us. Most women take morning sickness and pregnancy complications for granted, but I'm not willing to be miserably sick for 9 months, so we're also working hard to get as healthy as possible before passing on genes!
When you make your bone broth soak the carcases with a little apple cider vinegar for about 1/2 an hour (to release the minerals) and then let the broth simmer for three whole days to get the most out of those bones. I use a crock pot. I ate some Chicken noodle soup at a friend's house on Monday. ew. I had forgotten how absolutely flavorless and nasty store-bought chicken/chicken broth is. You're going to love your bone broth!

Thanks for the tip, I will do that. I haven't butchered my "bone broth" chicken yet. He's wild so I need to catch him when he's roosting at night. He's gotta go anyhow since he's starting to chase my chickens away from their food in the mornings when I feed them - he has some nerve lol. So now the deal is, I feed you, I eat you lol (animals not humans )

Whole foods are already making me feel so much better. I'm losing weight very, very slowly but that is the way to go. Slow and steady wins the race Whole foods for me is more about health than weight anyway. If I lose a pound of weight and gain 4 pounds of health I'm happy!

 

[Whoopsie daisy]

I got a call from the hatchery today that my chicks have hatched and are ready for collection! I will be picking them up tomorrow

I have two packets of bone meal ready for them that I will mix with rice. I just don't have a clue how much to prepare for 50 chicks but I will find out soon!

 

[LindaB220]

I got a call from the hatchery today that my chicks have hatched and are ready for collection! I will be picking them up tomorrow

I have two packets of bone meal ready for them that I will mix with rice. I just don't have a clue how much to prepare for 50 chicks but I will find out soon!

Yea!!!! Good luck with them. Do some research on how much bonemeal to give them. I don't have a clue. Report back on what you find out.

 

[Whoopsie daisy]

Haven't given them any bone meal yet, it's still in the freezer. I started a bucket of fermented chick starter for them for the first week so that they have a good start in life. I will keep them on fermented feed, but I will probably feed about 50% Fermented feed, 20% bone meal and 30% sprouted grains or something like that. I will do research as well. They're doing well and happily settled in their brooder. I will put up a picture as soon as I can. It's dark outside now and their brooder is not heated with a light, it's heated with a ceramic thingy. I will take a picture tomorrow morning and post it.

 

[triplepurpose]

Forgive me if someone mentioned this already, as I didn't read through every single post--but Azolla is worth doing some research on. It's an aquatic water fern that fixes nitrogen, high in protein, chickens love it, can grow it in a tub, pond, or whatever, virtually maintenance free, and feed it fresh or dried. It gets called "duckweed" sometimes too, which is confusing, but "Azolla" is the genus name, various species, all very similar.

I grow it for my dual purpose flock and feed it fresh by the handful. A farm near me that raises broilers for marketing grows it on-farm and uses it as a major feed ingredient (http://www.punachicksfarm.com/p/main.html).

Good luck with your cheepers!