Regular feed to organic change ?

[Brittanymorgan1986]

Curious what your friend said about it that has you eager to change.

She was just saying how when she switched to organic she noticed her skin clear up and how she felt better all around had more energy.

 

[Brittanymorgan1986]

I'm just curious as to what the supposed benefit is? Apart from a massive increase in price to feed them (I guess that's a plus in some people's mind - "It costs more, thus it must be better!"), the forums on BYC are absolutely littered with people whose birds are suffering dietary imbalance on their very expensive organic feed.

Not because there's a problem with "organic", but because Organic is often also Soy-free (depriving the birds of important amino acids they'll need to get from other sources - aminos not listed on the typical feed label). And/or "whole grain" - which is fine if your birds eat a balanced meal of whole grains (and the very important vitamin powder added to the bag to make it a complete feed for gallus gallus domesticus), but many owners complain that birds select out their favorite grains for themselves, leaving the less tasty bits for those lower in the pecking order, and fostering dietary imbalances.

Wetting the whole grain organic feed and allowing it to sprout, while requiring more effort on your part, will help mitigate some of those concerns, and also help the flock deal with the unusual heat we've been seeing around the nation. If you should go that route.

If your feed is soy free, you want to look for alternate sources of the amino acids soy is high in (but corn, wheat, oats, sunflower, and barley are lacking in) - other legumes like alfalfa meal, fenugreek, or animal sources such asmenhaden fish meal or porcine blood meal (not sure how much organic certified porcine blood meal is available on the market, but I know there's commercial sources of non-GMO porcine blood meal at reasonable price to the larger mills).

Ultimately, its your money, you decidewhat to do with it - just be aware that "organic certified" is not necessarily better, and may actually be worse in some cases. It is more expensive, and different, for good or ill.

I will look but the organic feed I looked into I believe had both corn and soy in it.

 

[Brittanymorgan1986]

You can feed them whatever you wish but the resulting meat won't be "organic." Obviously for your own use if that's good enough, then by all means switch over, but if you're hoping for something closer to organic standards they'd have to be raised on organic feed at the start, plus the land they're raised on would need to be organically managed as well.

In none of the above cases could the meat be sold as organic, you'd need certification for that.

These birds are for myself. I'm ordering more tonight that will be last ones for this year. These new ones I'm trying organic after more research.

 

[Brittanymorgan1986]

Personally I just wanted happy healthy non injected humanly raised chicken. I hunt deer for red meat and fish as well bc I can't stand the idea of factory farmed animals. I just don't want to support it. I believe in meat eating but I believe in respecting the animals as well. Some of my family and friends have shown interest in buying some from me and asked about organic so if it's possible for me to do organic with the next batch I will but we shall see how it goes.

 

[rosemarythyme]

She was just saying how when she switched to organic she noticed her skin clear up and how she felt better all around had more energy.

Maybe if you switched entirely to an organic diet, or all homegrown meat and produce, you'd see some health benefits... but just eating organic chicken with no other changes isn't going to give you incredible skin. My diet is about 50% certified organic/"mostly organic" from my own yard, and I don't think I'm glowing or energetic.

 

[Brittanymorgan1986]

Maybe if you switched entirely to an organic diet, or all homegrown meat and produce, you'd see some health benefits... but just eating organic chicken with no other changes isn't going to give you incredible skin. My diet is about 50% certified organic/"mostly organic" from my own yard, and I don't think I'm glowing or energetic.

She is switched to 100% organic

 

[Brittanymorgan1986]

I would counter that beginning stage nutrition is more important.

That was what I was thinking as well.

 

[Brittanymorgan1986]

I'm very curious about what makes the meat taste different too. I grow a good size garden and this year my basil was amazing wondering if you add basil or any herbs if it makes any difference and will it do anything to my layers eggs flavor

 

[My Very First 6 Chickens]

I'm just curious as to what the supposed benefit is? Apart from a massive increase in price to feed them (I guess that's a plus in some people's mind - "It costs more, thus it must be better!"), the forums on BYC are absolutely littered with people whose birds are suffering dietary imbalance on their very expensive organic feed.

Not because there's a problem with "organic", but because Organic is often also Soy-free (depriving the birds of important amino acids they'll need to get from other sources - aminos not listed on the typical feed label). And/or "whole grain" - which is fine if your birds eat a balanced meal of whole grains (and the very important vitamin powder added to the bag to make it a complete feed for gallus gallus domesticus), but many owners complain that birds select out their favorite grains for themselves, leaving the less tasty bits for those lower in the pecking order, and fostering dietary imbalances.

Wetting the whole grain organic feed and allowing it to sprout, while requiring more effort on your part, will help mitigate some of those concerns, and also help the flock deal with the unusual heat we've been seeing around the nation. If you should go that route.

If your feed is soy free, you want to look for alternate sources of the amino acids soy is high in (but corn, wheat, oats, sunflower, and barley are lacking in) - other legumes like alfalfa meal, fenugreek, or animal sources such asmenhaden fish meal or porcine blood meal (not sure how much organic certified porcine blood meal is available on the market, but I know there's commercial sources of non-GMO porcine blood meal at reasonable price to the larger mills).

Ultimately, its your money, you decidewhat to do with it - just be aware that "organic certified" is not necessarily better, and may actually be worse in some cases. It is more expensive, and different, for good or ill.

Today i switched from Dumor 20% chick starter crumble to Natures Best Organic 20% chick starter. My girls are 20 weeks old and I have decided to keep them on the Chick starter because of the higher protein. After comparing the ingredient list, I noticed the dumor has dehulled soybean meal and the natures best has organic soybean meal. I wonder the difference. Also, natures best shows organic wheat, and the dumor says wheat red dog. Again, because these ingredients make up a larger portion of the feed,i wonder is there a concerning difference. I just dont know which one listed would be better for the chickens. The natures best also has distomaceous earth, and dumor does not. Is this a good or bad thing?
i hope I made the right decision. I chose to switch to organic because I eat organic and I believe in it. Thats really the only thing i can say about that. It just makes me feel better. But, when i see different ingredients all together or omitted from one feed, it makes me wonder, which is better??? Learning curves are tough!!

 

[GC-Raptor]

Today i switched from Dumor 20% chick starter crumble to Natures Best Organic 20% chick starter. My girls are 20 weeks old and I have decided to keep them on the Chick starter because of the higher protein. After comparing the ingredient list, I noticed the dumor has dehulled soybean meal and the natures best has organic soybean meal. I wonder the difference. Also, natures best shows organic wheat, and the dumor says wheat red dog. Again, because these ingredients make up a larger portion of the feed,i wonder is there a concerning difference. I just dont know which one listed would be better for the chickens.

i hope I made the right decision. I chose to switch to organic because I eat organic and I believe in it. Thats really the only thing i can say about that. It just makes me feel better.

I think you made the right decision.
I don't buy much organic for myself, because of the price difference, but I do buy some organic food products.

As for your choice of Poultry feed, Nature's best would be my choice for an Organic feed.
I don't feed organic to my chickens.
I feed a conventional layer feed 16% with Oyster Shells separately to my hens.
I do abide by the 10% treat rule.
GC