Shadrach's Ex Battery and Rescued chickens thread.

[no fly zone]

Walmart in the USA has sardines for $1.08 (the cents may be different) and a can of tuna for around $1.29.

farmed or wild caught?

 

[fuzzi]

I added some crumbs from an almost empty bag of shredded cheese to chopped up grapes. When I fed it to my chickens they acted as if they'd not been fed in a week!

 

[RoyalChick]

I added some crumbs from an almost empty bag of shredded cheese to chopped up grapes. When I fed it to my chickens they acted as if they'd not been fed in a week!

shredded cheese is the best - it looks like worms but is CHEESE!

 

[Perris]

hard cheese is even better than yogurt nutrition-wise, but is as expensive as meat here. Home made cottage cheese is easy and cheap though.

 

[Perris]

Tax for all the feed talk: Fforest back in June, when he had dark comb tips intermittently. He seems to have got over whatever it was, thankfully.

 

[BDutch]

I keep it simple and feed my chickens vegan except for the sparsely given mealworms.

Milk products are not cheap compared to beans if you take the water out. And the cheap milk products come with many environmental costs (GMO soy, manure with high levels of greenhouse gasses).

A bag of 25 kg chick grower costs me € 22,50 and has good protein levels. If they want more carnivore feed my chickens have to search some themselves.
Unfortunately my chickens are still too scared to come out for more than 20 minutes. The noises they hear from the construction workers is probably too frightening for them to be at ease.

About 50 meters behind our garden:

Even in the run the chickens are hiding (under the Portuguese laurel). .

 

[RoyalChick]

I will pay my tax with Tassels who I got to hold today (only because she spotted what I had in my hand!).

 

[Perris]

And the cheap milk products come with many environmental costs (GMO soy, manure with high levels of greenhouse gasses).

only if they're farmed industrially and housed and fed concentrates. Round here they graze grass in fields.

eta you might find this interesting
https://www.theguardian.com/food/20...time-vegetarian-became-beefs-biggest-champion

 

[Perris]

because she spotted what I had in my hand!

what did you have in your hand?

 

[Shadrach]

OR DAIRY - why is dairy so overlooked? It's the cheapest and most accessible animal protein out there.

I get the impression that many of the people wrote these early chicken keeping books lived on some kind of agricultural land, or had good access to some. Most are written by people who free ranged their chickens. If I could return to my uncles farm with what I know now, I would be feeding his free rangers milk staright from the cow.
I'm still learning about how to feed the allotment chickens. I should know better, but I tend to associate dairy produce with high saturated fats. Of course it's verging on nonsense because meat has the same problem. It's easier to see lean meat than it is to read all the crap thats been added when making the cheese though.
I took some Kefir to the allotments; they weren't impresses.
The main thing for me is I'm looking for a complete feed made from dried produce that I can store and ferment. Meat, fish, and dairy produce goes off quite quickly, even in the fridge.
I'm getting there.