The Middle Tennessee Thread

[emmalynn]

Matlock,
I would be interested. I have 3 incubators.
L

 

[emmalynn]

Hbuehler-

Looks like I will be in the Mt Juliet/Lebanon-ish area this Saturday. Would you be able to take Widget then?

L

 

[Tracyree]

For me, it would be worth just getting in on some organic local meat

 

[mckenziecn]

Are there any meet ups happening? (Newbie, sorry). Get me in the loop!

 

[cpegram]

Welcome to BYC and the middle TN thread. We try to have one once a month. Haven't pegged a date yet for this month.

 

[CarolJ]

The Middle TN folks have a meet-up once a month? What do you do at meet-ups? Just talk - trade/sell birds/eggs? Is anyone invited? I think it would be fun to get together with other folks who "get" my chicken obsession.

 

[matlock585]

Quote:
You know... I spent about an hour up at the local feed store today hanging out with the owner and talking about this. I asked him if there was such a thing as organic feed that could be certified as such. He told me that he'd had this one lady who came in there an insisted on organic feed for her chickens. It costs 27 bucks a bag and she was paying to get it ups'd. (Crazy!). He said he brought this up to the nutritionist from purina who he deals with and the purina guy proved to have the better feed at only 14 dollars a bag. And the chick crumbles from purina are natural as well. So long story short, any chickens that only eat purina food are organic, and theoretically worth 6 bucks or more a pound. And your eggs are "certified organic" all you have to do is ask your local feedstore to get you some documentation about the feed. It's readily available.

To change the subject... I couldn't be more disappointed with these golden lakenvelder eggs. I already had to throw one in the woods on day 2 cause it was rotten and you could smell it, I candled and rotated a minute ago, and out of 11 that I have left, I think 3 are developing as normal, and a few question marks. If i get four out of this dozen I'll be surprised. I don't recommend Gabbard farms from ebay. I'm pretty sure they sent me old eggs that they didn't turn. 3 of them are stuck in the end of the shell. Major letdown... it almost makes me wanna just throw 'em all out and start over fresh.

 

[Tracyree]

Matlock- hmmm, I'll have to look into the purina foods. I ordered some organic feed online (yes, I know it's not cost effective but I only have four pullets and have always bought organic eggs at the store so it seemed to make sense?)

I didn't think the eggs could be considered organic if the hens aren't fed organic food? I know some of thenpurina foods are all-natural, but I don't think they are organic?

 

[matlock585]

from what he told me, you can put layena up against any organic food on the market and it's better. There is no true organic chicken feed, only ones that say organic on the bag and charge more.

 

[CityGirlintheCountry]

The term organic has nothing to do with the quality of the feed. It has to do with how the elements of that feed were grown. To be certified organic the feed has to be grown pesticide free and I think GMO free. Other than that, the organic feed can be composed of anything, thus it does not have to be nutritionally balanced to be organic. Same deal with humans. I could get organic Twinkies and still not be eating healthy food.
There are very specific rules that pertain to marketing food as organic. You actually have to be certified by the gov't and take serious precautions to make sure that your animals/product aren't cross contaminated by neighboring farms. I am surrounded by crop land that is sprayed and whatnot. It is unlikely that my tiny farm could ever be certified organic since I am sure there is some contamination from the neighbors. Most people give up on the organic label and go with "cage free", "free range" and "farm fresh".

As to quality of food, I had mine on the Purina brands for a while. Every chick that I hatched had wry neck problems and my adult chickens just didn't do as well. I switched from the Purina line to the local co-op brand and have been very happy. I feed my breeding lines the 21% protein co-op pellets and they have done great. The 18% is also good. The sales people are trained to tell you all sorts of stuff. I would question their "expert advice", especially if they themselves did not have chickens at home. Try several lines until you find what works best for your birds.