The Natural Chicken Keeping thread - OTs welcome!

[onederchick]

Well first off, does natural mean organic?  As in GMO free?  I want to go organic but the shipping cost for organic feed is very high.  I haven't tried the ton route but right now a $30 organic feed bag $20 shipping which is like $1 a pound. 

Anyone have a way around this?  Like a reasonable internet company?

Hi I'm new to this thread and to keeping chickens and I'm determined to do things the natural way including organic feed. I just got mine from Azure Standard. You will have to see in they have a drop site in your area. I just got a 40lb bag for 28.00

 

[aoxa]

This was too funny and bizarre not to share!

My friend sent me this a year ago, and I forgot about it! Those chickens really have a nice life eh?

Hilarious, but really pretty chickens

 

[aoxa]

Hi I'm new to this thread and to keeping chickens and I'm determined to do things the natural way including organic feed. I just got mine from Azure Standard. You will have to see in they have a drop site in your area. I just got a 40lb bag for 28.00

40lb? Do you mean 40kg? I have never seen a bag of chicken feed any less than 50# except maybe a small thing of chick feed.

If it is 40 kg: Wow, I'd get it at that price too! It is $38 for a 50lb bag here. Only one store carries it :/

 

[Fred's Hens]

40lb? Do you mean 40kg? I have never seen a bag of chicken feed any less than 50# except maybe a small thing of chick feed.

If it is 40 kg: Wow, I'd get it at that price too! It is $38 for a 50lb bag here. Only one store carries it :/

40 lb bags is common enough here. The thought seems to be to make the bag easier to handle. However, since it is 20% lighter than a 50lb bag, the consumer has to bear that in mind when cost comparing.

 

[aoxa]

40 lb bags is common enough here. The thought seems to be to make the bag easier to handle. However, since it is 20% lighter than a 50lb bag, the consumer has to bear that in mind when cost comparing.

The 40kg bags we get here are backbreaking, but end up being cheaper in the end.

 

[Fred's Hens]

The 40kg bags we get here are backbreaking, but end up being cheaper in the end.

Yes. 40kg is close enough, between friends, to the 100lb bags I buy to save money. Yes, back in the day? No problem. Now a days? big problem!!!! LOL Age catches up with us all.

 

[Quailsong]

Thank you.

I will pm you tonight and tell you how to get your mind set focused in a direction that is doable and not over whelming. It would be my pleasure. I was in the garden/nursery business a long time and now I just help folks for the joy of it. There is a life time of plant knowledge knocking around in my head. Once I start rambling, it all starts to spill out until you yell, "Stop!"

Oh! In chicken related news! I did the fourteen day candle of my eighteen Silkie eggs. Still 100% viable! It is astonishing to me really. This is a first.

That is very nice of you! I got your PM, I'll set some photos to link to you today. I took a lot of 'Before' ones just as we moved in, so we could really see after some years what changes we made. And by all means, if you want to ramble away, I'm all ears. With all your gardening wisdom I think I'd never tell you to stop, that's like shielding off the sun & expecting to grow plants without it - folly! *smile*

That's great with the Silkie eggs, I don't know much about them yet but I've heard their hatch rates are pretty poor. Seems like you're doing everything right.^^

 

[Sally8]

Can't wait to see how many there are today? How long will she sit on unhatched eggs before she leaves the nest?

 

[Leahs Mom]

Okay...update on the Vitamix and coarse grinding.

I got it out this morning and looked at it (really for the first time) and realized that it is just an "industrial strength" blender. This is one of the older ones that has a stainless steel container on it.

I really just want to coarse grind the peas as, in reality, they wouldn't eat a pea if they had a choice and I HATE giving them to the birds. However, if I get them coarse-ground, I can put it in the ferment and it gets more thoroughly fermented and helps reduce more of the "anti-nutrients" with more of it broken up and exposed to fermentation.

Anyhow...just did a coarse-grind by putting it on low. Great motor in that thing...took less than a minute to get it the way I wanted them without any appreciable heat build-up in the grind (which is one of the things I was wanting to avoid).

So, at least as long as I'm doing smaller batches of feed, I think the Vitamix is going to be getting a lot of good use.

The one I have here looks like this:

 

[MumsyII]

Can't wait to see how many there are today? How long will she sit on unhatched eggs before she leaves the nest?

What a lovely picture.

Hens are individuals. You will find out with yours soon enough. My hen now sits for three days past the first one hatching. I have removed her, chicks, and old eggs and
she will climb back in the nest and stay put. I have had hens that leave the nest with one hatched chick.