The Natural Chicken Keeping thread - OTs welcome!

[Leahs Mom]

Whoops...forgot
Egg shells as available
Sour raw milk as available (usually at least 1/4 gallon weekly)
Whey from cheesemaking and/or yogurt making when available.

 

[Leahs Mom]

Another thing I should have said is that the corn can be left out and substituted with other grains. Red Ridge sent me a spreadsheet to help calculate the protein levels based on which grains I would substitute in. It is wonderful! Very easy to use and can calculate based on weight or volume (cups/parts) depending on if you use a scale or a volume measure.

So...
Depending on what is the best price grain-wise (and depending on the things I don't feed) I can plug in the items with their percent protein and tweak until I get it at the level I want.

 

[LeslieDJoyce]

I forgot to mention..... Tank my hen who had that bad mite infestation last year .... Still looks great but on both sides of her vent she is still missing feathers. I decided to Nu-Stock her up again and hope that helped the feather regrowth. We the next morning her bare spots were glowing red & irritated. She hated it so much she pick & pick trying to get it all off. So I guess no more Nu-Stock for Tank. Has anyone else had this problem???

The label for the Nu-Stock says to test a little and wait a few days to see if any reaction develops. Perhaps this particular bird is sensitive or allergic to something in the Nu-Stock.

 

[LeslieDJoyce]

Now here is an interesting quote from an interesting article: "At one point, customers complained to Agnes Kulinski, the centre’s business director, that their eggs tasted “fishy.” It turns out some heritage breeds cannot digest canola properly and the unintended consequence was a peculiar taste. It’s a problem not normally seen in commercial chicken production, since most commercial hens lay white eggs and the digestion problem only occurs in hens laying brown eggs, Kulinski said."

The article can be found here: http://www.edmontonjournal.com/technology/heritage+chicken+program+scratch/8885471/story.html

I've been discussing feed formulation with a small and independent local feed mill ... I've been told there are various issues with finding appropriate protein choices for poultry -- each choice presents different issues. Canola protein is a substitute for soy protein. Personally, I do my best to avoid all contact with Canola, but as this article is from Canada I suppose Canola is quite available.

For people who would prefer Canola to soy, I'm wondering if a nutritional supplement or pro-biotic would help the birds digest the canola so the eggs don't get so fishy.

 

[Mekare]

I don't trust any canola. It is the food with the highest percentage of GMO plants vs organic. Cross contamination is common with canola so even organic canola is questionable, in my opinion.

 

[Leahs Mom]

You also have to watch canola very closely...a very high percent of it is GM.

Here is some interesting info on various grains and protein sources, and possible issues with each,

Please note that this is NOT talking about natural/non gmo sources, and is more aimed at big production. There is no avoidance of items that, in my opinion, should be avoided if you are interested in the health issues. However, there are some interesting facts about each grain/legume.

Grains:
http://www2.ca.uky.edu/smallflocks/feed_ingredients/grains.html

Protein Sources:
http://www2.ca.uky.edu/smallflocks/Feed_ingredients/Proteins.html

Info about Canola is in the protein sources link.

 

[Leahs Mom]

Whoops....MeKare and I posted at the same time about the Canola.

 

[SallyinIndiana]

For those of you that have hens in molt, do they stop eating the oyster shell. Mine were downing it a month or so a go but now it just sits there. My hens gradually one by one started their molting about 3 weeks a go.

 

[LeslieDJoyce]

I don't trust any canola. It is the food with the highest percentage of GMO plants vs organic. Cross contamination is common with canola so even organic canola is questionable, in my opinion.

You also have to watch canola very closely...a very high percent of it is GM.

Yeah ... that's just one of the problems with Canola.

I consider Canola one of the most avoidable of the things on the list of the things I want to eliminate from my diet. Most of those things are easy to eliminate by cooking from scratch, BTW. Though some of the "eliminations" also come from not feeding those things to the food-producing animals, a "leveling-up" in the game of taking control of my food.

But ... Every once in a while I cave and buy food-industry mayonnaise, which always has Canola. I'm SO weak. I consider mayonnaise a beverage. And I'm just too ... lots of things ... to organize myself around lining up the materials necessary to make great-tasting mayonnaise at home. I've done it, but not the last time I was craving mayo ... I'm bad ... I have a Costco-sized (plastic!) jar of mayo in my fridge right now. I'm binging on mayo and blueberry-rhubarb sandwiches lately. Bad, right?

I just find it VERY interesting that what people are often stepping into when they go "No Corn/No Soy" with their chicken feed is Canola.

 

[Shan30]

Oh Justine I'm so happy for you ! Would absolutely love to see pictures!

Don't know when I got so emotional but I was very close to tears at my cousins wedding this weekend.

So I raised my Guineas with a few chicks in hopes of making them calmer and to encourage them to go into the coop at night.
Unfortunately the chickens raised with them are totally crazy and terrified of pretty much everything. I'm working in that lol.

On the plus side, they seem to be teaching the chickens some serious foraging skills and the chickens are learning to hide when the guineas start screeching.
The Guineas also did come back in last night (their first time out with the main flock). All but one roosted with the hens, the one that didn't was snuggled in the middle of a pile of silkies