The Natural Chicken Keeping thread - OTs welcome!

[Leahs Mom]

@oldhenlikesdogs
I am much like you with my feed.

We have a feed mill in the area and when I started out, I wanted them to make a feed that was organic, non-soy. After I saw what they came up with, I decided to make my own as I had to purchase 300 lbs minimum with the special mix and I don't like feed sitting around getting more and more rancid after grinding. I don't have a lot of birds so unless I'm sharing it's too much at one time. I also didn't like how fine they ground it. I don't even grind the small grains, and only slightly break the larger items so my feed is more chunky and less powdery.

So now I do my own, based on some principles and I have the Fertrell spreadsheet that has nutrition of various kinds of grains and feed ingredients that I plug things into if I make a drastic change to be sure I'm keeping certain nutrients within close to recommended levels. I do keep a bag of Fertrell Nutribalancer (for organic) that I use in the feed. Not sure if I really need it but I do use it.


Mine get all the things you were referring to above in addition to some occasional raw meat (ground), they get to patrol the garden on occasion, the compost pile. and I also dig down into the deep litter that is in the outdoor pen areas and turn up worms and bugs that they "go to town" on. I make yogurt and cheese from time to time (raw A2 milk) and they get the whey when I have some leftover, etc.

All that is pretty traditional in the way the old farm folks (and even city folks) fed their chickens.

For me the feed is the "back-up" assurance and they eat it as they desire. Of course, in winter here, they're stuck with the feed, but I also try to be sure they get greens and other items as well as some kind of animal based protein source regularly. We had a pact with a local "health food-type store" that would save all their out of date produce for us and we would either freeze for the winter or give it to them as it came in. They've now moved, but I still have other outlets that are willing to help with some of that.


So...this is to say that, yes. I also do what you are saying and I'm not afraid to go away from the cooked, extruded, bagged factory-made feeds. In fact, I'm thinking they may be healthier for it.

 

[Leahs Mom]

I do things with my birds (not my kids' birds') like you except to 10th power...

Yep...he really does. I seem to remember some things that have freaked people out. But I'd be willing to BET MONEY that @hellbender s birds are very nutritionally healthy....probably more than anyone's that are fed bag feed exclusively.

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

I am very impressed Leahs Mom, you really have a good system going on, I can see I'm a lazier than you, and less inclined to hustle. I am an old farm folk and proud of it.

 

[lazy gardener]

My birds get bagged feed, which I ferment. They are allowed out to free range, get JB from my hand held and hanging trap. Food scraps. I like to save my veggie cooking water for them. In the winter, I sprout grains for them, and also give them access to DL either in the old coop or in my green house. My green house has recently been moved closer to the new coop so they will have a small winter run, leading to the green house/sunroom which is now busy cooking up a bunch of DL: leaves and grass clippings. I plan to put a green house tarp over it this fall.

Also, re: parasite load: I agree that a certain amount of parasites is normal, and will not routinely worm my flock. However, adding herbals seems to be a good idea, but I have yet to bother with that. Culling would be preferable IMO to doing routine worming programs. I read a study a few years ago, where adults with rheumatoid arthritis were given an intestinal parasite. Their inflammation decreased. At the end of the study, the parasites were eliminated. Some of the participants had such a marked inflammatory change that they asked if they could please have their parasites back.

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

So not so much a parasite, but more of a symbiotic relationship, very interesting.

 

[SherrieC]

I think the only way to avoid worms would be to keep your chickens in a sterile environment without any "life". To me that just seems wrong, a facebook group I'm in warn that you should keep your chickens locked away from any wild birds. I realise that there's valid reason to that but at the same time its not natural so they share my gardens with the native birds that live in it.

I feed my chickens an organic feed, its very expensive about 3 times the price of regular feed. They also get grass, weeds etc from my gardens, peaches, grapes, sunflowers, borage, nasturtiums etc from my gardens. They get to clean up my veggie patches for me, now that they've done that they seems to be going for my seaside daisies etc as the frosts are destroying the grasses etc

They have a deep litter of wood mulch in their runs etc which they scratch through and turn over. I also throw dry food in there to encourage them sometimes.

I also feed them any organic scraps from the kitchen, organic oats, biodynamic yoghurt, A2 milk or biodynamic milk (cant get organic A2 milk here and no access to raw milk yet) when I do their worming mash, their eggs, sardines, chillis and herbs from my garden as well as spices and organic garlic, carrots and apples, slippery elm, oh and my pumpkins, spaghetti squash and their seeds. If you give them a choice they seem to go straight for the seeds and not worry about the flesh unless I grate it and mix it up.

I would like to mix up their own basic feed instead of premade but so far I haven't found a way to buy organic ingredients that is cheaper then buying the feed. I have a recipe in that sustainable poultry keeping book that I'd love to use.

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

I am hearing a lot of good ideas that I hadn't thought about, thanks, and I too love deep litter in runs.

 

[SherrieC]

Oh and I found another thing that may possiblycause them to go off their feed, I'm not sure but my last lot of organic feed that was delivered just over a week ago was dated November 2014. It doesn't look moldy but it certainly has me curious whether that could be the cause.

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

Wow, that's old, guess it says how many people are buying it. I would have though the chickens wouldn't eat it.

 

[SherrieC]

The sucky bit is the person went through the trouble of ordering it in for me as she was only stocking regular chicken food and now shes on holiday.