You missed chicken porn.
That would be me!Well....so many are very (what word should I use...anxious? puzzled...) about protein percentage that I keep wondering why they don't just come out and say - "they need a minimum of __ g of protein a day to be healthy.
I think that might calm everyone down.
well I'll say this much. My breeding pens get 16% layer pellets when there are no chicks and scratch corn mixed 50/50. In the winter when foraging is nill everyone gets 16% layer pellets and cracked corn mix. Everyone lays fine, everyone does fine. So I stick with that.Well....so many are very (what word should I use...anxious? puzzled...) about protein percentage that I keep wondering why they don't just come out and say - "they need a minimum of __ g of protein a day to be healthy.
I think that might calm everyone down.
that is all Latin to me as I have no idea what BSF is. Nothing personal, I jsut really can't stand abreviations. And BYC seems to have their very own that no one else uses.That would be me!Grain ration fanatic... for chickens, sheep, and cattle.
I'm pretty anal about what management groups are getting what protein...
I've experimented over the years and can say that a combination of at least 16% protein (if not a little higher) with at least 4% by weight (if not higher) in animal proteins, will dramatically increase not only egg production but overall health of laying hens.
Anything below 16% or with little to no animal protein and there's a dramatic dropped in egg production and quality.
Thus... my questions about the increase in protein when the grains are fermented...
If the protein really increases a full 3% (which I've not been able to find fact to back that up), then many of us could save a lot of money by fermenting... not because they eat less, but because the most expensive ingredients in our rations are the highest protein ones.
I only eliminate fish meal when I have BSF or free range... regardless of how high my protein is, they need that animal protein. But cutting out a higher protein grain like field peas would save $. I won't take shortcuts and feed garbage... I grind and mix my own and it's always soy free and gmo free... but any money I can save is always helpful.
Until I can double my BSF crawl off, I'm actually considering not feeing BSF at all in summer and freezing it for feeding over the winter. They free range in the summer so they don't need the BSF too.
I'm interested in this, too. I've thought about growing hulless oats and milo- did a tiny bit of milo last summer just to see how it did.Hello Natural Chicken Keepers,
I am currently working on growing my own grains and feeds to at least supplement my chickens so I don't have to give them laying mash anymore. During the summer isn't so bad since they free range pretty much exclusively, but I don't like their lack of natural options in the winter. They get scraps, but I'd like to give them more on a daily basis. I'm definitely growing corn and wheat for them. I'm still looking into other options that grow well and aren't too difficult to harvest/process.
Any suggestions would be welcome
Personally I don't worry about it too much. I don't think that knowing the daily needs would be of any practical use- in order for it to be so, you would have to know exactly how much feed your chicken is eating (like if it's 9g of protein they need and there is 9g in 5 oz of feed, that's worthless info unless you know each hen is eating 5 oz, which in fact none of us can know for a variety of reasons...). Percentage is a more practical way of figuring it, because the proportion of nutrients is more important than the total of any single nutrient. The closest I come to worrying about it is in the winter, when I almost completely exclude any scratch grains so I don't lower their overall protein too much. BUT I do completely agree re: the animal protein- I wish more commercial foods contained them.
I can't think of a reason for giving wheat germ to chicks... but I don't think it would hurt them either, so if you're not using it you could mix it in. But wait until it's good and fermenting, wheat germ is really hard to break down and they'll digest it better if it's fermented.
My feed store got in the organic feed just in time! The babies came yesterday so the feed is basically only wet, not yet fermenting.
My newest questions to my fermenting friends- the literature says feed hens once to twice a day. What about chicks? Also read somewhere about giving wheat germ to chickens so can I add some to the fermenting mix? I have some I bought to add to our human food but no one in house likes it so its going to waste. Also have some ground flax going to waste, can I throw that in the fermenting mix?
