The Natural Chicken Keeping thread - OTs welcome!

[LeslieDJoyce]

Yes, wet
You can order an old whiskey barrel or wine barrel.


I have this 5 gallon glass jug I could use as a FF container


Old rain barrels are available and you can even order them online.
They usually need conditioning to get them water tight. This one was used as a rain barrel.


http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_nkw=old+wooden+barrels

I like the wine barrel idea -- they'd have to be pretty "safe" for feed storage considering they've had wine in them. I live in Oregon's Wine Country ... plenty of wine barrels are available. They aren't super cheep, but they'd be ... sturdy ... for keeping the feed out in the chicken shed during appropriate weather and would hold plenty of feed.

How would you suggest arranging the top of the barrel?

 

[LeslieDJoyce]

Duh! And, well, MADE for fermenting stuff in... Now, do you go for aged oak? Or those ones with the burnt insides meant for whiskey (eew)?

I know ... right? I've been puzzling over this for an embarrassing amount of time considering the answer is so ... obvious! ... now that some GENIUS has pointed to it.

I'm literally surrounded by vineyards and wineries. Vintage Chicken Feed TK.

 

[Leahs Mom]

I agree on the barrels...good idea if you have the right kind of wood/resin in them. Like the old pickle barrels and salt pork barrels for fermenting.

I've been looking for the barrels for several months without a lot of luck. Also wanted to use them for feeding out of by cutting them down or old wooden feed troughs. Hard to come by for me so far.

Since I don't have hundreds of chickens I don't need such a large barrel for fermenting, but I thought it would be possible to find something smaller. Just no luck. And the size of the big barrels is very heavy when you have to move them too so definitely need to have a permanent place to keep them.

 

[Leahs Mom]

(The ones I was seeing were apx 55 gallon

) I'm sure they have them smaller somewhere!

 

[Sally8]

I have a question for all of you. My new little guy is such a pretty color and I was assuming he would grow up to be a reddish adult but I'm noticing that his/her wings are now getting color. I'm not sure who the mother is as it could be the one that hatched him "Harper", the sizzle "Cecilia" or Aunt Ducky, the I have no idea what she is other than she is half Silkie. To make matters worse, the father could be a Barred Rock, BCM, Amber Sex Link or a blue EE. I didn't think any of these were old enough to breed and didn't see any of them have interest but since I had 3 fertile eggs hatch I surely was wrong. Any idea's at all? I edited to say that I'm not a big fan of mixing breeds but these chickens don't seem to care what I think.

This is Aunt Ducky. 1/2 Silkie, 1/2 ?




I'm famous for making things more complicated than it needs to be. I'm just curious what color he might grow up to be?

 

[Leahs Mom]

Okay. The "dog food" is on sale at the local butcher for $1/lb. right now. Normally supposed to be 1.49.

It contains:
Ground Chicken Bones
Ground Chicken Breast
Ground Beef Liver
Ground Pork Bones
Ground Beef Bones

I called and asked them what the percentage is of bone to meat and they said apx. 50/50. That's a lot of bone. However, I decided to get some and try mixing it with the ground meat that I'm already using at $1/lb.

Now to try to figure out how much bone is too much. Don't think I'd give any to the little kiddos until they are laying age. Not sure about the rooster boy either.

Maybe I won't keep getting it. or at least be sure to have a straight-up meat source to mix in.

I know folks feed chicken to chickens, but I've never done it before. I keep thinking that someone is going to come out with something that will show that it isn't a good practice in the future.

 

[AletaG]

Okay. The "dog food" is on sale at the local butcher for $1/lb. right now. Normally supposed to be 1.49.

It contains:
Ground Chicken Bones
Ground Chicken Breast
Ground Beef Liver
Ground Pork Bones
Ground Beef Bones

I called and asked them what the percentage is of bone to meat and they said apx. 50/50. That's a lot of bone. However, I decided to get some and try mixing it with the ground meat that I'm already using at $1/lb.

Now to try to figure out how much bone is too much. Don't think I'd give any to the little kiddos until they are laying age. Not sure about the rooster boy either.

Maybe I won't keep getting it. or at least be sure to have a straight-up meat source to mix in.

I know folks feed chicken to chickens, but I've never done it before. I keep thinking that someone is going to come out with something that will show that it isn't a good practice in the future.

Wow. Those butchers must not feed 100% raw to their dogs. OW!
Since bone is a calcium source, and this is ground pretty fine (can you feel the pieces with your fingers?) I would think it could replace oyster shell pretty well for you, with a protein kick. With 50%, and most meat is about 30% protein, you've got about 15% protein w/out mixing anything else in. So how much oyster shell does the average layer hen intake... hmm... one reference says about 3% of the diet should be CA and a hungry bird eating about 120g/day, so 4g per bird? Once you have that measured a couple times, shouldn't be too hard to "guesstimate"... and you can figure out from there if it's cost effective for you.

Regarding chicken... These guys are opportunistic feeders. If they run across a dead bird, or mouse they'd eat it. And that might be full of nice wild bird germs n nasties. At least the already processed stuff probably won't give your chickens a disease... We find it gross, but we have morals. Chickens, well, don't. I'd be super surprised if it turned out to be a truly "bad practice".

 

[Leahs Mom]

I have to get some thawed to feel how coarse the bone is. Still in process on that.

They don't feed it totally. There is a lot of good information out there about percentages for dogs and cats, and the other items they need. Just not for chickens, of course.

The calcium/phosphorus balance has to be right or it will leach calcium out of the bones. Seems that phosphorus and magnesium levels are usually what caused calcium deficiency in women and older folks and is also the case for animals. I'll have to do a little research on the balance and how that works out in the bone content. That's why I'm thinking I couldn't feed that to the baby chicks or the rooster, perhaps.

Here are some interesting links regarding feeding it to CATS AND DOGS that may be of interest to someone. It will also make you think about the issues for the chickens as well - even though it isn't specifically addressed to chicken nutrition.



Raw meat, etc. for dogs & cats (with interesting things to think about for your chickens too!)
http://healthypets.mercola.com/site...09/01/serious-mistake-with-pets-raw-food.aspx

"Our recipes for dogs are based on 75 percent meat/organs/bone and 25 percent vegetables/fruits. For cats it's 88 percent meat/organs/bone and 12 percent veggies. We've found these ratios work well for most healthy pets."

http://healthypets.mercola.com/sites/healthypets/archive/2012/05/09/bone-supplements-for-pets.aspx

Good article on the importance of balance:
http://healthypets.mercola.com/sites/healthypets/archive/2012/06/06/raw-food-diet-of-pets.aspx

http://healthypets.mercola.com/site...-diet-sparks-online-demand-for-wild-game.aspx

http://atozrawfoodforpets.com/2011/02/16/meat-to-bone-ratio/
"Yes they include organ meats in some of the diets but I find it interesting that they don’t follow the simple rule of 80/20 meat to bone/other ratio."

 

[lalaland]

I'm in the lead for the Absolute Worst Chicken Keeper Award. I feel absolutely horrible. You know it is my early week, up at 3:30 and by Friday I am not functioning on all cylinders. Last night I had to get up at 2:30. Went and did my chicken chores in the dark, carefully getting them fresh water, and putting out the mash in 6 different places in the run, and throwing out some oats to keep everyone happy.

Worked late, got home just before dusk to find.......I never opened the chicken door this morning. Meaning, chickens were stuck in the hot trailer (83 degrees today) with no food and worse yet, no water.

Opened the door and they came out - little Mrs Murphy just kind of standing there. I picked her up (she never lets me pick her up) and put her beak in water, dipping her in a couple of times before she swallowed. She then drank alot, and started to eat. Went in the coop, and my almost 5 year old EE who is in the midst of a tough moult was standing on the roost just looking catatonic. Repeated the dipping the beak into water with her til she was eating and drinking on her own.

I feel just sick.

 

[SallyinIndiana]

(The ones I was seeing were apx 55 gallon

) I'm sure they have them smaller somewhere!

Have you checked with you local wineries? http://www.indianawines.org/wineries/?loc=map
We live very close to Mallow Run and they are all about community and farm grown food. They raise their own beef too. I buy from someone closer to me but their cows look great. over all I think the wineries like interested people calling or emailing them. But I know Mallow Run is very community oriented.