The Natural Chicken Keeping thread - OTs welcome!

[RedRidge]

Leslie. .. You are in the right thread for the type of feed program you want. I am an active member of wapf and feed only non-gmo, home ground and fermented feed to my chickens during about 4 months each winter and they free range/rotationally graze with poultry electronetting being the remainder of the year. Can be done quite easily.

We don't have a lot of snow, but grass goes dormant in both summer and winter. We can't irrigate -- no water to spare in the irrigation pond, and there is a legal limit to how much "garden" water you can pull out of a domestic well.

Our biggest challenge is that we have too many birds to think they could all find enough forage in the area. I think we could do better with better forage, a lot better and we are working on that, but there is a limit to how many birds can thrive even in "green seasons" in this specific spot without balanced rations available to them at all times. I think we exceed that limit by a LOT of birds ...

Then there are turkeys, which are harder to feed at first. I could NOT get any non soy, non GMO turkey starter ... even sources I trust and who run GMO-free and organic mills said it isn't possible ... I have raised a few turkeys without proper starter, but the feed experts (organic and traditional) were unanimous that I use proper turkey starter *and* supplement it with chicken eggs as it is so essential turkeys get enough protein those first weeks.

We do grow wheat here, but it isn't organic as battling the weeds is an issue on this property. The feed experts I've spoken with (traditional and organic) are very skeptical about the validity of any products claiming to contain GMO-free corn or soy ... Corn can be avoided if you balance for it. But soy is harder to avoid for those higher-protein feeds.

I've really been doing a lot of looking into the situation lately. I do wish it were "easy" for everyone to have ideal conditions that eleminate the need for feed ....

What kind of grinder do you use? How many pounds of feed do you go through in a day? Do you really think it is necessary to grind the feed? If so, why? What is "poultry ejection being"?

LOL. Auto correct. Ejection being should be electro netting.
I got mine hammer mill from Premier One Sheep supply. I don't actually grind, I crack. My corn and field peas are whole and especially the peas are very hard. It ferments much quicker and easier if those two grains are cracked. So to make a balanced ration during confinement I use corn, peas, and oats. Those get fermented and then I add a mixture of powdery ingredients each feeding consisting of fish meal, limestone, alfalfa meal, and nutri-balancer. To balance that out further For chicks I add more fish meal and for adults I feed BSF (they are raised in the summer and frozen and fed over the winter - they are two high in calcium to feed to chicks). Keep in mind when balancing your ration that chickens need animal protein, not just any protein. Fish meal can be used for chicks because you don't have to worry about then having fishy eggs, but with laying hens you need to either cut back on it or eliminate it... This means you need another source of animal protein. We chose to raise BSF because it's ready and free.
So not using soy is very possible and so is avoiding gmo's... You just need to know where to look and get your ration balanced.

 

[TeaChick]

I've been wanting to crack my corn, but IDK how and I only have a blender. I guess I could use my hammer and a CBS block.

 

[Leahs Mom]

I crack my corn and field peas in a vitamix - which is just a high powered blender. Delisha does hers in an old glass container blender that she picked up at a thrift store or garage sale.

I don't have enough chickens right now to justify purchasing a real mill. But if I had lots of them (as in over 75 on a regular basis) I probably would.

 

[TeaChick]

I crack my corn and field peas in a vitamix - which is just a high powered blender. Delisha does hers in an old glass container blender that she picked up at a thrift store or garage sale.

I don't have enough chickens right now to justify purchasing a real mill. But if I had lots of them (as in over 75 on a regular basis) I probably would.

I see. My blender has a glass cup too, so I'll try that and see how it goes.
Thanks!!!

 

[RedRidge]

I'll post a link to what i use.
I crack corn and peas for several other chicken folks close to me each week... about 250 lbs/wk.
This helps them and me... so grinder paid for itself in the first year.
http://www.premier1supplies.com/detail.php?prod_id=61324

 

[Kassaundra]

Just catching up, something I learned after making the video, for you non sewers is thrift store pillow cases work well for sprouting bags too.

 

[lalaland]

At daybreak, I went to do chicken chores and found 4 eggs laid in the pre-dawn hours:




The whopper egg weighed 3 oz, and was a double yolker laid by a sulmtaler. Keeping my fingers crossed she is just getting things worked out and that this won't be longterm. The other eggs were between 1 1/2 oz and 2 oz.

when I cracked them open, I found the little round white spot - does that mean that yolk was fertilized?


Ignore the butter melted in the pan....thats the white looking stuff surrounding the egg.

I'm getting between 6 and 10 eggs a day, and my customers are loving the egg colors!

 

[ki4got]

as for feeding, I'm not going the organic route (yet) since it's not easily accessible to me at the moment... but I do ferment my feeds. (I resisted for too long LOL)

my free rangers get a snack for breakfast (about as much for 18 birds as I give my 5-bird bantam cochin pen) then free range the rest of the day and when I check them at night, most have some food in their crop, so I know they're not going to starve. LOL

I use a combination of "rockin rooster growth booster", a 20% pelleted feed that does have some animal proteins already in it, without the extra calcium for layers, so it's good for all ages. wild bird seed (corn, bos, millet and milo and a few peanuts here and there), and a multi grain scratch feed that has wheat, oats and cracked corn. I also add some other things as they're available, like split green peas, lentils or barley. whatever is on sale at the grocery store...

my FF consists of 3 scoops rooster booster, 1 scoop each of wild bird seed and scratch and 1/4 cup each of the split peas, lentils, etc. (usually between .5-1 cup per mixture),

my routine each day is to pour all the surface liquids, any floating grains and enough of the mash to fill a 10" strainer (into another 5 gallon bucket). this leaves the mixture remaining in the bucket pretty dense since most of the liquid is on top. the chicks get fed the mash from the top of the mixture/strainer since it's got fewer grains mixed into it (thus higher protein). once the strainer's drained as much as possible I dump what's left in it back into the bucket with the rest of the mash, add 2 more scoops of pellets and stir it in to soak up the rest of the liquid. this makes it a bit drier and crumbly so it's not freezing solid during the winter and is what all my outside birds get, plus water and free choice oyster shell. the penned birds get as much as they'll eat during the day, the free rangers get what's left over.

once feeding's done, and i'm back in the house, I add 1 scoop of feed to the liquid that drained off the top of the other bucket. in a smaller (2 gallon) bucket I put 2 more scoops of pellets, add hot water from the tap to just cover the pellets and let it sit until it's cooled (half hour?). that just helps the grains expand/dissolve faster. then I add that and the grains to the 5 gallon bucket and fill it the rest of the way with warm water (slightly over room temp) and stir it well. it gets stirred again that evening and set aside.

indoor chicks get fed twice a day, so their evening meal comes from the second bucket that was mixed the day before. I just scoop from it and drain and put the drain water back in along with anything not fed. this way each bucket has 2 days to ferment. it took some experimenting to get the routine down right, but it's what works for me. a 3-bucket rotation with only 2 fermenting feed at a time.

I also give the outdoor birds whatever occasional treats I have available (or was on sale), including chicken livers/gizzards/hearts, ground meats (combination of bone in chicken, beef, pork, venison) the same as the dog gets for his meals once a day (he gets a chicken quarter for his other meal), left overs from cooking or restaurants (whatever I won't eat for lunch the next day). the ground meats, I put 1 cup into a quart sized ziplock, squeeze all the air out and seal, then flatten it as much as I can and freeze it. then it's easy enough to break into pieces for the various groups.

 

[armorfirelady]

Lala glad to hear more eggs are being laid. I just came in from the coop & found 2 eggs!!! Finally one of the old girls started laying again. Wattles and combs are getting redder on the others so hopefully they will all start up again with the longer days.

I keep showing the other girls the eggs when I collect them.....I figure maybe they will get inspired to lay again. Stella just talks incessantly at me while I am in the coop. Sure wish I could understand "chicken". I'm guessing she is bragging about her big egg she lays

 

[emalin]

We're going to start out with 5 and add a few every year or two. I guess you're right that for a while we'll be overflowing with eggs. I'm sure we'll find takers for the extras. . . And I'll just have to keep expanding my garden and orchard to have a place for the poo . . . good excuse--never thought of that one! I've told my husband we need alpacas and a few bunnies for the poo too though. Might be wearing thin. We only have 3 acres. . .