The Natural Chicken Keeping thread - OTs welcome!

[TeaChick]

Here's the post: https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/...eeping-thread-ots-welcome/26690#post_12650861 With the video

Keep us updated on this.

x2, Friday. =)

Thank you so much!!! I was just about to go find that. =)

 

[TeaChick]

Beware Tea Chick. There is NOTHING, and I do mean NOTHING in this world that smells worse than a rotten egg. A rotten egg coming out of the incubator will explode if you so much as look at it wrong. I had that unfortunate experience in 6th grade when a goose egg exploded in my hands. We had to evacuate the entire wing of the school for the remainder of the day. I do recommend that you do an egg-topsy so you can get an idea what went wrong. But, please, do it outside!
And by the smug look on his face, he is well aware of his good looks!

Got it! Thank you!!!
We found some eggs that had been hidden under a bush in our front yard months ago; they stunk through the shell!!!

 

[Leahs Mom]

When I was doing it very small scale, I didn't have drain holes at all. I soaked overnight like you said, spread in the tray, then used a SPRAYER to lightly spray the seeds a couple times/day to keep them from drying out totally. Not enough to have water sitting in the bottom of the tray at any depth. Just kept them damp.

It's at the very end of this article...way down at the bottom.

 

[aoxa]

When I was doing it very small scale, I didn't have drain holes at all. I soaked overnight like you said, spread in the tray, then used a SPRAYER to lightly spray the seeds a couple times/day to keep them from drying out totally. Not enough to have water sitting in the bottom of the tray at any depth. Just kept them damp.

It's at the very end of this article...way down at the bottom.

Thanks Sue, I will do just this!!

 

[LeslieDJoyce]

More on supplements ...

One of the supplements I've been looking into (for various reasons, but this was back when I was searching for a practical niacin supplement for the ducks, and I'm not sure this product is even good for that was) yeast supplements. BUT ... it seems to do a lot of things for the livestock that fermented feeds are supposed to do ... improve immunity and digestive health.

Here is some research results for feeding laying hens yeast-based supplements: "The reduction in egg yolk cholesterol was significant (P < 0.001) in the groups fed yeast-supplemented diets. The results in this study demonstrated that yeast culture supplementation to the diets containing soybean meal or sunflower seed meal increased egg weight and decreased egg yolk cholesterol without affecting performance and egg traits, but serum uric acid concentration was increased." (http://japr.fass.org/content/17/2/229.full)

I found that through a link at the Diamond V company's poultry page, which is here ... http://www.diamondv.com/languages/en/poultry-nutrition/

And here is a link to the page detailing the product profile and feed instructions for their basic "Original XPC" product: http://www.diamondv.com/languages/en/wp-content/uploads/ProductProfile_XPC-Original.pdf

Note that the protein content for the product itself is listed at "Not Less Than 15%"

If my math is right, and you are calculating 1/3 lb of food per bird per day, you include this at the rate of a little more than 1 gram per bird per day (presuming laying flock). And it wouldn't really mess up your protein levels, which is always a bonus when mixing rations.

It comes in an organic formula, and a GMO-Free formula, but the base growth medium of all their formulas contains soy hulls, and I'm not sure how people like the WAPF would feel about that.

 

[Leahs Mom]

I'll read through the yeast articles later....thanks!

I had looked into using BREWERS YEAST. I found only ONE that was not cultured on GMO products. So even if they claim that they are "GMO FREE", if you contact them and press for the real information, you find that the substrate they use is NOT GMO Free.

One of the reasons that this is important to me is that plants that are GM are designed to be able to withstand a HUGE amount of glyphosate. And the issue isn't that it is ON the plant...but IN the plant. The high levels of the pesticide in combination with the "terminator genes" that are used so that seed is rendered sterile so that it can't be saved and re-planted, makes me concerned for the content of any item that is grown on those substrates as their main source of nutrients.

Those 2 things in combination have been found to negatively affect the reproductive system of animals fed on the sources and studies seem to indicate that the effects get worse in successive generations.

So...
I only use the brewers yeast, probiotics, etc., that are grown on Non-GMO substrates. Most of them are cultured outside of the US in countries that don't allow GMOs.

Just some "food for thought".

 

[LeslieDJoyce]

I'll read through the yeast articles later....thanks!

I had looked into using BREWERS YEAST. I found only ONE that was not cultured on GMO products. So even if they claim that they are "GMO FREE", if you contact them and press for the real information, you find that the substrate they use is NOT GMO Free.

....

Ha! you got ahead of me! I edited my post to address that, and also the touchy subject of soy.

My thinking is that feed-grade yeast products are probably less expensive than human grade. Here is a cool article discussing the use of the Original XPC product as a human nutritional supplement even though the Diamond V company now also makes a human-grade product which is more concentrated.

http://www.meetup.com/The-Madison-Raw-Food-Meetup-Group/boards/view/viewthread?thread=8087590

I like Nutritional Yeast a lot ... it gives me wonderfully entertain dreams.

 

[Leahs Mom]

Oh...and Brewer's/Nutritional yeast is inactive yeast with none of the issues you'd find with active yeast.

Lewis Labs is the only company that would clearly state that their yeast was grown on non-GMO substrate. I emailed them to ask about the issue since they were using sugar beets as a substrate for the nutritional yeast and most of the sugar beats are GMO (I won't buy beet sugar..only cane because of this issue).

Quote: Reply for Lewis Labs
And look at the nutrition profile: A good amount of pritein... And another theory I have is that yeast protein is "animal" protein...Not sure if I'm correct on that but it makes sense to me that it would be "animal" source and very bio-available.

One think I'm concerned about is phosphorus level..not sure how much is too much for chickens.

http://lewislabsdirect.com/products/new-brewers-yeast-12-35oz

They do have a published certificate of non GMO organism testing:

 

[LeslieDJoyce]

Oh...and Brewer's/Nutritional yeast is inactive yeast with none of the issues you'd find with active yeast.

Lewis Labs is the only company that would clearly state that their yeast was grown on non-GMO substrate. I emailed them to ask about the issue since they were using sugar beets as a substrate for the nutritional yeast and most of the sugar beats are GMO (I won't buy beet sugar..only cane because of this issue).

And look at the nutrition profile: A good amount of pritein... And another theory I have is that yeast protein is "animal" protein...Not sure if I'm correct on that but it makes sense to me that it would be "animal" source and very bio-available.

One think I'm concerned about is phosphorus level..not sure how much is too much for chickens.


....

Yeah, I only buy cane sugar when I buy sugar.

The Diamond V company lists the various growing media for their various products, which is interesting reading. They are OMRI listed for their organic products.

I do not trust imported organics much, but would vastly favor products imported from Europe over those imported from other places. We get the local agricultural newspaper, and I've read reports in it of the wide-spread fraud in the organic products coming from China in particular. In return, China likes to reject crop imports from the USA because USA products test positive for GMOs ... it's part of the trade war politics and it goes both ways big time, so this isn't China Bashing.

The Diamond V products are listed as "complete" with regards to amino acids, which makes them more animal-like in the proteins than other non-animal stuff tends to be.

I have added some Brewer's Yeast to feed treats on occasion, but generally prefer to get livestock supplements with specific inclusion rates for poultry ... just cuz I'm paranoid. I'm not much of a "supplement" person for myself. I think the ONLY thing I've taken with any regularity, is the Nutritional Yeast ... it functions more like an "ingredient" than a supplement for me ... and even with that I've never been very "regular" about it. I ran out of it months ago, and haven't bothered to restock.

If a person had a brewer friend a person could take the spent grains off their friend's hands ... that's what they used to do in the early days of industrial poultry production.

 

[RedRidge]

Concerning amount to feed. ..
These numbers are winter confinement numbers. ..
The average production/laying hen eats .25 lb/day of dry food.
The average heritage LG will eat .33 lb/day.
The average wet weight of 1 lb of dry fermented food is 2.25 lbs
So... When calculating how much FF to feed simply multiple your dry amount by 2.25