The Natural Chicken Keeping thread - OTs welcome!

I am an organic feeder and buyer. But I buy my organic items from local farms that I know. Some of them aren't certified, some are. The ones that aren't are using true organic standards are often better than the ones that are doing the "letter of the law".

We get out feed grains organic with the exception of the sunflower seed. We purchase 100% grass fed beef from a local farm that raises a few low-line for butcher. Purchase our milk from a farm that practices organic standards. Neither of them are certified but good practices.

For me, it's the amount of chemical input that I'm avoiding. Chemical fertilizers, chemical herbicides, chemical pesticides. For me, that has a lot to do with why I raise my own and garden my own in the first place.
 
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i wish that we could just buy the cheap food, but we have some serious health issues in my family that have been linked to glyphosate, so we have some good reasons to avoid it. i have a friend who is a chicken expert. she gets flown all over the place to judge chicken shows, and she get amazing results feeding her birds the cheapest regular feed she can get. there's no question that it's very effective. anyways, i'm doing some investigating to see if i can find somewhere more local to buy individual grains from known sources. i live in a wet area where most people just grow hay, so that makes it more challenging. it's too bad that chickens can't be 'grass fed', LOL!!
 
Wow! This is going to sound really naive, but it never occurred to me before to check the ingredients in my hens' laying mash! I always assumed it was just corn. But holy moly there's a lot of random stuff in the mash: soybean meal, safflower seed solvent extract, monocalcium phosphate, dicalcium phosphate, yellow dye #6.... I'm stunned.

If you buy "organic" laying mash, what are the ingredients? Is it a simpler, less chemical-sounding list? Would you please share?

Thank you so much for sharing, all! I've been keeping hens for 7 years and I had no idea!
 
Okay, so I looked online and found the ingredients for an organic laying mash:

INGREDIENTS:
Organic Grain Products, Organic Plant Protein Products, Ground Limestone, Dicalcium Phosphate, Kelp Meal, Sodium Bicarbonate ,Salt, Choline Chloride, Niacin, Pantothenic Acid, Riboflavin, Biotin, Pyridoxine Hcl, Vitamin K, Thiamine, Vitamin B-12, Folic Acid, Manganses Sulfate, Zinc Sulfate, Iron Carbonate, Copper Sulfate, Calcium Iodate, , Dl Methionine, Vitamin E Suppl., Vitamin A Suppl., Vitamin D3 Suppl., Vitamin D Suppl. (This was from a mill called Morrison's-something, located in Vermont. It's just what Google pulled up first.)

This does sound better, generally, although "organic grain products" and "organic plant protein products" are a bit vague for my taste. But I have a beautiful light brahma, whose feathers on her feet are always yellow, and now that I know it's from yellow dye #6, I cannot feed that anymore!

Thanks to all for sharing so much wisdom on this thread! It's been very eye-opening!
 
@thewatsonfarm
When I read "grain products" and "plant products" that does make me wonder what they're hiding. So many of the "products" that get into animal feed is the waste products from some other manufacturing process.

Do you possibly have an old-fashioned feed mill in your area that you could work with? I originally had our feedmill create feed for me but they required a minimum of 300 lbs. and I didn't like having so much as grains begin to go rancid after being ground. Now I just purchase the grains by the 50 lb bag and grind my own in my kitchen vita-mix that I already had. That way I can do enough for a week at a time and not have a larger amount going rancid. Of course, if you have a lot of birds that wouldn't be an issue for you!

I also purchase Fertrell Nutribalancer for the mineral mix and put that in my feed in appropriate amount. Wish I didn't need that as there are a couple of items in the organic approved mix that I don't want to use. But haven't found a better alternative at this point.
 
@thewatsonfarm
When I read "grain products" and "plant products" that does make me wonder what they're hiding. So many of the "products" that get into animal feed is the waste products from some other manufacturing process.

Do you possibly have an old-fashioned feed mill in your area that you could work with? I originally had our feedmill create feed for me but they required a minimum of 300 lbs. and I didn't like having so much as grains begin to go rancid after being ground. Now I just purchase the grains by the 50 lb bag and grind my own in my kitchen vita-mix that I already had. That way I can do enough for a week at a time and not have a larger amount going rancid. Of course, if you have a lot of birds that wouldn't be an issue for you!

I also purchase Fertrell Nutribalancer for the mineral mix and put that in my feed in appropriate amount. Wish I didn't need that as there are a couple of items in the organic approved mix that I don't want to use. But haven't found a better alternative at this point.


I have to look for a feed mill. I don't know of one, and in southern California, I'm a little skeptical, but could be.

I think you're right about the "grain products" and "plant products." That sounds pretty vague, like they're hiding specifics. Why? Especially if you are trying to market an organic product, where buyers really do care about the ingredients. Hmmmm....

Would you mind sharing your recipe for the fed you make, Leahs Mom? I knew I didn't like seeing soy in the feed I've been using. But I notice corn isn't mentioned in the organic recipe. Is corn not really good for them, either?

Oh, so much to learn!!! Thank you so much for sharing your wisdom on this! I'm very appreciative.:clap
 

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