Topic of the Week - "Off-grid" Feeding - Homemade feeds, etc.

[AllenK RGV]

Thanks for posting this. I really appreciate this kind of research. It helps cut through a lot of confusion and hype.

I have personally hit on a small patch of time where I couldn't afford chicken feed, plus food for my family and have had to improvise. Anything we could suggest might be useful to a potential keeper.

edit-- thankfully they free range and mostly feed themselves!

 

[perchie.girl]

Havent read the past posts just wanted to input here. I live in the desert.... youd think free ranging isnt an option... My flock has been at most about thirty chickens and ten guinea fowl. They head out into the desert with a purpose..... I can hear the guineas mumbling and chattering as far away as twenty acres. Let them set off the alarm and everyone comes running for shelter.

Lots of bugs Seeds, wild grasses, herbs, lizards, Mousies, and snakes are on the dinner table. One very nutritious plant is called Filaree or Erodium cicutarium Crains bill or Storks Bill depending on the area you livein. The whole plant is edible by humans and livestock. its very hearty and will sprout with one or two rain falls per year.

The pod corkscrews itself into the soil from action from the dew.... My dad said horses and cattle can forage on it when feed was scarce. That was when his family lived in Texas. IT grows every where.

I so miss my flock.

deb

 

[AllenK RGV]

Guineas running off 1/2 mile away sounds like a dream. I love their looks but youtube convinced me to never keep them. Truth is if they didn't hang around the house I would be keeping them. Thanks @perchie.girl !

 

[sevenfatcows]

Interesting, perchie.girl, that your chickens will eat Erodium. Mine will not and my steers spit it out when I try to feed it to them after weeding it from my flower beds. We always called those plants "clocks" because the pods look like clock hands. Those used to be used in making certain scientific instruments back in the day because of the precise way that they curl and uncurl due to humidity. I agree that the desert provides more free range foods than people would imagine.

 

[AllenK RGV]

All goods

Do you mean like raw, uncooked sausage meat? You can buy it like that here too. Mum uses it for pies or to mix with mince to make meat patties for burgers.

And to add something on topic, I work at an orchard so sometimes I take home some un-saleable fruit and give the chickens that. Watching them try to run away with a piece of fruit bigger than their head is hilarious, and keeps them entertained for a while

Yes that is how they sell the unpied mince meat here. But only the pork versions, beef gets packaged diffrently basically it is sold on a flat plastic wrapper(#2plastic) with a clear plastic wrap cover.

Full disclosure here I am personally an anti meater, but in Germany it was common to mix 50/50 ground beef with ground pork and those made some juicy burgers so sounds like you have a great or German mum! Also French horsemeat was tasty they aso used those for special kerwe Frikadelles in Germany,

Culturally as a Texan eating a horse is taboo! Just I have lived in other parts of the world than just Texas.

 

[sylviethecochin]

I was greatly into survival foods as a kid, (purslane, chickweed, chicory, acorns, etc.) and one of the plants the books always recommended was dandelions. So I looked up the nutritional breakdown.
Now I'm no nutritional expert, but I think some of you here are, so I'm wondering if anyone could tell me how efficient a strong tea of this would be instead of the vitamin supplements I give my hens during hatching-egg season? Just curious.

Also--homemade feed contribution. No one in my family will eat duck eggs. In the summer, the ducks subsist mostly on snails, pondscum, and mud, and the taste of their eggs reflects that. So when we get duck eggs, we smash them and feed them to the chickens as a protein supplement.

 

[AllenK RGV]

As far as dandelions go I know they are pretty darn nutritionally complete for guinnea pigs. My wife used to have me help her collect those in summer in Hanau for our daughters pet. I probably lost more proteine to the mosquitoes where it grew than the guinea pig ever got from our efforts.

One point I wanted to mention----edit--- the dandelions we have in north Texas have tough and fiborus leaves they will almost cut flesh, those aren't the same as we had near Frankfurt, those had more supple leaves suitable for the salad bowl. I'm sure they are probably close enough nutritionally to one another. I just know that animal loved them, nutritionally I cannot comment as I like a bacon cheesburger from time to time as well, and we all know the nutritional value from one of those is not optimal.

 

[wvchics]

My chickens get a very balanced diet. I do live off grid. Although I do buy pellets a 50lb bag lasts a while. I give them just about everything.
I grow a garden and can surplus to preserve it. I give back the crushed shells and throw out all of my table scraps for them.
I do not limit free range to summer months. I let my chickens loose as much as possible.
The only thing I do not feed my chickens is chicken. It is not healthy for a species to consume it's own kind and can cause serious physical and mental health issues for any species.
My flock is extremely healthy and I am confident that they would continue to do well without the pellets. I do not have to add to their water or give them a calcium supplement. My eggs are very good quality indicating they are still getting a well balanced diet.

In essence they are omnivores and so are we. I feed them what I eat and use a composter for things they cannot digest. In the winter when it's really cold I make them mashed potatoes or oats just for something hot to help warm their insides. Lol

 

[Mraya]

I make our own feed. It's very simple and I make it in big batches so I'd only have to mix every couple of months. What I was mixing before was:

30% Corn
30% Wheat
20% Peas
10% Oats
10% Fish Meal
2% Poultry Nutri–Balancer
Kelp provided free choice

They did great on that. I also fermented it so they ate way less. They also got our daily kitchen and garden scraps and I'd sometimes sprout barley fodder for them.

Now I a trying to streamline as I mix the goats feed too. I also don't want to do much corn. So now I do:

Barley
Oats
Alfalfa
Beet Pulp
BOSS

I'll ferment that for the chickens as well as all the kitchen and garden scraps and occasional fodder. I was raising mealworms too as well. I do add nutri-balancer to their ferment and I still give kelp.

My goats, turkeys, chickens, peafowl, and rabbits all get this feed. Each animal (poultry, caprine, etc) get their own minerals suited to them. Goats get hay and alfalfa hay as well as the rabbits.

I tend to prefer things that aren't so convenient anyway. If SHTF, I don't want to be stuck relying on something I can't get. But that is just me. Plus I know everything that they are eating (aside form their free range stuff, but that's still natural and what they were meant to eat) and I know what we are eating. We have a garden as well and buy bulk grains to mill and turn into flour and such. I think I was born in the worng century LOL.

Hi can you tell me where you buy your Fish Meal?

 

[perchie.girl]

Interesting, perchie.girl, that your chickens will eat Erodium. Mine will not and my steers spit it out when I try to feed it to them after weeding it from my flower beds. We always called those plants "clocks" because the pods look like clock hands. Those used to be used in making certain scientific instruments back in the day because of the precise way that they curl and uncurl due to humidity. I agree that the desert provides more free range foods than people would imagine.

Just about anything Green gets munched on... If there is alfalfa available thats first... My mare Loves Fileree.... May be a difference in species? I do know there are about twenty different speceies...

deb