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

[pennyJo1960]

Dollar store dried beans sprout. I've bought pinto, navy, black, beans $1 two pound bag, grow them in the garden and/or cook or sprout them for the birds, good source of protein and a much better treat than scratch or corn IMHO. Birds love and gobble up a pile of refried beans lol.

now do you start them let them sprout first

 

[song of joy]

Trying out mammoth red mangle beets this winter for the chickens, hoping it cuts down on feed.
I didn't take very good care of them, didn't thin out or weed them. Try better next yr. Grew pretty good though for a $2 pk of seeds. And the birds peck the heck out of them, love them.
My little harvest this last yr "

Very nice harvest. How do these do in poor soil (heavy clay)?

I've heard the greens are good in salads when they're young and tender, as well as being good for the chickens at any stage.

 

[pennyJo1960]

I am going to get creative as I am loosing my supplier of great grain out of Idaho, Woods Hay and Grain Mega layer.. the guy I buy it from sold his farm they are moving who knows where ??

 

[pennyJo1960]

I tried to be cheap and get a "local artist" to harvest my rotting don't trust it at all Mesquite tree. We never made it past the texting phase, guess I'm going to be paying my guy to remove it.

okay going back out did not step out of the screen room to take the photos boy where they awful,
love the shade it gives but when that comes down
re shot the photo's from outside this time

 

[wvchics]

If you use chicken feed, you are feeding chickens to chickens. Everything that isn't used for chicken meat (feathers, bone, blood, guts, along with polymers used to extract these things from slaughterhouse wastewater) is turned into chicken feed.


As far as prion "diseases" go, the likely culprit is magnesium poisoning. Mark Purdy, an organic dairy farmer, pioneered some compelling research after he noticed that his cows weren't getting Mad Cow Disease, but his neighbors' cows that had Phosmet, an organo-phosphate insecticide that was applied along their spines to kill Warble flies, were.

Oops update: Manganese poisoning, not magnesium. Sorry about that, Chief.

There is no animal byproduct in chicken feed. It's all grain products. Check your feed bags. It is required to list it if any kind of animal byproduct is used. Yes hens will eat bad eggs just like a dog or cat having a litter. This is not the same thing. They will not just eat other chickens naturally. Although a lot of people who feed chicken to their flock complain about these problems.
Regardless of how you justify it you wouldn't be participating in cannibalism yourself given the choice, and I'm pretty sure a lot of you would be offended if you went to dinner then found out you just ate your own offspring.
Cannibalism is unnatural and wrong. Not trying to offend anyone, but I disagree with the concept. The Donner party reverted to cannibalism to survive. So to say it's natural because chickens will do it when starving is to say it is natural for humans too.

 

[TooCheep]

If you want a recipe I can give you a good one. Let me know if for layer or starter etc.

If you don't have a reason to do otherwise, please publish them here. Thanks.

 

[C H I C K E N]

Try just giving them fruit, table scraps, any source of calcium (if you have hens for eggs), and a source of protein ex. cooked meat that falls apart on a fork or meat that's easy to pull apart.

 

[1cock2hens]

I haven't fed my chickens in a year. I'm lucky enough to have lush forest and pasture.

 

[Lspears218]

That seems like a huge amount of feed for a free range flock of 50 birds. We have 34 birds including four peafowl, and we go through 100 lbs of feed about every two and a half to three weeks. Maybe something else is eating your feed?

I agree , we have 24 and one bag of feed lasts several weeks.

 

[Supercow]

My garden has been taken over by weeds! I looked them up and they are Lambsquarters. Apparently similar to spinach in nutrition. My chickens LOVE them, so I am going to try to dehydrate the leaves and save them for winter supplemental feeding. They need to be removed from the garden anyway, so why not.

Lambs quarters has also been known as fat hen, so it seems very appropriate. Our ducks love it as well.