What are your frugal and sustainable tips and tricks?

[TooCheep]

My suggestion would be to get a few meat chickens, don't treat them as pets, and then butcher them at around 8-10 weeks. You would quickly find out if processing your own birds is something you can do. I think it would be a lot harder to butcher your favorite hen after you have been feeding her for years and know each and every personality of the girls in your flock.

Sorry, but I disagree with that suggestion. What if they can't do it? (not unlikely for someone who has never done it) You can't keep meat chickens for a long time. Cornish Cross in particular are freaks that can't survive naturally and must be culled when young. Doing otherwise would be cruel.

Many of us do not have farm friends that are used to culling chickens, nor do we have local processing centers. The latter have become highly centralized to serve Tyson/etc.

I paid for and attended a class on chicken harvesting some years ago. Paid $20 (I think) and they provided the chicken, demonstrated the process and coached us through doing one ourselves. I was able to get through it, but it was hard for me even though I didn't know the chicken. It is harder with one you've grown attached to, so I've stopped naming mine.

If you are new to chicken harvesting, I strongly recommend you get someone to help you get through one first. Then consider if you can/will do it again.

 

[gtaus]

The policy was not to question anyone. Just give them the food.

That's actually a very good and important policy that I wish everyone understood better. Let me give you an example that touched my family personally.

I had a younger brother that had many challenges in life. He qualified for Meal on Wheels. Having those meals delivered to him every day allowed him to live independently for about a year.

One day, they had a new elderly lady delivering the meals. She had not been trained in yet. She should have not been out in the field. In her honest attempt to be friendly, she asked my brother what was wrong with him that he could not make his own meals. He was a young man and appeared to be healthy. My brother felt so ashamed, that he refused to eat any of the Meals on Wheels after that. Those meals were vital to his health. Within a few weeks, his blood sugar dropped so low that he went into a diabetic coma.

He survived the coma after months in the hospital, but never fully recovered as he lost his short-term memory. From that point on, he was no longer able to live independently. My parents took turns living with him and caring for him. That's what parents do.

I am a registered nurse, and I believe that one act by that well-meaning elderly lady that shamed my brother probably took years off his life. I know his quality of life never recovered.

Of course, we reported the incident to the local coordinator of the Meals on Wheels program, not to get the lady in trouble (they are all kind-hearted volunteers), but to remind him that everyone needs to be fully trained, because even well-meaning comments like that might shame some people who need that food, and the consequences can have life altering effects for those in need.

I won't pretend to have many answers, but I like to think that offering free educational cooking and life skills classes to people who get assistance might really be helpful to some of them. I bet lots of people don't know how to shop for food and cook even basic meals that could save them lots of money.

Not everyone is interested in topics such as this Frugal and Sustainable Tips and Tricks thread. But it sure is one of my favorite topics to share thoughts and ideas.

 

[Smokerbill]

I use old feed bags as garbage bags, cat litter containers for food storage, and there is probably some other stuff.

I use old feed bags for trash too. I made a deal with my neighbor. I mow her yard and get to put my refuse and recyclables her trash containers. Win win situation. I put my trash service on what's probably a permanent vacation hold, saving me $20 per month.

 

[gtaus]

Sorry, but I disagree with that suggestion. What if they can't do it? (not unlikely for someone who has never done it) You can't keep meat chickens for a long time. Cornish Cross in particular are freaks that can't survive naturally and must be culled when young. Doing otherwise would be cruel.

That's fine. My thought is that having a few chickens that must be harvested at 10 weeks would force a person to confront their anxiety in butchering their chickens. At that point, you would either learn how to process your chicken, or find someone else to do it for you. As you said, not harvesting a Cornish Cross after those 10 weeks would be cruel.

If you are new to chicken harvesting, I strongly recommend you get someone to help you get through one first. Then consider if you can/will do it again.

I agree in that my grandpa showed me how to clean and butcher small game animals when I was a young kid. That really helped me, and I never had a problem with butchering animals. Today, a person can watch any number of YouTube videos and learn how to butcher chickens, rabbits, etc... Probably better to find someone who can teach you personally, if you can.

I don't want to tell other people how they must raise their small animals. I'll just say that the way I was taught was that if you decide to raise animals, you needed to be responsible enough to ensure they had a good life until they were harvested, and you had to have the ability to cull a sick or injured animal that could not be healed to prevent unnecessary suffering of the animal. Those lessons have served me well for over 50 years of raising small animals.

 

[TooCheep]

I'll just say that the way I was taught was that if you decide to raise animals, you needed to be responsible enough to ensure they had a good life until they were harvested, and you had to have the ability to cull a sick or injured animal that could not be healed to prevent unnecessary suffering of the animal. Those lessons have served me well for over 50 years of raising small animals.

I 100% agree with this. That's why I took that class. I intended to raise layers and not support them as non-productive birds. I'd never killed for food before and had to get over that hill. Some will not be able to make that leap.

 

[Sally PB]

What kind(s) of animals? (Your friend may disregard suggestions but I think the discussion is worthwhile for those of us here.)

I’ve heard fishing line will keep out deer, has anyone used it who can confirm or deny?

Raccoons, rabbits, and deer are the main ones, but last year it was all deer. I suggested using wire strung between fence posts at 6"-12" intervals. Cheap fence, as they have the posts, and probably the wire too, somewhere in the pole barn. The response was, "Well, then we'd have to have a gate. And put in the fence posts, and then they'd be a pain to mow around, and I'm not looking at weeds around the fence posts."

I am done making suggestions to her.

We have friends that say if anything ever happens they'll just come to our house. Nope!

Yeah. Nope!

 

[gtaus]

I use old feed bags for trash too. I made a deal with my neighbor. I mow her yard and get to put my refuse and recyclables her trash containers. Win win situation. I put my trash service on what's probably a permanent vacation hold, saving me $20 per month.

Even better if you can use those grass clippings for your compost and/or feed them to your chickens! That would be win-win-win!

I live on a lake here in northern Minnesota year-round. Most of my "neighbors" are summer only residents. One spring, I noticed one of my neighbor's yards was covered with a heavy blanket of fall leaves. Those leaves would have killed all his grass before he moved to the lake for the summer. I have a large riding mower, with grass collection bins, so I went over there and just mowed up those leaves for him. Not a big deal for me on my riding mower. I used the collection bins on the mower to remove all those leaves, brought them back to my house, and dumped them in my compost. Saved his lawn.

Anyways, he got out here a week or so later and I told him that I took it upon myself to mow up his blanket of fall leaves because they were so thick I was sure they would have killed all his grass. I normally do not go on my neighbor's property, but I felt I should tell him what I did. Of course, he thanked me. Nobody wants a dirt parking lot instead of a green lawn out at the lake.

Anyways, I did not expect anything in return, except maybe to build up a little more goodwill with him. I am OK with that. This spring, he had a few extra tomato plants that he was not going to plant, and he asked me if I wanted them. So, I now have those extra tomato plants growing in one of my raised beds. Just little favors back and forth, but it helps to keep good relations with the neighbors.

No direct financial return like in your agreement, but it's really hard to put a value on good relationships with your neighbors.

 

[CatInTheHenHouse]

Raccoons, rabbits, and deer are the main ones, but last year it was all deer. I suggested using wire strung between fence posts at 6"-12" intervals. Cheap fence, as they have the posts, and probably the wire too, somewhere in the pole barn. The response was, "Well, then we'd have to have a gate. And put in the fence posts, and then they'd be a pain to mow around, and I'm not looking at weeds around the fence posts."

I am done making suggestions to her.

With a response like that I’m kind of surprised she has a garden at all.

Oh well. You tried!

I kept the deer out of mine this year with some deer netting thrown over a couple hoops of cheap tubing and held in place with some hair clips. It’s not decorative at all and I wouldn’t expect it to last against anything really determined but it got the job done. They’re just garden boxes though, I’m not sure how practical it would be to do a real garden of any decent size like I did my boxes.

 

[Smokerbill]

@gtaus , I rake up the grass clippings sometimes and use them as a mulch for my garden. It's one of my favorite mulches. I'm hesitant to give the clippings to my chickens on the slim chance their crops become impacted. Most of the grass I rake up is half dried and weedy anyway, so it's probably not very palatable to the chickens.

 

[gtaus]

@gtaus , I rake up the grass clippings sometimes and use them as a mulch for my garden. It's one of my favorite mulches. I'm hesitant to give the clippings to my chickens on the slim chance their crops become impacted. Most of the grass I rake up is half dried and weedy anyway, so it's probably not very palatable to the chickens.

I can understand that. But I have been dumping bins full of grass clippings into my chicken run every summer and I don't think I have ever had a problem with a chicken getting an impacted crop. Maybe it is because I dump so many grass clippings into the run, that they don't consider it food as much as litter. They spend all day scratching and pecking through the chicken run litter looking for tasty bugs and juicy worms to eat. I can't say for sure how many grass clippings they eat.

In any case, when my chickens can go out into the run and find some food on their own, my commercial chicken feed consumption goes down to about half. I thought it was all due to them finding food in the compost litter to eat, but someone mentioned to me that they also do not need as much food in the summer to keep warm. I guess that makes sense too. Probably a combination of both things. But I can see my chickens scratching and pecking in the chicken run compost from early morning until they go into the coop to roost for the night. That's a lot of time outside eating free food.

Frugal tip - Check your store for broken feed bag discounts

My local Fleet store will discount broken bags of feed that get damaged in moving them. They might mark down a bag anywhere from 10%-25%. Whenever I go into town, I check to see if there are any broken bag discounts on chicken feed available. Even if I don't need feed right away, the savings can really add up and I don't mind storing the feed in my 5-gallon plastic buckets with lids until I need it.

If I see a broken bag of feed without the discount ticket on it yet, I will just ask them if they are still selling the broken bags for 25% off. That puts that 25% discount in their mind and sometimes I get what I ask for. If they counter with a firm low 10% offer, and I don't need the feed right now, I'll just thank them and let them know I'll buy it later when it goes on sale or maybe check out a few other stores in the meantime. Sometimes, when they see a sale is going to another competitor, they will offer a better discount. In any case, they cannot sell a broken bag of feed as a full bag.

When our chicken feed goes on sale, it's usually more than 10% off. A typical sale is $2.00 off a $15.00 bag of feed. That's 13% off. So, that is usually my lowest price before I walk away.

I used to get much better deals on chicken feed prior to the COVID-19 pandemic. Since then, the prices have gone up a lot on feed and I don't see nearly as many sales on chicken feed as in the past. I look for anyway to cut my costs. I'd be happy to hear any tips or suggestions on how others cut their feed costs. Thanks.