whats an alternative to purina?

[pixiedouglas]

I didn't realize Purina was affliated with Nestle and I prefer not to buy Nestle products.

How can I tell where my dollars are going when I buy feed? I'd prefer not to support certain companies if I can avoid it but I'm having trouble (obviously) telling who parent companies are and I'd like to get something with actual animal protein, not soy.

What are my options?

One of my local feed stores sells KING brand which is actually produced relatively near to me, but it's got soy in it.

 

[Ariel301]

Finding soy-free chicken feed (other than scratch) is really difficult. If you have a feed mill around, they can make you a custom feed mix with whatever you want in it.

 

[pixiedouglas]

I plan to feed their own egg shells back to them so if I fed scratch, plus table scraps and cooked beans would that meet most of their needs or would I still need to supplement with with layer pellets and oyster shell? They do get to free range on about 1/4 acre with many fruit trees but the trees are not at production yet so I dont expect the bugs will be of any signifigance in their diet for awhile.

 

[donmartin]

Purina Animal Nutrition LLC, is a subsidiary of Land O’Lakes, headquartered in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

 

[LindaB220]

Purina Animal Nutrition LLC, is a subsidiary of Land O’Lakes, headquartered in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

Great to have you. Where are you from? I'm out of Shreveport La Do you have chickens yet? We have a lot of great threads on here. What are you interested in? Check out the state thread for your state. Mine is La yer Peeps.

 

[pdirt]

Check out Azure Standard. They have Scratch n Peck feeds, which all are soy free, contain fish meal and have high quality minerals and probiotics. They deliver all over California. Minimum $50 order, you pick up at the drop point. We pay about $7-11 shipping per order. We also buy about a 1/3 of our groceries from them. Great prices...but the Scratch n Peck feeds are probably a lot more expensive than the Purina feeds. SnP feeds are milled in northern WA state, a small company. It's great feed, I've used it quite a bit.

I wouldn't recommend not feeding a formulated feed. They can't get enough from free ranging. Unless their health and egg production are not that important to you. You *can* formulate your own feed, but it is not as easy as you'd think nor usually any cheaper (unless you buy in big bulk).

EDIT: oops, didn't realize I was replying to such an old thread! @pixiedouglas, what did you end up using for feed?

 

[shorttimer]

Azure Standard. Make your own mix. All organic, Non GMO, no soy if you wish. I found this video several months ago. (down below) Yes, more expensive than buying off the shelf feed. For me it's way more important knowing that I'm giving my chickens (to be) the best I can give them. I'm sure the eggs will be amazing. I'm also looking into planting my whole back yard with cover crop seeds cause I don't have a garden yet. It will be great for soil building & maybe provide some material for the chickens to scratch in, attract beneficial insects, like Bees & Lady bugs, and can be composted back into the soil to make it ever increasing healthier by feeding the microorganisms that break it down & supply the plants with better nutrients. And the cycle continues over & over making the soil get better with each go round.
This has been a very interesting year. I became a member of a mostly volunteer gardening club a little over a year ago. Was exposed to many different aspects of plant & animal husbandry & permaculture style gardening/farming. It's actually quite exciting learning there's such an opposite way to monoculture farming. In fact it makes monoculture just look downright stupid. So besides learning all about chickens (here), Bee keeping and the permaculture sites, no-till farming and learning about the amazing things that happen below ground level with all the microbiology I almost wish I had been a farmer. Too late now, but I can do it on a small scale.

If there's interest in these subjects, I don't mind sharing some of my favorite bookmarked sites. I have some excellent ones on soils and what some people are doing on a large scale. I'd also like to see where others are finding their feed supplies if they are organic/Non GMO

 

[LindaB220]

Azure Standard. Make your own mix. All organic, Non GMO, no soy if you wish. I found this video several months ago. (down below) Yes, more expensive than buying off the shelf feed. For me it's way more important knowing that I'm giving my chickens (to be) the best I can give them. I'm sure the eggs will be amazing. I'm also looking into planting my whole back yard with cover crop seeds cause I don't have a garden yet. It will be great for soil building & maybe provide some material for the chickens to scratch in, attract beneficial insects, like Bees & Lady bugs, and can be composted back into the soil to make it ever increasing healthier by feeding the microorganisms that break it down & supply the plants with better nutrients. And the cycle continues over & over making the soil get better with each go round.
This has been a very interesting year. I became a member of a mostly volunteer gardening club a little over a year ago. Was exposed to many different aspects of plant & animal husbandry & permaculture style gardening/farming. It's actually quite exciting learning there's such an opposite way to monoculture farming. In fact it makes monoculture just look downright stupid. So besides learning all about chickens (here), Bee keeping and the permaculture sites, no-till farming and learning about the amazing things that happen below ground level with all the microbiology I almost wish I had been a farmer. Too late now, but I can do it on a small scale.

If there's interest in these subjects, I don't mind sharing some of my favorite bookmarked sites. I have some excellent ones on soils and what some people are doing on a large scale. I'd also like to see where others are finding their feed supplies if they are organic/Non GMO

Wow, shorttimer, that's a great video. I've been making the push to find out about Azure. I'm out of Shreveport, La and sure enough they come to Bossier City once a month. I'll be placing an order. I've obtained very good birds lately and want to get them started on a good diet. The eggs will bring more and I'll get great hatches. Look into fermenting your feeds.
I know that this is an old thread but we really needed it brought into today's threads. I'd love to hear more about your gardening. I have Amazon Prime and get Kindle Unlimited. I searched for vegetable gardening and pulled up 1500 books that are free to read or cheap. You can keep 10 at a time. I have been having so much fun with it.

 

[shorttimer]

What I have been learning is how everything is interconnected. What happens to one thing can/will effect many others. If we keep this in mind when we do things we can improve the whole and we start a positive cycle. Remember nature did it all by itself before humans came into the picture. So if humans can mess things up, we have the power to reverse the process, except it's going to take a lot longer. We will never be able to bring back what we have caused to go extinct and many other damages. Some of the video bookmarks I have collected are specific to farming, as well as other related subjects, but can be applied to smaller back yard environments. It's the concept and application per individual.

Here's one on soils. It's long, but I was blown away by all the info. I believe people ought to know this info.

https://soundcloud.com/ermacultureoices/building-soil-health-by-dr-elaine-ingham-pvp096

 

[HighStreetCoop]

One of my local feed stores sells KING brand which is actually produced relatively near to me, but it's got soy in it.

Scratch and Peck has soy-free feeds. Modesto Mills (local to Central California) does, too.