Why it's important to provide OPTIMAL nutrition this time of year

[Resolution]

It's more ideal to find a food created for birds not for cats- that goes without saying but rather than procrastinate waiting for a product to appear in your local feed store- get yourself some soy free pet food to ameliorate the diets of your chickens this time of year- regardless of age or gender. This is the time that cellular regeneration is taking place internally. This process continues into the fall when the actual feather cells emerge, pushing the old feathers off. You see, the new feathers are growing now. You just can't see them. Please just try and pull all soy for the remaining weeks and months of the year until at least first major frost.

 

[LoreenH]

Luckily the feed store I patronize carries soy & corn free feed, all the grains come from Eastern Oregon & Montana. It's a blend the owner of the store formulated for his chickens before he opened the store. Right now my 6 girls are on grower/developer, once they start laying I will switch them to layer. I give them a 6-grain scratch and black oil sunflower seeds as a treat. They forage the backyard 8-10 hours most days, plus have their feed available.

 

[ChickenAl]

Ordered Countryside organics layer feed this morning. The shipping was less than $17 for 50lbs. Not too bad.

 

[Matrix Escapee]

Reso, what is the beef with soy anyway? i know of a bunch of feeds are going soy free, but never get a straight answer on why.

 

[ChickenAl]

Quote:
Matirx, from what I've heard it is the issue with estrogen and enzymes in soy because it is not fermented, as the Asians do. It can never be fed raw to chickens. Soy has to be heat treated to inactivate enzymes and enzyme inhibitors. Soy is used because it is a cheap form of protein.

As we learn more, we understand that certain foodstuffs are not preferable. Supposedly 94% of the soy grown is not organic. Much of it comes from China now, and that could be suspect for toxins involving herbicides and pesticides. Their regulations on use of chemicals is not the same as we have in the US, so there may be a very good reason to keep soy out of feed just for that reason.

I am sure others will have more to add.

 

[Chris09]

Quote:
Matirx, from what I've heard it is the issue with estrogen and enzymes in soy because it is not fermented, as the Asians do. It can never be fed raw to chickens. Soy has to be heat treated to inactivate enzymes and enzyme inhibitors. Soy is used because it is a cheap form of protein.

As we learn more, we understand that certain foodstuffs are not preferable. Supposedly 94% of the soy grown is not organic. Much of it comes from China now, and that could be suspect for toxins involving herbicides and pesticides. Their regulations on use of chemicals is not the same as we have in the US, so there may be a very good reason to keep soy out of feed just for that reason.

I am sure others will have more to add.

Soy has to be heat treated to inactivate enzymes and enzyme inhibitors. Soy is used because it is a cheap form of protein.

Soybean Meal is "heat treated"
As far as price of Soybean Meal and Whole Roasted Soybean your looking at
20.00 a hundred pounds for Bean Meal and 30.00 a hundred pounds for Whole Roasted Soybean and it is U.S./ Canada Grown around here.

Chris​

 

[bawkbawkbawk]

How about canned tuna or salmon? I read once that it's good for molting birds. Expensive, yes, but for those of us with just a few chickens it can be an option. Mine love it!

 

[Resolution]

Soy just isn't all that digestible to chickens. They poop most of it out without digesting it and have to gorge all day to meet their basic nutritional requirements. There's also all the phytoestrogen issues- It's fine for big production but not for long life spans or reproductive fitness. I'm very pleased with UlraKibble as it is soyfree and loaded with nutrients not found in typical poultry feed.

 

[Chris09]

http://www.soymeal.org/pdf/PoultrySoybeanUse.pdf

Chris

 

[Lazy J Farms Feed & Hay]

Quote:
We do NOT import much Soybean Meal from China, we produce virtually all of our domestically consumed Soybean Meal in the USA.