Re: chicken feed
Hallo, My wife feeds our chicken goat milk, and whey as often as she can, and it's gone very fast. Concerning the Swedish feed information, I'm pretty sure that is available in English on the Euro website( or directly at the Swedish gov agriculture website, they are also describing chicken tractors and other fun large scale chicken projects) or if someone is relay interested I can problem find my copy in Swedish ( in the Barn) and help with some translation of some data/info. If I remember correctly one of the results of the project where that chicken that selected there onne feed ware very healthy compared to others. Per Garp/NH - Original Message - From: Dorothy O'Brien [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Thursday, February 20, 2003 08:31 PM Subject: Re: chicken feed Martha-- I've been reading about feeding hens lately. Recommendations include: yogurt, greens, buttermilk, kelp and Fertrell. Also a little Heinz apple cider vinegar in the water to increase their calcium absorption. If, as Per says,that the chickens know what's good for them, yogurt is great for them. They gobble it like crazy and sing whenever they see me in hopes of more yogurt. I am using homemade yogurt, which I made using a recipe off the internet. Dorothy __ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Tax Center - forms, calculators, tips, more http://taxes.yahoo.com/
Re: chicken feed
My chickens don't particularly like liquid milk, but they really gobble up anything solid like soft cheese or yogurt. if I'm going to feed milk to the chickens I curd it up first by heating it then adding cider vinegar to it. They like it ok then. Also, grit and/or oyster shell? I never know which to get. Some years ago I bought a bunch of cement stepping stones from a school project trying to earn money. A couple of months ago I put one on my deck and it immediately started cracking open. Maybe it dried out, I don't know but I kept seeing hunks hopping off down the steps. I kept watching but never saw it DO anything like move on it's own accord, it would just appear more broken, and pieces laying on the various steps. Finally, I saw my cluster of hens all pecking at the inner portion of the block, trying to break off some of the smaller pebble-sized pieces. They have oyster shell available but maybe I also need to supply plain ol grit too? I thought one would do double duty for both, guess they need more.
Re: chicken feed - grit
My reading indicates that the calcium in oyster shell is not adequate for grit because it dissolves in digestion. River sand is good grit. DAO __ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Tax Center - forms, calculators, tips, more http://taxes.yahoo.com/
Re: chicken feed
Chickens must have a supply of grit in their cop to grind food up, or they can not handle grains and the like. They should always have access to a supply of coarse sand, river gravel fines or shell grit. This can be in a container in a dry and poo free part of their house. Gil [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Also, grit and/or oyster shell? I never know which to get. Some years ago I bought a bunch of cement stepping stones from a school project trying to earn money. A couple of months ago I put one on my deck and it immediately started cracking open. Maybe it dried out, I don't know but I kept seeing hunks hopping off down the steps. I kept watching but never saw it DO anything like move on it's own accord, it would just appear more broken, and pieces laying on the various steps. Finally, I saw my cluster of hens all pecking at the inner portion of the block, trying to break off some of the smaller pebble-sized pieces. They have oyster shell available but maybe I also need to supply plain ol grit too? I thought one would do double duty for both, guess they need more.
Re: chicken feed
Thanks. Like I said, mine have found their own source of grit (cement blocks), and they're free ranging so I have to suppose they're getting things to help grind up food particles ok. When I butchered out some young roosters, I found beautiful, perfectly oval and smooth pieces of glass in one of the crops. But John did stop by this afternoon and pick up a bag of grit for them. (And oh, the eggs are strong enough to bounce off the ground.)
Re: chicken feed
Martha-- I've been reading about feeding hens lately. Recommendations include: yogurt, greens, buttermilk, kelp and Fertrell. Also a little Heinz apple cider vinegar in the water to increase their calcium absorption. If, as Per says,that the chickens know what's good for them, yogurt is great for them. They gobble it like crazy and sing whenever they see me in hopes of more yogurt. I am using homemade yogurt, which I made using a recipe off the internet. Dorothy __ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Tax Center - forms, calculators, tips, more http://taxes.yahoo.com/
Re: chicken feed
Martha - Sometimes it is not productive to fill in the blanks without checking the facts. Besides the outright expense of organic grains at this point in time, your organic feeds are more expensive because they are (if milled by a reputable source) more nutritionally dense than your commercial factory feeds. Why? Because companies like Purina fill the bag with BY_PRODUCTS. When you hear that, you probably think that they are talking about dried and ground dead horse, or something. That may be in there, and that's probably a bonus (in chicken feed), but there are a lot of dead nutrients that show up on your content label but are meaningless to your poultry. These are things like bakery wastes. Empty calories that bulk up the bags. Organic feed, on the other hand, should be nothing but milled whole grains. (Break my heart, someone.) This means that you should be getting 3x the nutrition for your birds from a bag of organic chicken feed from a reputable source. Most serious natural bird farmers in this area also use Fertrell's Poultry Balancer. I don't know Fertrell sells on your side of the Mississippi, though. -Allan
