Home grown chicken feed

[tortoise]

I am running numbers on chickens today and even without knowing how much I actually spend on chicken feed, I can see I'm losing money. I have waste issues to work out. I have a rat waste issue. I feed unconventional foods when they're available, such as carcass, tallow, expired dog/cat food, all food scraps from my kitchen.

I am resisting meal worm farming, which I would have to do in my house because of our temperatures. I just don't want them in the house!

I have space to grow feed/fodder.

I don't want to free range them this year because they destroy my gardens.

How did people used to feed chickens through winter? Especially a larger flock? I have 20 hens now and either need more hens (eggs) or ridiculously low feed cost to break even. Or both.

 

[NH Homesteader]

Following. I have no answers!

 

[Beekissed]

My grandmother only ever fed field corn to her flock through the winter. She had a big metal barrel full of corn still on the cobs and us girls would go out there and shuck that corn off to the chickens. When she had biddies, she fed them cornmeal.

She still got eggs through the winter but I'm sure it wasn't enough to sell to folks, just enough to feed her and grandpa and any company that came acallin'.

I put a fence around the garden rather than the chickens...too much free food out there to be found for me to fence in the birds. The garden is seasonal, free range is all year round. They also do a grand job at pest bug control in the areas around the garden...I can't imagine how many we'd have if it weren't for the chickens. Even if you just do push in stakes and deer netting, it's worth fencing in the garden to get the abundance of healthy, free food into your flock all spring,summer and fall.

Fermenting the feed can cut feed costs in half, as well as cut down on loss to rodents. Not to mention it can let you feed a cheaper feed by making it more nutritious for the birds.

Culling for laying helps more than people know...this is the time of year to evaluate your steady layers. Any bird that will lay well this year should be laying NOW. If she isn't laying every day or every other day right now, mark her for culling in the fall. If you wait until fall to evaluate laying, you run into birds that are coming out of molt, going into molt, coming into POL, etc., and doesn't show a true reflection of your steady layers, according to their ages.

Unless you are turning up a lot of acreage for planting of feed, you won't likely be growing enough to feed a flock all winter long and still have a balanced feed mix...though grandma seemed to do it just fine with field corn.

I guess I person wouldn't know until they tried it, huh? Let us know what you grow and how it worked?

 

[tortoise]

How do you cull for egg production when chickens aren't caged? I know my white egg layers are laying one per day, but the others... I have no idea.

 

[baymule]

Pour a packet of grape koolaid up their butt?

 

[Beekissed]

How do you cull for egg production when chickens aren't caged? I know my white egg layers are laying one per day, but the others... I have no idea.

I go where few dare to go...internally. I insert the tip of a gloved finger into the vent to palpate for the next day's egg(this is done at night, of course). If she's laying that next day, you should feel the hardness of the egg through the wall of her rectum. Mark all that don't have an egg ready. I use zip ties on the left leg...usually green.

Next night, do it all again...mark all who do not have an egg ready. Mark the other leg if she doesn't currently have a zip tie...you can even use another color if it helps to keep track, but I always use green for culls. This is a chicken who gets another chance at being an every other day layer.

If she has a zip tie already and doesn't have an egg again the next night, leave that left leg zip tie and add one to the other leg~both green. That is a girl that will be culled in the fall. I usually use green ties for those birds so they are easily seen and identified when plucking them off the roost come fall.

Really good layers are often marked with a red zip tie~this is done when I'm checking POL pullets who have come into lay on time and came into lay with a daily schedule...that's usually in the fall or late winter, not during this culling check. Those red zip ties are hens I pay special attention to all throughout the year as to their laying cycles.

Third night, check again...this is the night that will tell you if you have daily layers, every other day layers or a non layer. Those with two zip ties need not be checked...you already know they are not laying daily or even every other day.

If you get some with a zip tie (from that second night's check) that have an egg ready, remove their zip tie...they are every other day chickens~depending on the age or breed, you may want to keep her. Conceivably, these could even be chickens who are laying once a week and you hit it lucky...but you can also tell by their vent if they are a more frequent layer than that, so I don't go there....a person could do that all day long. Gotta trust things eventually.

If it's an older hen, for me it's expected that she not be laying daily. If it's a new pullet that's already been well into her new laying cycle but she's only laying every other day, she's a cull and I switch the zip tie to her left side and make it a green one.

She'll never get better than she is at POL, so why keep her around if she's not a daily layer as a brand new hen? A person can feed a daily layer as well as they can feed an every other day layer...they both eat the same amount but one is working harder. I like hard workers. I don't mind feeding hard workers.

Come fall I pick all the green tie birds off the roost come butchering day and do the deed the following day. No looking back. Thin out the numbers you take through the winter, leaving your best to be laying come spring and to get replacement layers from...this all makes for a flock that lays at the highest production you can expect and can get without using trap nesting techniques to find out.

As time goes on, and if you do these checks each early spring(late Mar/early Apr), you will slowly whittle into the poor layers until, when you do this check, you'll find very few that are non layers or sporadic layers. When you do it's often an older hen who is no longer going to be laying in cycles and this is a good time to cull her from the flock before she develops reproductive issues due to age.

I hope that was easily understood?

1. Check all hens...those without an egg get a green zip tie to left leg.

2. Check all hens again..those without an egg get a green zip tie to right leg, those with a green tie already, get one also, but this time to the other leg.

3. Check only hens without two green ties...those that earned another are the end of your cull list for that group. Those that passed all three nights with only one tie or no ties get another chance...remove the single green ties if they have an egg the third night. Leave it or add another to the other leg if they do not have an egg ready the third night.

4. Come fall, all birds with green ties are killed. These are birds that are not laying at peak levels when all birds should be doing so. They'll never get better production than they will at this time of year.

 

[tortoise]

Oh my gosh, that is brilliant!

 

[tortoise]

I have leg bands somewhere. I think I would mark them a bit differently. (Leaving this here as a reverence for others in the future)

1) Put a band on one leg just to show that I caught the hen (!).
2) Then put a band on the opposite leg for each day (of the three days in a row) that I felt an egg.
Hen with 0 and 1 bands are definite culls. If no o's and 1's then cull the hens with only 2 bands.

 

[tortoise]

Pour a packet of grape koolaid up their butt?

 

[NH Homesteader]

There are gross things I will gladly do for my livestock. That is not one of them. Kudos to you who aren't afraid of the chicken butt. I'll keep feeding 'em, my hand isn't going in there!