tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-598627963589889513.post6328625600287695694..comments2024-03-27T08:29:11.158-07:00Comments on Little Home In The Country: Feeding chickens organically for lessLittle Home In The Countryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14542813650753976168noreply@blogger.comBlogger9125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-598627963589889513.post-62678834057258099422013-01-11T14:33:19.857-08:002013-01-11T14:33:19.857-08:00Thanks for your reply, John. Very informative!Thanks for your reply, John. Very informative!Little Home In The Countryhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14542813650753976168noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-598627963589889513.post-70250995111934216442013-01-11T08:20:34.510-08:002013-01-11T08:20:34.510-08:00Glad the feed is working out for you Sherri. Rhond...Glad the feed is working out for you Sherri. Rhonda is pretty close to the mark also. Those soaked grains she mentions more closely resemble grass fed type diet and it is a fairly energy efficient way to process your grains on a small scale if you don't have a mill. For birds though, don't forget that they have evolved to eat seeds. Their dietary requirements are completely different from a human. They need the hard seeds in their gizzard to keep it clean and efficient. Doesn't hurt to soak the grains at all, but I wouldn't make that a 100% diet. <br /><br />Pigs are another matter though...we've successfully fed them nothing but soaked grains and hay for winter feed rations. We just kept a line up of buckets going so that each bucket fed had been soaking at least a few days. It worked out very well for us. <br /><br />As for sourcing out this type of feed, a first step would be to call around to local seed cleaning plants. Ask if they have screenings available from organic cleaning batches. The farmer often decides to just sell the screenings to the plant instead of dealing with trying to sell them from the farm. If not, the plant may put you in touch directly with the farmer who owns the screenings and you can deal with them. goldforestfarms.blogspot.cahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03000577922412768699noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-598627963589889513.post-90301380383440871412013-01-08T15:39:25.074-08:002013-01-08T15:39:25.074-08:00Thank you so much for that tip, Rhonda :) I'l...Thank you so much for that tip, Rhonda :) I'll definitely try that. Little Home In The Countryhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14542813650753976168noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-598627963589889513.post-49405496156539805562013-01-08T14:34:06.882-08:002013-01-08T14:34:06.882-08:00Sherri, there is a way you can value add to your g...Sherri, there is a way you can value add to your grains. Find a rubbish bin lid, or something similar, and throw in about a ΒΌ bucket of grains. Throw in some water, let the grains soak for a day, drain the water off. Let the grains sit in a sheltered area and wet them again if they look like they're drying out. After a few days, depending on the weather, the grains will sprout. Chickens love eating sprouted grains and it increases the nutritional level of the grains a lot. I usually have two of these lids going at one time so I can see the chook sprouted grain a couple of times a week.rhonda jeanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08962112306968959985noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-598627963589889513.post-40195132808408611432013-01-06T05:35:37.251-08:002013-01-06T05:35:37.251-08:00Good to see you again, Andrea :)Good to see you again, Andrea :)Little Home In The Countryhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14542813650753976168noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-598627963589889513.post-58006295100889435002013-01-06T05:35:09.723-08:002013-01-06T05:35:09.723-08:00Liz, we found that our hens were "wasting&quo...Liz, we found that our hens were "wasting" a lot of the previous feed that we were buying... We would always find a lot of it on the floor of the coop and thought they were spilling it as they pecked aggressively in the hopper. Turns out that "waste" was actually a lot of chaff and they were probably targeting to "good" parts of the feed. As well, our hens won't eat genetically modified wheat. I bought some wheat a few years ago when I first got into bread making and because I didn't know anything about genetically modified food at that time, it was not organic. I came across it a while back and decided to to test our hens... they wouldn't even come near it let alone eat it. Animals are so wise :) Unless you are buying organic feed, it's very likely that the budget grain feed is full of GM grains.Little Home In The Countryhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14542813650753976168noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-598627963589889513.post-41819394550322259982013-01-06T04:37:31.832-08:002013-01-06T04:37:31.832-08:00fyi, I'm back! love,andreafyi, I'm back! love,andreaAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-598627963589889513.post-14829957314564942742013-01-05T21:31:14.997-08:002013-01-05T21:31:14.997-08:00Nice work! I have looked at buying organic grain ...Nice work! I have looked at buying organic grain mixes in the past, but they are so expensive compared to budget grain (containing who-knows-what). I don't think we have any local organic growers, but I will look out for it now I know that I might be able to get their by-product to feed instead. Nice grain mill too!Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12874273438983052621noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-598627963589889513.post-70780384507500970712013-01-05T14:32:22.983-08:002013-01-05T14:32:22.983-08:00Wow. That was a learning curve for me but a good o...Wow. That was a learning curve for me but a good one, thanks Sherri, I'll file that info away.Rosehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14751315680374413649noreply@blogger.com