And your broilers too, I guess.

I still have the girls on bagged feed. Feeling rather lazy about that. I intend to order flax seed. But other than that, I haven't done any homework.

They "free range" my garden area which is about 1500 square feet....not much garden in there. More clover than anything. They sure love clover leaves tho.

Anyway, just curious if I missed some grain boat....cracked corn will be in abundance come october-november.

they should be doing some fine dining on insects in your garden as well, right?
I am no help with the feed though!

they should be doing some fine dining on insects in your garden as well, right?
I am no help with the feed though!

oh yeah, not a bug to be had in there. lol. Seems like maybe there should be more because they do clamor for my twice a day feeding. I think maybe a grain of some sort is better than a bagged feed. Homework time. :)

oh yeah, not a bug to be had in there. lol. Seems like maybe there should be more because they do clamor for my twice a day feeding. I think maybe a grain of some sort is better than a bagged feed. Homework time. :)

I was thinking there has to be something better too. A friend of mine always says something like," oh, they are *just* on co-op feed so the eggs won't have as dark a yolk or as many omegas as free-range". I bet you can find a ton of info out there. Prolly more than you ever wanted :lol:

Ours free range, other than a 10 X 10 coop of girls that we use to move around the place to weed and make the grass green and thick/lush. We rotate those a bit, so no one has to spend forever cooped up. Those girls, oh, and yeah, a rooster lives in there permanently, still have greens under them always. Anyway, I do bagged grain because they get so little. Stacey (chococat) used to feed hers organic, and I keep meaning to track her down. I don't think she has her girls anymore though and she only had a few. It'd be expensive, I think, to ship in organic feed for 37 chickens. Ours is just basically to be sure they're getting enough protein. We also get Rockin' Rooster because they're NUTS for it and hand feeding this stuff is a sure way to have completely "come hop and snuggle in your lap" tame hens!

I keep trying to find a local feed mill. They're closing so darn fast. :eyes:

Normally we grow extra food in the garden for the chickens. Neighbors give us their 10lb zucchinis and stuff too. lol We also feed them back their eggs that are too dirty, cracked, etc.

Oh yeah, I forgot that everytime we go to my friends house, we take watermelon rinds and the like!! They love them!!! Marina just reminded me of that!

Ours have a large pasture (not truly free roaming at the moment because they'll destroy the garden) so they eat plenty of clover, grass and bugs, get all the food scraps they can (eggshells, veggies, greens, anything with no beans or onions or meat) plus bagged organic feed from a local mill: Morrison Feeds VT (http://www.morrisonsfeeds.com/)

I'd like to start blending my own but for now, I really can't handle it.

If we ever get chickens :wah: they will be free range for bugs and organic feed. I think on our property they would fine with that.

Lauren - thanks for that link. I hadn't heard of that company. I think there is another in VT as well isn't there? Poulen maybe?

I just do the bagged feed, too. I'll also boil up extra eggs and feed the to them (shell and all, crushed up). It's good for them and the calcium from the shells is very good for them and their future eggs. We'll give them fruits when we can get some free or cheap (watemelon, any kind of melon, cucumbers, tomatos, etc., etc.).

We will also feed scratch on occasion, but I don't like to do that much in the Summer b/c corn can get them hot and it's not good in the Summer plus scratch is for chickens like candy is for kids. Some people feed JUST scratch, but that's like feeding your kids ONLY candy. Just not healthy or good for them.

I will also feed frozen peas in the Summer when it's really hot. They love that.

In the cold Winter, I'll give them cooked rice, cooked oatmeal mixed with crushed cayenne pepper and maybe some boiled eggs if I have some extras. It warms them up good, the pepper helps the insides (can also help with laying and kill internal buggies).

I know there's more, but I can't remember what else I do! hehe

cayenne. huh. I had no idea. good to know about the warm ups because I'm already stressing their wintering.

I found this place...Blue Stem Chicken (http://www.bluestemorganic.com/CHICKEN.html) It's within driving distance and they sell ingredients in bulk for mixing with my own grain. I just don't know what grain to mix it with. :p

I give them all the produce waste treats from the kitchen, I'll start adding egg shells. I didn't know I was suppose to (could) do that so I was putting out oyster shell. It won't encourage them to peck at their own eggs will it?

I keep trying to find a local feed mill. They're closing so darn fast. :eyes:

I know. :( We have quite a few around here but most of them are corn.

soybean too I think.

We must have some hard core chickens up here, because I've never given them anything to warm up with. ;) I remember when I first moved up here - actually, we had arrived in Alaska but weren't to our destination yet, when I saw someone's chicken house and was amazed that chickens lived here. :lol: I asked the owner if he heated the chicken house. Boy did he laugh.

Ours get bagged feed, but also eat the pigs' food, and the horses' and goats' hay pellets and hay, and of course bugs and greens. I love chickens. They're my little lawn ornaments, the horses being the big lawn ornaments. :)

Rhea

We must have some hard core chickens up here, because I've never given them anything to warm up with. ;) I remember when I first moved up here - actually, we had arrived in Alaska but weren't to our destination yet, when I saw someone's chicken house and was amazed that chickens lived here. :lol: I asked the owner if he heated the chicken house. Boy did he laugh.

Ours get bagged feed, but also eat the pigs' food, and the horses' and goats' hay pellets and hay, and of course bugs and greens. I love chickens. They're my little lawn ornaments, the horses being the big lawn ornaments. :)

Rhea
Oh, you don't *have to*, of course. I like to on the colder days and they love it.

I also feed them cracked corn in the evenings in the winter. They do love it. I was just thinking of getting a bag of organic cracked corn for the babies so they'd like us a bit more if we fed it to them by hand. They run away cheeping loudly whenever I come near them because they don't like to be picked up! And they're not thrilled about the lettuces and bolted mustard greens I've been tossing their way. They won't even come near for a bug!

lupineperriwink - yes Poulin Grain is located about an hour north of us. We were feeding our first batch of layers Poulin Grain. It is *not* organic though, and we have to drive almost an hour to buy it, which gets really tough in the winter (it's not a route we take for any other reason, really). Matt actually teaches one of the sons of the guy who owns Morrison's and it's only about 20 minutes from where he works, so he can stop by after work and grab feed. Plus, we really wanted to go completely organic.

I forgot it wasn't organic - it's what the feedstore here sells.

We get our goat food from Paris Farmer's Union in Maine. Couldn't find organic feed anywhere here so i ordered it up there and picked up 100 pounds when we visited family. I did write to the company you posted to see if they sell anywhere I travel because I could stock up on it.

I also feed them cracked corn in the evenings in the winter. They do love it. I was just thinking of getting a bag of organic cracked corn for the babies so they'd like us a bit more if we fed it to them by hand. They run away cheeping loudly whenever I come near them because they don't like to be picked up! And they're not thrilled about the lettuces and bolted mustard greens I've been tossing their way. They won't even come near for a bug!

lupineperriwink - yes Poulin Grain is located about an hour north of us. We were feeding our first batch of layers Poulin Grain. It is *not* organic though, and we have to drive almost an hour to buy it, which gets really tough in the winter (it's not a route we take for any other reason, really). Matt actually teaches one of the sons of the guy who owns Morrison's and it's only about 20 minutes from where he works, so he can stop by after work and grab feed. Plus, we really wanted to go completely organic.
Chickens love collard greens, too. That's the other thing I forgot.

My friend swears by cutting up collard greens (raw) and mixing with boiled eggs and feeding to the hens if you have problems with laying stopping. If nothing else, the chickens LOVE it.

Oh, you don't *have to*, of course. I like to on the colder days and they love it.

I think it's great. Even though we've never had any die in winter, I do worry about them on the coldest nights. So I'm already making plans for adding cayenne. We don't usually give them cooked food though - do you think the cayenne could be sprinkled on the bag feed? And would it be like a sprinkle of cayenne for a flock (16) or a sprinkle per bird, or ?

Thanks!

Rhea

Some feed stores will actually sell crushed cayenne pepper. That's where I got mine. It's good for a lot of things for chickens. Yes, I put it in bagged feed, too. I just sprinkle a good does in their feeding dish (but we don't have big feeders, we generally feed daily in a dish, if that makes sense). You can't really over dose them. I don't think they can even taste it, honestly. So just sprinkle some in. :-) The fact that it can help with internal buggies and such was a big plus for me.

I was mixing a whole grain feed, but it was getting to be a pain (not to mention expensive) to get grains when I was buying them out of the bilk bins a Whole Foods, so I switched to feed from Organic chicken, cattle, sheep, & hog feed - Countryside Natural Products (http://countrysidenatural.com/)
I recently switched back to whole grain, now that I found a food-buying club to get it from. It's still a bit of a pain to mix it, but I love that when it gets wet, which happens often with the feeder in the run, even with a roof over it, it sprouts instead of rotting. My chickens are doing really well on it, too. I use approximately this recipe Greener Pastures Farm Chicken Feed Recipe (http://www.greenerpasturesfarm.com/ChickenFeedRecipe.html)
Neither option is inexpensive, but I only have 6 hens, so it's doable for me. They also free-range most days, except that right now they are in their chicken tractor full-time because I added 2 new pullets recently and was having trouble with them not going in in the evening and not coming when I call, and someone on Backyard Chickens said to keep them in for 3 weeks. In the meantime I'm making sure their tractor is on fresh pasture and giving them extra greens and lots of bugs. They still go through the feed faster when they are confined, though.

We feed ours bagged feed, supplimented w/ every scrap from the chicken. Nothing, I mean, food wise is thrown out. They get it all. We cannot free range ours b/c we set out fly predators to take care of the flies w/ all the animals.