More About Nutrition, From A Follower & Myself!

Hello! Sorry for the long time between posts here, it is Spring and we are BUSY!

Once again, my YOUTUBE channel had a great comment posted and I wrote a long addition to that fine comment. Both are quite informative and I am posting it here for you all to read! We had been discussing making sure young chicks received enough daylight, or a good premix in their feed, supplemental or integral, to insure proper bone development, when the viewer added these great tips:

Good points about the Vitamin D!!! The neat thing about kefir is that you can let it sit on a shelf and sort of forget about it for a couple days. IT can be done in water too, so you don't have to use milk. The kefir cultures keep the milk from spoiling. I live where it gets to over 100 degrees in the summer and I just chuck it in the fridge for part of the day, it just takes a second. The birds love it!!! They really seem to like bitter stuff and it's full of active cultures and vitamins and stuff.. Forgive me for sounding like an infomercial, that's not my intention,,,, I just figured there was a way around the pre-mix, which sort of makes you at yet one more feed companies mercy... The point of making your own feed is to know everything that goes into it, right? Speaking of which, have you ever looked into growing protein rich plants like duckweed or azolla? I just got some azolla (this afternoon actually) from J&J aquafarms in California and I am eager to try it out once it begins to grow. Speaking of bugs... There are two protein rich bugs, mealworms and dubia roaches (they don't climb and love the heat) that are super easy to raise off of kitchen scraps. They literally don't cost anything to raise once you have made the initial investment and the chickens can't seem to get enough of them... The cost of dubia roaches has really come down in recent years and mealworms should be able to be purchased locally... When I clean out the dubia bin, I will feed the chickens the "extras" and afterwards the chickens will come to the back door and make a lot of noise, begging for more.... The dubia's especially breed like crazy in the heat (they just need a little humidity which a piece of carrot takes care of and they eat it as well). They do slow down in the winter unless you supplement them with heat, but it isn't necessary. It just takes them a little while to get their numbers back up once it warms up and they start breeding again. The same goes with the mealworms. The only drawback with the mealworms is that they go through stages, from larvae to pupa, to beetle, all of which don't climb or fly. The chickens only seem to like the larvae. The bins do have a slight smell (it's not bad, it's unique) but honestly you have to stick your nose in them to notice and the mealworms or dubias don't make any noticeable noise. Sorry to write a novel but I love this topic!!! They say it's best to give your animals a varied diet and variety is the spice of life!!! Thanks again for posting the videos.

This is what I added:

I make the mistake of letting people think that we are anti-society & civilization. Yes, overpopulation is THE biggest problem in the world, but we cannot speak to it without cries of racism since the developing world is primarily not "European white". What we are actually doing here is showing how, with some ingenuity and small sacrifices of "stuff" (which we really do not need anyway), we "New Homesteaders" can led the way into a world that we can groom to sustain the nine billion multi-colored inhabitants I will see here before I die.

That being said, we are NOT anti feed stores, or any company that provides us with things we need. We are anti-MONOPOLIES, like "Urina" (chessboard people), WalMart, Cargill, Monsanto, Exxon/Mobil, BP and so on. The pre-mix I recommend, comes from a small, organic company that specializes in a few high quality products. They, and the small regional feed mills I deal with, do not have "contracts" and "contests" with independent feed stores that either force or lead the small guy struggling to make a living, into carrying the high cost, low nutrition crap the monopolies are constantly trying to tweak a few extra pennies out of every bag.

The feed mill we now get our "layer feed" from....... the corn & soy portion of our mix, gives us the entire kernel of corn ground into their mix. They don't strip away 15-50% of the corn germ for other products, leaving chickens with  the same 16-18% CRUDE protein, but less USABLE protein. THIS and the higher cost of the "name brand", are my major objections to the chessboard and others! Incidentally, the really inexpensive brands of poultry, dog, cat and other feeds do the same, but even worse! That word "crude" in front of "protein" can be VERY misleading and many dogs & cats are eating non-digestible chicken feathers and steer hair as 50% of the 25% of the "crude protein" in the super-cheap feeds!!!

So if you are able to provide adequate vitamins & minerals without a premix, great! But if not, just choose your supplier carefully and always support the little guys who are in this to provide a superior product AND make a living, not eliminate the competition and set lower & lower standards. 

Everything that you addressed in your comment, is geared toward the small to medium flock owner, same as my information. I trained at a large operation and brought that knowledge to the smaller flock holders. So what you and I say is great for our "target audience", the Tyson's out there cannot "afford" to use our methods.

I try to avoid "fad feeds". I feel fermented feed is a fad, so I don't like to discuss it. However,  sprouted grains, fodder, all types of insect farming, pasturing and so on are fantastic in my opinion! One new thing..... new to me that is....... that we are going to try here, is the moringa oleifera tree. We will use it as a fodder for the birds and try some ourselves. We should always be open to trying new things, just use our brains to determine whether it is an unnecessary fad or not!

We have a huge, working meal worm farm and feed our young birds from it. I am going to hang a couple of "maggot traps" in the chicken yard in the next few days as well. This seems to be both a great source of protein AND fly control for the farm. I am also constructing "chicken salad bowls", since we live in the desert and do not have grasses and sprouts for the flock to forage from. I think these "bowls" are a great, simple & inexpensive way to provide fresh greens.

Writing a "novel" here is welcome, particularly when the information is good and accurate, please stay in touch!