A neighbor mentioned today that some chicken owners are feeding their flock table scraps and other real food because they noticed the bags of feed at the farm store may be the problem behind lack of egg production in the winter. The claim is that when better food was provided to the birds they started laying more frequently even during the winter months. My GF checked into it and found this. Sorry, it is tictock, but some may want to watch it. Anyways, there are claims that someone sent off a sample of the Dumor brand bag food and the chemical analysis claimed it has NO protein value. A few more people are sending off for the same test, it is early, this is nothing but rumors at this point, but worth paying attention to for more information.
Last summer we began a small area of alfalfa, grass and other green grass varieties for our birds to graze on occasionally, hopefully we can expand the area this spring. But, aside from that I don't know how economical it will be to try and get more protein to our birds. I doubt we can get them meat for less than the bag feed, but even if we had to do meat because the bag food was no longer available I don't know if the return will be worth the investment. There is not much of a natural food supply in the desert. Our best option would be the bucket of meat hanging over the chicken area so maggots and call out through holes in the bottom of the bucket, but we would need several buckets to have enough maggots to feed all the birds. I could hunt for jackrabbits for meat for the birds but that would take a lot of time out of the day, especially as the local population gets harvested first requiring me to go further and further as time goes by.
Has anyone else heard of problems with poultry food quality?
Last summer we began a small area of alfalfa, grass and other green grass varieties for our birds to graze on occasionally, hopefully we can expand the area this spring. But, aside from that I don't know how economical it will be to try and get more protein to our birds. I doubt we can get them meat for less than the bag feed, but even if we had to do meat because the bag food was no longer available I don't know if the return will be worth the investment. There is not much of a natural food supply in the desert. Our best option would be the bucket of meat hanging over the chicken area so maggots and call out through holes in the bottom of the bucket, but we would need several buckets to have enough maggots to feed all the birds. I could hunt for jackrabbits for meat for the birds but that would take a lot of time out of the day, especially as the local population gets harvested first requiring me to go further and further as time goes by.
Has anyone else heard of problems with poultry food quality?
