I have run into a bit of a problem. The base protein source for my home-mixed chicken feed is Kodiak flash dried salmon meal. And they're out. It won't be available until sometime in August!
So what's a girl to do? Everyone else feeds their birds soy, usually in the form of commercial feed. But I just can't bring myself to do it. My research says that third generation males ingesting soy have turned out sterile... not what I want for my family, my customers OR my birds. Damn phytoestrogens anyway.
Nope, I'm sticking to my guns that soy should only be consumed in the traditional Japanese fashion- in small amounts and usually fermented. The last 6 weeks or more, my chickens have been dining on freezer burnt meat salvaged off Craigslist, in addition to their wild free-range diet.
But now that I'm out of fish, and seeking salmon meal, I can't get it. Anywhere. No where, no how. Alternatively, I guess I might have to cook pinto beans or something. Not exactly sure yet. Maybe the pea farmer has some leftover seed I could sprout?
Next year I'll be able to stock up ahead, to be prepared for the summer run-out of Kodiak dried fish. This year I'm scratching just to make it through. I guess a person has to learn somehow.
Anyhoo, I'm going to write down my recipe here... it's been a process to get to this point, and will likely morph some more, but hey. You've gotta start somewhere.
(Bizarre and interesting sidenote: right this second, as I was scribing this post, a distributor from the States called me about shipping up some of his products for me to try... including, you guessed it, fishmeal. So we're in business! Now back to the recipe.)
The carb base for my chicken feed is barley. Locally grown grain is the real key, and for us that's barley. I pay $200-225 a ton for it and go through a ton every 6 weeks. In the winter I sprout it and in the summer I soak it. This summer we're supplementing with spent grain from local breweries as well.
In winter I sprout black oil sunflower seedsfor the chickens, since we don't feed corn. Alfalfa pellets get added for the all important green component- the more the better. And the rest of the feed is ground: fish meal, kelp, sea salt and brewer's yeast.
Oh, and my birds get all the whey from cheesemaking... like 15 gallons a week or so. Sometimes I put apple cider vinegar in their water for extra vitamin C. Other additives include garlic powder and cayenne and all the carrots I can score.
Of course, the proportions change from summer to winter to meet the different stressors of the seasons. I use Pearson's Square to figure out how much protein is required to match the grains, and experiment from there. It's had its ups and downs, but I'm pretty happy with my base recipe.
I'd love to figure out how to grow enough bugs and sprouts to feed them through the winter, but haven't gotten that far yet... since my mealworm project failed miserably. It grew alot of worms, but then the worms got mites, and the mites got loose in my cabin, and well... that's just not gonna happen again.
In the end, we are where we are- and I'm enjoying the ride. So far so good.