Chicken feed, part 2

I thought I'd share my ideas about modifying our bird feed recipe.  Necessity is the mother of invention, right?  Since we can't readily access local fishmeal part of the year, it's time to think again.

This time I'm thinking peas.  It looks like peas are 24-28% protein.  They'll have to be cooked to reduce the trypsin-caused intestinal damage that comes with all raw legumes.

What I'm thinking is that fishmeal is still part of the equation, but that I'll attempt to reduce it's quantity by a factor of 3.  Instead of feeding fishmeal as the primary protein source, I'm going to head towards 2 parts peas, 1 part fishmeal (65% protein) and 1 part brewer's yeast (39% protein). 

The sum of those parts makes a 38% protein supplement.  Now put it into Pearson's square along with barley (12% protein) and you come up with 22 parts grain:4 parts protein.

This should diversify our protein sources, make more amino acids readily available, and cut costs.  We'll see.

About feeding birds

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.

Full house

I ran around this afternoon shooting pictures of our crew, so you could get an idea of what things might be like on a fine summer day on the homestead...  We have 14 people on site these days.  It's a zoo.  My Dad is visiting along with my brother's 3 kids, then we have friends here from Louisiana, plus our latest intern.  Add to the mix 76 month old meat chicks and 50 week old peepers, 100 laying hens and 10 roosters, a pig, 22 goats, 4 sheep, 3 dogs and 2 cats and you get the picture!

Giving thanks

I've been noticing a pattern the last few weeks.  When I get down time... and mind you, it's not very often that I am still enough to think... I find myself overwhelmed with gratitude.  

We work like heck all week long, and then on Wednesday mornings I load all our fresh goods into the back of the truck and spend 10 hours sitting, driving and distributing.  It's been in these repeated off-farm moments that I find the serenity to reflect and give thanks.

Our life here on the mountain means more than I can describe with words.  I love that I have the power and the choice to dream and create and share... round the clock with my family.  The idea of leaving my child in someone else's hands so that I could work in town to pay bills and buy food terrifies me.

I have so much to be grateful for, and so many people to thank on my journey.  Really, the list is long and goes back nearly 40 years now.  But let me start by thanking YOU... 

Snapshots

Ben's Dad came up and spent Father's Day butchering sheep with us.

Our lovely #1 rooster... I think he's a splash Brahma.

And now you know how Wings got her name.

Finally, the wee cracker.  The days are getting shorter...