Can you believe these prices? In the few years we have been raising pigs and chickens we have seen the price of feed double and then triple, thus driving those of us to be creative in the venues of feed.
We started out buying from one feed elevator, then another, then moved into cooking beans and grain. If it hadn't been for all the nails, and chipping out buckets of feed, freezing our opposable thumbs off.....well no we probably wouldn't have stayed with that.
The we broke in to the wonder of mechanized feed production.
With a tractor and a chopper we could chop enough food to get ahead of ourselves far enough we were even able to take a short vacation as a family. Life was so much easier.... until our tractor was fatally wounded. Thankfully we have had friend to help us
out with chopping feed for our one solitary pig, but that leaves the chickens.
We've done crumbles and scratch grains with oyster, and for the most part now that the weather is warmer and the bugs are out they can forage for the majority of their food.
Then one day while browsing pinterest, Eureka! I found it! Two very affordable sustainable ways for feeding my flock. Crickets and meal worms.
While I haven't got the farm started yet(I'm still trying to work out a set up for the would be escape artists.), I'm very excited at the possibilities, both varieties can be found online, at pet stores, and with meal worms even in the bait shops.
I will list start up cost and pictures of my setup for my critter snack shacks as soon as I can. Until then here are some fun things to try as snacks for your feathered friends: Lettuce a whole head hung in the coop gives the flock hours of pecking(which is great for relieving stress I am told), sprouted wheat or sunflower seeds, warm cooked oatmeal(i add some unsweetened applesauce to mine),and squash. Mine went crazy over the pumpkins we brought home from the left-overs at the produce stalls around the area.
I hope you have as much fun as I have in discovering your chickens favorite little treats.
