Hobby Farm Animals. Chris McLaughlin
Читать онлайн книгу.
feeds cover all bases by adding a vitamin premix. As for fats, commercial feeds contain processed meat and poultry fats in measured amounts. Fats provide twice as much energy as other feed ingredients, making them especially useful in starter feeds and growing rations. Mixing your own commercial-style feed is an option (and often a must for producers of organic meat or eggs), but balancing the nutrition is a complex task.
Common ingredients in commercial feeds include corn, oats, wheat, barley, sorghum, milo, soybean, and other oilseed meals; cottonseed or alfalfa meal; wheat or rice bran; and meat by-products, such as bonemeal and fishmeal. Ingredients are finely ground to produce easier-to-digest mash; sometimes they are pelleted or processed into crumbles so there is less wasted food.
Commercial baby chick food is usually medicated; some feeds for older chickens are medicated, too. Each type of feed, designed for a specific group of birds, contains nutrients in slightly different measures, so choose the correct feed: starter, grower, layer, breeder, or finisher. That information will be printed on the label, along with precisely how much to feed, so always check to be certain.
Commercial feeds also contain ingredients that many fanciers don’t approve of, such as antibiotics and coccidiostats for birds that don’t need them, pellet binders to improve the texture of pelleted feed, and chemical antioxidants to prevent fatty ingredients from spoiling. Again, read the labels! If you’d like to offer your chickens commercial feed but want to avoid the questionable additives, ask your county agricultural agent or feed store representative what “natural” commercial feeds are available locally. The Murray McMurray Hatchery sells organic feed and ships throughout the continental United States.
| ADVICE FROM THE FARM Feeding Your Chickens My chickens get yummy breakfasts every other day: oatmeal, rabbit feed (for a nice greens-based meal), raisins, scrambled eggs, cat food (protein—and they love it), apples, leftovers, mac and cheese (a favorite!), green beans, and Cheerios (another favorite). —Jennifer Kroll Let your chickens graze. My chickens keep our 3 acres almost totally free of ticks. Ticks for eggs—that’s a really neat trade! —Sharon Jones |
Maintaining Nutritional Value and Freshness
To retain full nutritional value and assure freshness, purchase no more than a two-to-four-week supply of commercial feed. Don’t dump new product on top of remaining feed; use up the old feed first or scoop it out and place it on top of the new supply. When storing feed, place it in tightly closed containers and store it in a cool, dry place out of the sun. Plastic containers will work, but if gnawing rodents are a headache, store grain in lidded metal cans. A 10-gallon garbage can holds 50 pounds of feed.
If your chickens refuse commercial feed, examine it closely. Sniff. It may be musty or otherwise spoiled. If it seems all right, you’re probably dealing with picky chickens that prefer scratch, treats, and table scraps. Cut back on goodies until they eat the chicken feed, too. Distributing treats only after they’ve dined on their regular rations will encourage them to be less picky.
The Supplement Approach
According to proponents of supplements, supplemented hens lay better eggs, and supplemented broilers taste better. That’s something you’ll have to decide for yourself. What we present here are methods that chicken keepers can use to supplement their chickens’ diets.
Grit and Oyster Shells
Since chickens don’t have teeth, they swallow grit—tiny pebbles and other hard objects—to grind their food. If your chickens free-range, or if you use easily digestible commercial feed, you won’t need to provide your birds with grit. Otherwise, commercial grit (ground limestone, granite, or marble) can be mixed with their scratch or container-fed to chickens on a free-choice basis.
Ground oyster shell is too soft to function as grit, but it’s a terrific calcium booster for laying hens. Feeding oyster shell to hens on a free-choice basis allows the hens to eat it when they wish.
Scratch
Many hobbyists and small-flock owners supplement commercial feed with scratch in measured proportions to not upset the nutritional balance of the feed. Scratch is a mixture of two or more whole or coarsely cracked grains, such as corn, oats, wheat, milo, millet, rice, barley, and buckwheat.
Chickens adore scratch grains. Chickens instinctively scratch the earth with their sharp toenails to rake up bugs, pebbles for grit, seeds, and other natural yummies. Scratch strewn on their indoor litter, anyplace outdoors, or in separate indoor feeders satisfies that urge.
Greens and Insects
Hobby farmers and poultry enthusiasts often grow “chicken gardens” of cut-and-come-again edibles like lettuce, kale, turnip greens, and chard. Chickens of all types and sizes relish greens. Greens-chomping hens lay eggs with dark, rich yolks.
Insects add protein to chickens’ diets. Free-range chickens harvest their own bugs, but coop and run-caged birds don’t have that chance. Capture katydids, grasshoppers, and other tasty insects to toss to your chickens. If you do, they’ll soon come running when they spot you.
Good Home Cookin’
Chickens happily devour table scraps. Avoid fatty, greasy, salty stuff; anything spoiled; avocados; and uncooked potato peels. Also, strongly scented or flavored scraps, such as onions, garlic, salami, and fish, can flavor hens’ eggs. Almost everything else from your table will be fine—even baked goods, meat, and dairy products. Your chickens will love it all.
Many folks assume that free-range chickens will grow healthy eating seeds, weeds, and bugs. They won’t. However, if you supplement free-range findings with scratch or commercial feed, your chickens will cheerfully rid your yard and orchard of termites, ticks, Japanese beetles, grasshoppers, grubs, slugs, and dropped fruit. One caveat: they’ll also strip your garden clean, so think “fenced garden” if you raise free-range chickens.
Конец ознакомительного фрагмента.
Текст предоставлен ООО «ЛитРес».
Прочитайте эту книгу целиком, купив полную легальную версию на ЛитРес.
Безопасно оплатить книгу можно банковской картой Visa, MasterCard, Maestro, со счета мобильного телефона, с платежного терминала, в салоне МТС или Связной, через PayPal, WebMoney, Яндекс.Деньги, QIWI Кошелек, бонусными картами или другим удобным Вам способом.