Keep in mind if you're going to make a crib and cover it with some sort of wire don't use half inch hardware cloth, use quarter inch hardware cloth because rats and mice can nibble your food in the crib from the outside using half inch hardware cloth, I would suggest a double layer. To keep mice and rats away from your grain. Be sure to thoroughly dry your grains before storage. You can do that using window screens with a wooden frame. Bring them in at night, to keep moisture off of them until they are completely dry. You can also grind the cobs up and mix those with other feed to feed other animals, like cows. But do remember it's just a filler.
Just as a "feed" side note, if you trap the mice (no poison), your chickens will love to take them off your hands. I've had my chickens discover a mouse nest and while some chased the momma down and killed her, the rest raided the nest. It took less than 5 minutes and there was not one bit of mice left to find. Chickens are happy to eat mice for you... and snakes.. and bugs.
You might as well go with aluminum siding at that point... it's cheaper (and solid) Edit: Cheaper as you can buy rejects around here from the factory for less than $1 / (2'x1')
I love the information provided in this video. But I have to keep pausing it because I can't stand the initial background "music" (thankfully, it did get softer midway through.) I am that oddball person who loves silence, or who enjoys conversation. But background noises are such a huge distraction for me that it makes it difficult for me to process what is being spoken.
I love that you mention how kitchen scraps aren't always available. Every time someone off handedly mentions feeding their flock primarily on kitchen scraps from their home I'm always wondering how wasteful they are when cooking. I barely have anything for my compost pile let alone for animal feed.
It's waste only when you throw the scraps in the trash can... You can (and should) return a part of what you harvest to the soil. Always remember to feed the soil life that grows those wonderful vegetables for you in return
I always wonder about that as well and when I see what they call scraps it's a lot of good vegetables they just don't want. That's fine but not true scraps in my opinion.
@@janicesatterwhite4513 Juicing produces a lot of pulp. There's only so much you can do with so much pulp. The more you juice, the more the pulp. I juice enough to generate two gallons of pulp every day. I have a worm bin. I grow bananas and feed them with it. I compost. I am also plant-based and grow a lot of my own food, so yeah... there's a lot of kitchen scraps going out to the food forest on a daily basis. It all depends on how you eat. Where your food comes from. If it's packaged, there's not gonna be a lot of "true scraps". If it's coming out of the garden, there's definitely gonna be some scraps. Lol
I have to say something about scraps , scraps can be peelings seeds from peppers or cantaloupe, or outter lettuce and cabbage, oranges and apples that have bad spot, i have kitchen scraps like these almost daily because i use salads and fresh things on a daily basis. So i dont waste one bit of anything my chickens get whatever isnt usable for me.
@@manjawarner3162 Ok, I didn't even consider scraps from juicing. I'm an internet expert lol so I accept your knowledge with no issue. I just see a lot of videos where extra garden stuff that looks perfectly edible go to animals. Again it's no issue. I just didn't think of something like juicing. Wow you juice enough to have two gallons of scraps daily. Sounds awesome. I bet your worms love their food. Thanks for your response. I have a very small garden and even I grow to much of some things. I don't have my quantities down yet. Anyway, thanks. I love these videos and comments.
There are those videos where someone packs 10 vids worth of information into a single, short video, when they could as well have stretched it out over many to maximize their revenue. Such vids are rare, and this is one. Then there are those videos where the time the creator spent recording, editing and producing the video is only a tiny fraction of the time she spent learning the wisdom she shares. While it may have taken weeks to create the video, it really took 10 years to learn the material. Those vids are extremely rare, and this is one. A masterpiece. Thank you!
You're easily giving the densest most no nonsense breakdown I've come across. It's a rare treat to learn from someone this well studied and practiced. Thanks for your work.
rabbits are too easy. Just grow grass, herbs fodder plants. With given time for growing to full size, 5 sqm can feed a pair of rabbits forever. Grow Napier grass densely, intercrop with ipil-ipil, moringa, basil and other perennial herbs. After 6-12 months, they will produce more than a pair of rabbits can eat.
I live in a forest. 40 chickens, no feed. They forage just fine and many weigh over 12 pounds and nearly half the flock of Jersey Giants and Australorps weigh just shy of 15 lbs. Every once and a while they get some table scraps but not everyday. They have 7 acres of forest to forage through and rarely do we lose one. Hawks are our biggest problem and we are located in up state NY. Oh yeah, grow chick weed its amazing stuff and grows like mad in our area. Chickens love it.
You feed them locked up for first 2 weeks... they go around perimeter of house . Seen chickens in town next to main street on county seat. Guinea hens might . Pearl Millet is like crack to them. Main thing you dont have dogs attacking them chasing them away ... safety they stay close bye. They got own house to be safe in and sleep at night. Why run from Care safty and food ? They csnt build they own houses . .. lol.
If you start them in a chicken house for a few weeks, they will want to come" home" to roost at night. In the evening they gradually wander back to go to bed. @@cvspvr
I raise pigs as well as chickens. When I slaughter the pigs I take the organ meats, some fat, any blood available as well as some limestone and a little chicken mash to soak up the liquids. I grind the organic meats and fat then add the blood, limestone and grain until I have something like a brownie mix texture. The chickens would like it just as it is but I bake it off in the oven so I don’t make a mess of my freezer. I cut it into portion control sizes and freeze them in bags. I affectionately call this “gut cake”. I feed it out in the winter (in Maine) when they can use a little boost. Each day I crumpled up the cake and drop it on the henhouse floor. I pick up the eggs and put a frozen bag in my egg bucket to thaw out for the next mornings’ treat. They love it and I believe it helps them with the cold as well as with egg production.
Thanks for the tip! I'm in coastal Maine, and the winters can be brutal. They just don't get the microculture from the frozen ground. I don't raise pigs, but have plenty of bear offal.
@@ElizabethElli0t careful about vitamin A if you use liver! not sure how common this knowledge is, but ive heard that as a general rule, predators tend to have a lot more vitamin A in their livers and this can be toxic if you eat enough of it
@@Nepeta-Leijon oh, didn't know. My brother in law sells the liver and gall bladders to the Chinese medicine guy. That's the only part i don't keep. I hear there's also other things in bear liver specifically that detoxes their urea through the months of hibernation. Very interesting creatures.
@@ElizabethElli0tChinese medicine is good at taking things that would be overly strong to the point of being poisonous and processing it in a way that it can be used safely and medicinally. Like, did you know most of our herbs and seasonings were originally asuch for the nutrition as the taste? But you wouldn't want to just eat a mouthful of raw oregano or cinnamon. Grinding it up into a powder and sprinkling on just a bit makes it both edible and nutritious. Parsley especially is packed with vitamin c. So much so, that it's actually poisonous to some animals, because they'll eat it like it's spinach or grass and get sick.
After 5 years of researching homestead how tos I have never found a channel with such in depth, real world female homesteader related content. Already saving videos and subscribed as I am a new female homesteader and the generosity and quality of your educational content is invaluable to me. Thank you and God bless you! I'm so excited to learn more from you so I can provide for my family too.
Learning from men or women should be rated equally. We are individuals and some good, some great, and some not so great (both men and women). It is a sad state that we are looking for physical differences in people rather than individual peoples worth. And that is important to consider now when some many are dividing people into groups to oppose each other. We need to stop that!!!
You know she made some great comments about what hand strength is required (generally relating to female homesteaders) for certain homesteading tasks and I'm so glad she chose to share that instead of listening to people like you that just say "we need to stop that!". Males and females actually have differences and that's fine. It's toxic to deny that and assume that those differences are something bad like what you are doing.
1 hour 2-3 times a week in the compost pile takes care of everything they need. 18 loving ladies 1 macho rooster and 3 waddling geese, 22 birds total. Your seed saving math is on point. Love it.
@@nevinkuser9892 yes, all kinds of bugs and kitchen scraps like peels from fruits and vegetables, egg shells, seeds they know exactly what they need if you provide it they will pick it.
Another great way to grow protien is to raise bugs. They easily have the most efficient feed conversion ratio, and you don't need much space at all to raise tons of them. When I had chickens I raised roaches and soldier fly larvae for them, it reduced a lot of my overall feed costs and made some really happy hens. Let me tell you, I've never tasted better eggs than the ones from my bug-fed hens. When I eventually get chickens again, I'll certainly be raising more bugs, along with the other feed sources you talked about
@TheRainHarvester I'm in California; specifically raising lobster roaches, not just you're average pest roach. These buggers breed fast, are packed with nutrition, and best of all can't infest your home. Never thought of raising snails, how do you raise them?
Yes to the rabbit version. On the seeds needed for planting, not all will germinate or produce that much crop. You'll likely need twice that to get enough harvest. Farmers rule for seed saving is 10% of the crop for next years sowing if the same amount is wanted. Also don't pick all your seeds from just 1-2 plants, but 1-2 from each, you want as much variety as you can get. And look around for other varieties of your crops in the neighbours fields that can cross with your variety and give different traits to your saved seeds for next years planting. Seed saving is not difficult as such when the crop is the seed, since right harvesting and storage conditions are the same, but it does require some more knowledge on what the watch for during the growing season.
hillockfarm8404, Thank you! Too many people think you can "inbreed" plants indefinitely. Out-crossing gives genetic diversity. Before Wikipedia got political, there was an excellent article about this. I think experts predict crop failure at about the 10th generation if diversity isn't incorporated.
@@igotfriendsinlowplaces2971 And that is why you need to know what grows around you. And why i wrote that. You picked a specific variety for a reason so don't get it messed up.
I only watch video content from people if I can learn something. And boy did I learn from this. Plus it was very well put together and presented. Thank you.
I learned from my grandpa long ago To pile up manure and woodchips near the chicken coop and let them chickens dig around in there for bugs and grains throughout the winter. And really helps keep the feed cost down and Chickens happy.
I usually don’t subscribe until I watch multiple videos from a channel. Almost 2 minutes in and WOW straight to the point, lots of information, and helpful graphics too. Already subscribed
I'm blown away with how much time and detail went into making this video. No fluff, just info. That's absolutely amazing. I'd like to see more in depth videos like this one. The visual aids really help me understand the information too. Thanks also for giving supplementary info for square-foot gardeners. Well done!
I'm in the early planning stages of turning a 8.5 acre old cattle property into a homestead with chickens, goats, and rabbits. This property was once part of a much larger property that my ancestor bought in 1887, my mother inherited this chunk, and I will be trusted with it as well. People look at me like I'm crazy when I say I want the property to be entirely self sufficient. I love this video of yours because it gives me more confidence in growing my own feed for my animals. I'll be looking at hydroponic greenhouses as well as traditional farming, I have a lot of work to do, but feed videos like this are amazing, thank you.
If you are in a cold climate, look up "Nebraska greenhouse" Russ Finch. I am trying to get small energy and food self-sufficient communities started in Wisconsin, starting with building a few cabins around a farmhouse. Community makes the work easier.
Not crazy at all. George Washington himself spoke at length about how every person should be self sufficient. We have 9 acres and have slowly been replacing our food from the store to our property.
Thank you for laying this out clearly and concisely. This video is, hands down, the easiest to understand of any out there dealing with feeding chickens.
Also being saved. what a lot of heart and soul and research you put into this. Thank you for sharing and saving us so much time in doing our own digging.
This is such a comprehensive video on how to care for a chicken and a flock could be a class in itself. Thank you so much for taking the time to share this with everyone and not charging for it. What a gift. I greatly appreciate it.
I'M ON IT. BEEN PLANING ON DOING THIS FOR A LONG TIME. I'M RETIRED AND HAVE A SMALL FARM IN ARKANSAS NOW. I BOUGHT SEED THIS SPRING AND PLANTING 1 ACRE PLOTS OF CORN, SUN FLOWERS. WHeat, oats , okra, and sorghum. Plus sweet potatoes..your information has definitely helped me out . I have well over 100 chickens plus ducks, hogs, goats and a wife.. But I now also Love You ! ❤️
This is the most outstanding and clear video in growing feed I have been able to find. Ma'am, you are amazing. Also! Don't forget people can raise mealworms and maggots to lower the fish needs. And sprouting the feed eliminates the greens, as full nutrient access is attained after sprouting instead of straight dry grains. I have a 12 (11hen-1rooster) flock. I was just gifted some corn seeds, and I have the rest. We're on 2.5acres. Again, thank you immensely for this, it came at the perfect time.
I can't even imagine all the work that went into figuring this all out, THEN putting it all together in a video! That is a LOT of focused brain energy on an extremely niche subject! Goddess bless her tenacity!
I CANNOT EXPRESS THE GRATITUDE I FEEL FOR THIS INFORMATION!!!!! You are seriously the best for putting this video together. A breakdown like this could literally be life and death for birds and families.
Now if only we could find a video this freaking in-depth and virtually all-encompassing for cats and dogs. A lot more meat and a lot less growing things, but super important for the smaller family members. This video is amazing, you did such a stellar frickin job. It's super easy to understand and you really did cover what feels like everything. Thank you so much for this invaluable resource.
For the amount of work that you put into this, I don't think anyone would fault you for including a list of amazon affiliate links to the recommended items.
This is the most informative Chicken video I have ever seen! So refreshing to see somebody speaking from experience and intense research and not just regurgitating the same five points that everybody else says.
I spend $750 a year on chicken feed alone. That is currently spread across 33 chickens, 2 ducks, 3 turkeys, and 2 emu. I free range them all day every day. I have to purchase 4 bags every two weeks now that I changed my emu feeding. I was feeding 1 3qt scoop a day to my birds, I was dealing with egg losses I couldn't account for. I recently increased it to one scoop twice a day and my egg production has increased. I am on two acres and they spend time all over it as well as the woods behind our home. I appreciate your video. I am wanting to plant seeds that will benefit my animals to get them a more natural diet and live off the land more.
Just found this channel...best breakdown of diy chicken feed I have found....and I've wasted too many hours of my life on empty videos trying to find info on the subject.... THANK YOU! FINALLY A STRAIGHT FORWARD BUT INFORMATIVE VIDEO! Love it!! ❤
Amazing! I have 10 acres and have 25 straight run Rhode Island Reds coming in two weeks. Not my first year for that but first year for trying to grow more than half the chicken feed. This is the most info dense video I have ever seen! I will be replaying and taking notes. Seed saving is another area I can take to heart. Thank you so much! I am 76yo and expanding the gardens to feed chickens is getting harder every year. The price increase each year to buy seed is alarming. Heritage seeds are about all I buy now.
Have you tried no-dig gardening? Charles Dowding offers videos on this. I'm a grandma, and no-dig means I can garden. Weeding is easier, too. I tried it and it works.
We use raised beds, which helps us not to have to bend so much. We have 14 Wyandottes and a Black Copper Marans cock. 2.48 acres. We are 73 and 75, and yes it gets harder! I always buy heirloom seeds. Am growing out tomatoes this year with seed I saved in 2015! Best wishes.
Very good video but your corn will need more spacing than you've shown ( 13:20 ) not "four plants per square foot" unless you grabbed Hybrid/GMO field corn. Heirloom varieties (Reids Yellow Dent, Bloody Butcher, and Blue Hopi which all give higher nutrition/acre than hybrids) will do a lot better at 12in but go no closer than 9in; better space means more stalks will have one great ear and even 1.5 to 2 ears. ... Use 30in rows if you have conventional equipment (I'm testing 15in rows this year to get more plants/acre without crowding plants). Heirloom corn really likes one plant per square foot, and that is square not a long narrow rectangle. ... Other advice: spring plow to bust the sod and be conventional the first year but grow winter rye cover crop in the fall (early spring oats if missed that), plant corn directly into the standing rye(oats) in the spring, then roll flat the rye(oats) after the corn plants emerge from the soil. That way you maximize your cover crop shading out weeds until the corn can shade weeds itself. If you disk down the rye(oats) and plant conventionally you'll have conventional weed management to do, and that's no fun.
Not going to lie that was one of the most well put together video's I've seen in awhile for overall summaries that are easy to understand and follow. Well done. I love that you read old journals that's an absolutely awesome way to learn the history and trials and tribulations of years past.
this is one of the most informative and interesting videos I've ever seen! One thing - I've found that if they free range, they need very little feed. 10 chickens get maybe a cup of feed in the morning, and another cup in when I put them to bed. If I feed them more, they don't browse as much, instead just sitting around pooping on my equipment. During the winter I obviously have to feed them more, but Spring, Summer and Fall, they get 90% of their nutrients from the land.
WOW! Now THAT'S real chicken math!! Amazing how inexpensive the seed it and how much space it takes to raise it all. I plan to start raising at least some feed for my flock, but from ur visuals that amount of garden to manage is practically unmanageable for most people. I have huge gardens and that's just a lot to just try prep for planting. Anyway, great content!!
Girl, you nailed it big time!!! I have made so many of these calculations over the years but have never been able to gather it all together in one place. This video is golden. You're sense for details is priceless. What a fabulous woman you are! Thanks so much for creating and sharing this video.
THIS IS THE MOST COMPREHENSIVE GUIDE TO SELF SUFFICIENT CHICKENS that I have seen in nearly 50 years of raising chickens!! Wow, thanks for putting all this info together in one place, absolutely a gold mine of everything a person needs to know.
Excellent video. I'm planning to restart a flock. I've raised ducks, chickens, geese and turkeys. They free range all day on about an acre of grass. Other than the winged and four legged predators, I had no problems. Then the two turkey hens were successful at raising their poults and had two or three broods. They learned to jump the fence. The back porch was called the poo porch and the deck was the poop deck. They ate the vegetable garden, grapes and my ornamentals. Then the eagles visited several times. We decided the turkeys needed to make the transition to the freezer. None of us were happy about it, but we couldn't stand the sorrow and panic of the turkeys.
My question is the harvesting of the food and storage? What's the plan? Do you shell the corn off the cob or crack it in a grinder or just throw it in? Do you leave the peas to dry in the field and shell them or just lay them out on the vines for winter? What about the wheat? Did you thresh it or just cut the tops off? And then how did you store it? You answered so many questions but left me with so many more!
A lot of farmers would throw it into a corn crib (a building with a big roof that was protected from rain but only had wire sides or slatted wood sides to allow airflow) and then shell the corn as needed. For the peas, oats, and wheat you would ideally take a scythe or hand sickle and chop the tops off, let those dry, then store somewhere dry but with as much ventilation as possible. Chickens can pick through the plants so you don’t need to thresh it or remove the chaff, they can eat it all.
For those of us who live in humid areas in the south, we make have a problem “drying out the feed”. Do you know of a way to store it for my climate. We have Conexs to keep the rodents out, but if I try to store feed in the summer, sadly it will mold
This is my favorite video I have watched about raising chickens so far. Even if I know very little about gardening and even if I suck at it, I can still supplement by growing what I can and my chickens will certainly appreciate that.
This was the best homestead video I’ve watched. Thank you so much for all of your research and time to create this content. There are a lot of “homesteaders” that are making videos, but don’t know crap about living off their land. Unfortunately, they share info that is incorrect or a practice that should only be utilized in an emergency. I look forward to your next post.😊
Great presentation. I will re-listen to take notes, but I like the no-nonense delivery! Rare in this type of information exchange (youtube video)! Would be interested in the rabbits! Thank you for your time and energy!
Jeez, I put off watching this video because I thought it would be 90% crap and 10% information 2/3 the way through the video. Very well done. Thank you! ❤
Thank you for your original and through content! It's fantastic to see that your breakdown isn't falling into echo chamber for raising and growing chickens!
I'd like one for rabbits as well. Being mostly grass eaters they've gotta be a little easier to sustain. And I've been struggling to find good information on what they truly need so maybe you'd do better than me! I'd also be interested in hearing more about these old journals you like to read. This was a super great video, breaking down stuff like that is really fun to me.
Rabbits eat a ton but if you have an acre or so and don’t mow you could theoretically feed your family with the meat from about three or four does and 1 buck. Theoretically 😅
bunny tractors moving daily works.. but you DO have to move daily or they will destroy the small footprint of the tractor.. bonus is also improves the ground and they will dig up and eat thistles.. rabbits single 2012 and chickens my whole life (to include breeding for show and specific traits
Thank You for getting straight to the point. Unlike other creators that talk about their feelings and life stories for the first 15 minutes. I appreciate it. 👍
This video is a masterpiece and an incredibly generous gift of information to us as we delve into chicken rearing on our homestead. Thank you thank you thank you! You're BRILLIANT!
Good info. I have had chickens past 14 years. What I have found is its cheaper to buy food for them at Costco and our scraps than the feed stores. Plus they are healthier! Mine are living longer now that got away from feed store! They are pets so I let them live out their natural life and reward us with eggs.
@@Boringcountrylife Some produce, but mainly give them organic rice sold in big bags. Sometimes I treat them with the frozen corn or peas. They eat it all compared to the layer feed they would hardly touch.
@@SugarBeeFarm Protein is in nearly all food. It varies. They have plenty of greens too via grass and greens we feed them from our leftovers. Plus they are always searching for worms and insects to eat.
you did a good breakdown but I think you missed one factor. If your compost pile is in your chicken run the grubs/wild seeds/greens are part of the feed system. Also grass hay is a cheaper solution to feed a compost pile if you have ditches you can mow. This year I want to try a couple acres as chicken grains/peas and just adding black oil sunflowers/squash
Billy Bond from Perma Pastures Farm had a series where he fed meat birds compost and scraps. Seemed to work but they did use a lot of water on those compost piles. I'd assume the water bill was negligible but would still be a cost unless you're on well water.
@@joshua511I'm well water and I live in an area where water is not really an issue 30-40 in a year...we also can collect rain water without permits...our issue is cold winters 4a
Our compost pile was in the chicken coop, but they did have about 2 fenced acres to run on. They loved the compost, we would throw in just about anything for them, and they'd scratch it up to get it. Those gals would eat pretty much anything! Frogs, lizards, bugs, mice, anything was fair game.
The best meat for chicken is .... drumroll... earthworms. Canadian and French research have dialed it down to 1 to 2 per day of adult red wiggler. Saves you from fishing and hunting. You can still give the leftovers. But storing meat isa challenge. Keeping a tub of worms is easier
Red wrigglers i know as another name for composting worms or in latin eisina foetida. Not your in the soil worms, they need more dense food for that, so compost/animal manure will work. Keep it cool and damp in summer, warmish in winter and keep adding some food to it for year round chickensupplement. Or give chickens access to part of the heap and let them help themselves while speeding up the composting as well.
Wow! Fantastic video filled with great information that helps others make smart choices! I’m debating starting to raise chickens in my back yard (~1/4 acre), to begin learning the ins and outs before moving to a more rural property with more space. I’ve been studying about restoring my soil’s ecosystem and wondering how far I can stretch those concepts to maximize the amount of food I can grow and raise on my own property and reduce my dependence on the grocery store. Thanks for putting all this together - definitely saving it as a handy reference!
This is SPECTACULAR. I’ll be downloading it, but I’m also immensely grateful for the ability to screenshot so many of your slides! (And thanks for the reminder partway in!) FABULOUS!!!❤
I had no interest in raising chickens or homesteading (I’m in the uk, and land is prohibitively expensive for me) but i am rewilding my garden which is probably why you’ve arrived on my feed. NOW I feel I’ve got all the knowledge I need to keep my nonexistent chickens fed and happy and can’t wait to get a few acres!
WOW ! This is, by far the most informative video that I have EVER experienced since I've been watching RUclips. I grew up with computers since the early '80s. I'm 72 years young, and I must say, there's more useable info in this video than I have ever seen in one place. May I suggest that you develope this info into a book format and publish it.... And yes, to answer your question, I would LOVE, LOVE, LOVE to see what you come up with on your video concerning raising Rabbits! I raised them in the 90's while living in Arkansas. Military transferred me to Oklahoma, so I sold out and moved..... ( it really helped that there was a rabbit processor close by ) Thank you so very much for developing and sharing. Looking forward to the rabbit video....
I was talking to my mom the other day about the egg layers she use to raise. I was shocked to hear that during the summer, she NEVER fed her chickens from bagged feed. They were free ranged and could pick through their compost pile for scraps, worms, and maggots and that was it. She never noticed a decrease in egg production. It also helped that she lived out in the countryside with little traffic and very few neighbors on the lane. When they got a rooster, they had almost no predation. They lost only one or two chicks through the summer to hawks. There were plenty of shrubs and thickets that they could hide in and the rooster fought off most predators. Egg eating snakes were almost always killed by the rooster and then eaten by the flock.
@@doinacampean9132it really sounds like so much food to grow, but when she said it’s only a 1/10th of an acre to feed 10 chickens, it sounded so much more manageable 😅
Wow, great info. We just got enough land to do this, excited to grow our own feed. We will also be farming worms, meal worms and crickets to feed them. Fortunately we have a pond and we need to reduce the catfish population
ABSOLUTELY FANTASTIC VIDEO! I know it took a long time and work to create it, so I think I speak for all when I say, THANK YOU SO MUCH! When you say "seed saving," are you including keeping your own seeds from the crops you grow from the seeds you purchase?
The engineer in me absolutely loves the organized and analytical approach you take here! When I started my own yuppie / suburban homesteading poultry project I built a spreadsheet and meticulously tracked every expense right down to the hardware to build the coop, then tracked every egg and amortized the cost so I could see the price per egg drop from a start of ~$200/dozen (gulp) down to pennies after a couple years. I've since gone back to buying most of their feed as the cost per month is less than half an hour of what I make at my current job, but this kind of content really inspires me and makes me look forward to 'retirement' where I can get back to focusing on these kinds of details.
I don't think I have ever come across a more densely packed video full of useful information on any subject before... I just watched an migardener video on alfalfa pellets as fertilizer that simply made me angry for its blah... blah... blahing. And realized why I had cancx my sub. So thank you for your efforts! You are an excellent youtuber!
Haven’t even finished the video and this is the most informational straight-to-the-point video I’ve seen on RUclips. THANK YOU! We dont have time to sit through fluff. Keep doing what you’re doing!
Hello Sarah, first my admiration for your comprehensive and educational video. It's a truly gem in this site to find such a well done material. But, and I tell this based in my farming experience during more than 35 years, your calculation as for quantities of grains and crops it works only in an utopian world, where every grain sprouts, grows and produce with no problems along the way, where you have not plagues, no droughts, no losses. I say this just to warn all that people new in this farming world who can think everything it is so easy. But once again, wonderful video. Greetings from Uruguay
This was AMAZING. Your labor over doing the calculations alone is commendable. Also fascinating that there’s no smoke and mirrors around chickens’ diets but humans seem to be tricky. Thank you for this
My younger years I worked growing field crops and feeding bovine, the facts you mention are astonishing to most people.. Just turned my chickens out onto a small pasture to eat bugs, slugs and green vegetation to reduce feed costs. Joe Salaini has great ideas of raising poultry on pasture and many homesteads use his model.. Apartment dwellers have a hard time understanding growing and storing 52 weeks of food past the convenience of a local store.
Just bought 7 acres in a rural Easter Coast area and I've wanted to have chickens but was pretty intimidated getting started because I want to do well by then birdies. This video was my cup of tea and full of brainy but accessible information. Thank you so much for taking the time to make it!
BTW, this is the first video of yours that I have watched. It really struck me how "professional" your voice and your delivery is. VERY clear and precise. For what it's worth.
The most comprehensive video on this subject I have ever watched, and I've watched a lot. Thanks for all your hard work, and caring enough to break it down for us newbies.
This was INCREDIBLY well done and extremely helpful! As a long time gardener, i found all your calculations more helpful than other videos i have watched on chickens and raising feed. I have yet to plunge into laying hens but your video has provided a structured plan and s way to make this almost free in the long run.
This is a top notch video introducing to us the ability to grow our own chicken feed! Thank you! This is the kind of video I needed to see. My friend saw it and shared it with me. I just shared it with my mom. We share the responsibility of raising and caring for chickens and ducks on our property. If we can manage to get a garden going we will be much better off feeding our flock. We've struggled badly with our health lately and this may help us maintain our flock better financially.
Keep in mind if you're going to make a crib and cover it with some sort of wire don't use half inch hardware cloth, use quarter inch hardware cloth because rats and mice can nibble your food in the crib from the outside using half inch hardware cloth, I would suggest a double layer. To keep mice and rats away from your grain. Be sure to thoroughly dry your grains before storage. You can do that using window screens with a wooden frame. Bring them in at night, to keep moisture off of them until they are completely dry.
You can also grind the cobs up and mix those with other feed to feed other animals, like cows. But do remember it's just a filler.
Yes to everything you just said, this advice is golden!! ❤️❤️❤️❤️ thank you so much
@@CedarHillsHomesteadAgreed. Here in Michigan, I have experienced the same with my corn crib.
Just as a "feed" side note, if you trap the mice (no poison), your chickens will love to take them off your hands. I've had my chickens discover a mouse nest and while some chased the momma down and killed her, the rest raided the nest. It took less than 5 minutes and there was not one bit of mice left to find. Chickens are happy to eat mice for you... and snakes.. and bugs.
You might as well go with aluminum siding at that point... it's cheaper (and solid)
Edit: Cheaper as you can buy rejects around here from the factory for less than
$1 / (2'x1')
Also it comes in stretechs of 10 feet, so you need to buy a minimum of
2' x 10' for (little less than $10 )
This woman woke up one day and decided to make THE must-see video about raising chickens. Zero fluff, just facts. Bookmarked!
I love the information provided in this video. But I have to keep pausing it because I can't stand the initial background "music" (thankfully, it did get softer midway through.)
I am that oddball person who loves silence, or who enjoys conversation. But background noises are such a huge distraction for me that it makes it difficult for me to process what is being spoken.
Facts, I am in complete awe 🤩
The best and most complete Chicken raising video. amazing.
Can we please do the same vid with no music@annaru3814
Are you disagreeing with me or flirting with her?
Wow, I'm only 3 minutes in and this video has better info than the whole of the internet on chickens!
What a compliment, thank you! ❤️🫶🏻
Seriously!!
For real!!!!!!
Not the average homesteader. This is PHD chicken nutrition and costs.
Omg! These info are just what I need. Its just a little fast though so I have to do a lot of screenshots😊
I love that you mention how kitchen scraps aren't always available. Every time someone off handedly mentions feeding their flock primarily on kitchen scraps from their home I'm always wondering how wasteful they are when cooking. I barely have anything for my compost pile let alone for animal feed.
It's waste only when you throw the scraps in the trash can... You can (and should) return a part of what you harvest to the soil. Always remember to feed the soil life that grows those wonderful vegetables for you in return
I always wonder about that as well and when I see what they call scraps it's a lot of good vegetables they just don't want. That's fine but not true scraps in my opinion.
@@janicesatterwhite4513 Juicing produces a lot of pulp. There's only so much you can do with so much pulp. The more you juice, the more the pulp. I juice enough to generate two gallons of pulp every day. I have a worm bin. I grow bananas and feed them with it. I compost. I am also plant-based and grow a lot of my own food, so yeah... there's a lot of kitchen scraps going out to the food forest on a daily basis. It all depends on how you eat. Where your food comes from. If it's packaged, there's not gonna be a lot of "true scraps". If it's coming out of the garden, there's definitely gonna be some scraps. Lol
I have to say something about scraps , scraps can be peelings seeds from peppers or cantaloupe, or outter lettuce and cabbage, oranges and apples that have bad spot, i have kitchen scraps like these almost daily because i use salads and fresh things on a daily basis. So i dont waste one bit of anything my chickens get whatever isnt usable for me.
@@manjawarner3162 Ok, I didn't even consider scraps from juicing. I'm an internet expert lol so I accept your knowledge with no issue. I just see a lot of videos where extra garden stuff that looks perfectly edible go to animals. Again it's no issue. I just didn't think of something like juicing. Wow you juice enough to have two gallons of scraps daily. Sounds awesome. I bet your worms love their food. Thanks for your response. I have a very small garden and even I grow to much of some things. I don't have my quantities down yet. Anyway, thanks. I love these videos and comments.
There are those videos where someone packs 10 vids worth of information into a single, short video, when they could as well have stretched it out over many to maximize their revenue. Such vids are rare, and this is one. Then there are those videos where the time the creator spent recording, editing and producing the video is only a tiny fraction of the time she spent learning the wisdom she shares. While it may have taken weeks to create the video, it really took 10 years to learn the material. Those vids are extremely rare, and this is one. A masterpiece. Thank you!
Absolutely an informational and educational masterpiece on the subject. Well done!
Agreed! Best video ever. Straight to the point & tons of information here
Yes!!! 🙌
This!!!!
Can you tell what is that quarter cup of, at the very beginning of the video...is it oats?
You're easily giving the densest most no nonsense breakdown I've come across. It's a rare treat to learn from someone this well studied and practiced. Thanks for your work.
YES, please also produce one of these teaching videos for rabbits. Thank you.
Yes
I would love that also
I've loved this video. Can you please make one of these videos for rabbits? Thanks :)
rabbits are too easy. Just grow grass, herbs fodder plants. With given time for growing to full size, 5 sqm can feed a pair of rabbits forever. Grow Napier grass densely, intercrop with ipil-ipil, moringa, basil and other perennial herbs. After 6-12 months, they will produce more than a pair of rabbits can eat.
One for each of the animals would be amazing!
I love that this video has less chit chat and pure information. You’re channel is GOLD
One of the very best videos on raising livestock I’ve ever seen and I’ve watched a lot of them. Smart lady.
clearly lotta work went into this vid, appreciated and hava hellovagood 2024 season ✨hilarious intro btw😂Happy Apocalypse Everyone !
I agree. She REALLY did her homework.
I don't think I've ever seen a RUclips video that is so densely packed with information as this one. I'm impressed
What a compliment, thank you so much 😁❤️❤️
I live in a forest. 40 chickens, no feed. They forage just fine and many weigh over 12 pounds and nearly half the flock of Jersey Giants and Australorps weigh just shy of 15 lbs. Every once and a while they get some table scraps but not everyday. They have 7 acres of forest to forage through and rarely do we lose one. Hawks are our biggest problem and we are located in up state NY. Oh yeah, grow chick weed its amazing stuff and grows like mad in our area. Chickens love it.
won't the just run away without fences?
@@cvspvrchickens don’t run away and a fence wouldn’t stop them if they wanted to
@@Alpha1Farms what if they wandered too far away and got lost?
You feed them locked up for first 2 weeks... they go around perimeter of house . Seen chickens in town next to main street on county seat.
Guinea hens might . Pearl Millet is like crack to them. Main thing you dont have dogs attacking them chasing them away ... safety they stay close bye. They got own house to be safe in and sleep at night. Why run from Care safty and food ? They csnt build they own houses . .. lol.
If you start them in a chicken house for a few weeks, they will want to come" home" to roost at night. In the evening they gradually wander back to go to bed. @@cvspvr
I raise pigs as well as chickens. When I slaughter the pigs I take the organ meats, some fat, any blood available as well as some limestone and a little chicken mash to soak up the liquids. I grind the organic meats and fat then add the blood, limestone and grain until I have something like a brownie mix texture. The chickens would like it just as it is but I bake it off in the oven so I don’t make a mess of my freezer. I cut it into portion control sizes and freeze them in bags. I affectionately call this “gut cake”. I feed it out in the winter (in Maine) when they can use a little boost. Each day I crumpled up the cake and drop it on the henhouse floor. I pick up the eggs and put a frozen bag in my egg bucket to thaw out for the next mornings’ treat. They love it and I believe it helps them with the cold as well as with egg production.
Thanks for the tip! I'm in coastal Maine, and the winters can be brutal. They just don't get the microculture from the frozen ground. I don't raise pigs, but have plenty of bear offal.
@@ElizabethElli0t careful about vitamin A if you use liver! not sure how common this knowledge is, but ive heard that as a general rule, predators tend to have a lot more vitamin A in their livers and this can be toxic if you eat enough of it
@@Nepeta-Leijon oh, didn't know. My brother in law sells the liver and gall bladders to the Chinese medicine guy. That's the only part i don't keep. I hear there's also other things in bear liver specifically that detoxes their urea through the months of hibernation. Very interesting creatures.
@@ElizabethElli0tChinese medicine is good at taking things that would be overly strong to the point of being poisonous and processing it in a way that it can be used safely and medicinally.
Like, did you know most of our herbs and seasonings were originally asuch for the nutrition as the taste? But you wouldn't want to just eat a mouthful of raw oregano or cinnamon. Grinding it up into a powder and sprinkling on just a bit makes it both edible and nutritious.
Parsley especially is packed with vitamin c. So much so, that it's actually poisonous to some animals, because they'll eat it like it's spinach or grass and get sick.
Wow, great info! Thanks!👍
The raw exposure to food production numbers is astonishing.
Thank you for taking the time!
After 5 years of researching homestead how tos I have never found a channel with such in depth, real world female homesteader related content. Already saving videos and subscribed as I am a new female homesteader and the generosity and quality of your educational content is invaluable to me. Thank you and God bless you! I'm so excited to learn more from you so I can provide for my family too.
Learning from men or women should be rated equally. We are individuals and some good, some great, and some not so great (both men and women). It is a sad state that we are looking for physical differences in people rather than individual peoples worth. And that is important to consider now when some many are dividing people into groups to oppose each other. We need to stop that!!!
@@dougbas3980 Amen.
You know she made some great comments about what hand strength is required (generally relating to female homesteaders) for certain homesteading tasks and I'm so glad she chose to share that instead of listening to people like you that just say "we need to stop that!".
Males and females actually have differences and that's fine. It's toxic to deny that and assume that those differences are something bad like what you are doing.
@@onlyintime9914You read too much into what I said. Just said you can learn from men or women. That is all. I learn equally from both. Don't you?
🙄😄@@dougbas3980
I love how she got straight to the point. I wish more people made videos this way.
1 hour 2-3 times a week in the compost pile takes care of everything they need. 18 loving ladies 1 macho rooster and 3 waddling geese, 22 birds total. Your seed saving math is on point. Love it.
They get to eat bugs and worms you mean?
@@nevinkuser9892 yes, all kinds of bugs and kitchen scraps like peels from fruits and vegetables, egg shells, seeds they know exactly what they need if you provide it they will pick it.
@@farrockawaybt8654 It would be a great idea to have chickens live directly behind a restaurant.
The free range chickens in my yard get into my compost, too. I didn't realize how good such vegetable scraps are for them.
Another great way to grow protien is to raise bugs. They easily have the most efficient feed conversion ratio, and you don't need much space at all to raise tons of them.
When I had chickens I raised roaches and soldier fly larvae for them, it reduced a lot of my overall feed costs and made some really happy hens. Let me tell you, I've never tasted better eggs than the ones from my bug-fed hens.
When I eventually get chickens again, I'll certainly be raising more bugs, along with the other feed sources you talked about
Snails are easy and grubs. I'm in Texas. Where are you raising roaches?
@TheRainHarvester I'm in California; specifically raising lobster roaches, not just you're average pest roach. These buggers breed fast, are packed with nutrition, and best of all can't infest your home.
Never thought of raising snails, how do you raise them?
@@thechickenwizard8172 algae water and rocks! Entry are easy and multiply fast.
@@thechickenwizard8172algae in tubs of water and rocks.
I really want to get into raising BSFL for my birds.
Yes to the rabbit version.
On the seeds needed for planting, not all will germinate or produce that much crop. You'll likely need twice that to get enough harvest. Farmers rule for seed saving is 10% of the crop for next years sowing if the same amount is wanted. Also don't pick all your seeds from just 1-2 plants, but 1-2 from each, you want as much variety as you can get. And look around for other varieties of your crops in the neighbours fields that can cross with your variety and give different traits to your saved seeds for next years planting. Seed saving is not difficult as such when the crop is the seed, since right harvesting and storage conditions are the same, but it does require some more knowledge on what the watch for during the growing season.
hillockfarm8404,
Thank you!
Too many people think you can "inbreed" plants indefinitely.
Out-crossing gives genetic diversity.
Before Wikipedia got political, there was an excellent article about this. I think experts predict crop failure at about the 10th generation if diversity isn't incorporated.
Not a great idea when most farms grow gmo foods that will pollinate your heirloom and non gmo crops. They also spray and that spray gets on your stuff
@@igotfriendsinlowplaces2971 And that is why you need to know what grows around you. And why i wrote that. You picked a specific variety for a reason so don't get it messed up.
As long as you can still get non hybrid seeds for those crops.
we need to teach them better methods@@igotfriendsinlowplaces2971
I only watch video content from people if I can learn something.
And boy did I learn from this. Plus it was very well put together and presented.
Thank you.
Amen!
Agreed. Many do form, some do function, but high quality on both? And no need to speed up some slow drone voice. Respect for the viewer throughout.
I learned from my grandpa long ago To pile up manure and woodchips near the chicken coop and let them chickens dig around in there for bugs and grains throughout the winter. And really helps keep the feed cost down and Chickens happy.
she might have a talent for this
I usually don’t subscribe until I watch multiple videos from a channel. Almost 2 minutes in and WOW straight to the point, lots of information, and helpful graphics too. Already subscribed
I'm blown away with how much time and detail went into making this video. No fluff, just info. That's absolutely amazing. I'd like to see more in depth videos like this one. The visual aids really help me understand the information too. Thanks also for giving supplementary info for square-foot gardeners. Well done!
I'm in the early planning stages of turning a 8.5 acre old cattle property into a homestead with chickens, goats, and rabbits. This property was once part of a much larger property that my ancestor bought in 1887, my mother inherited this chunk, and I will be trusted with it as well. People look at me like I'm crazy when I say I want the property to be entirely self sufficient. I love this video of yours because it gives me more confidence in growing my own feed for my animals. I'll be looking at hydroponic greenhouses as well as traditional farming, I have a lot of work to do, but feed videos like this are amazing, thank you.
If you are in a cold climate, look up "Nebraska greenhouse" Russ Finch. I am trying to get small energy and food self-sufficient communities started in Wisconsin, starting with building a few cabins around a farmhouse. Community makes the work easier.
You mean stole in 1887
Not crazy at all. George Washington himself spoke at length about how every person should be self sufficient. We have 9 acres and have slowly been replacing our food from the store to our property.
Land graber
There's something to be said for continuing that. Good stuff
Thank you for laying this out clearly and concisely. This video is, hands down, the easiest to understand of any out there dealing with feeding chickens.
Agreed this video is being saved as one of my go to videos now!
Also being saved. what a lot of heart and soul and research you put into this. Thank you for sharing and saving us so much time in doing our own digging.
Hah! "Laying"! I see what you did there!
This is such a comprehensive video on how to care for a chicken and a flock could be a class in itself. Thank you so much for taking the time to share this with everyone and not charging for it. What a gift. I greatly appreciate it.
I'M ON IT. BEEN PLANING ON DOING THIS FOR A LONG TIME. I'M RETIRED AND HAVE A SMALL FARM IN ARKANSAS NOW. I BOUGHT SEED THIS SPRING AND PLANTING 1 ACRE PLOTS OF CORN, SUN FLOWERS. WHeat, oats , okra, and sorghum. Plus sweet potatoes..your information has definitely helped me out . I have well over 100 chickens plus ducks, hogs, goats and a wife.. But I now also Love You ! ❤️
I watched this entire video and I don’t even have a lawn let alone room for chickens, this is very well made and informative!
This is the most outstanding and clear video in growing feed I have been able to find. Ma'am, you are amazing. Also! Don't forget people can raise mealworms and maggots to lower the fish needs. And sprouting the feed eliminates the greens, as full nutrient access is attained after sprouting instead of straight dry grains. I have a 12 (11hen-1rooster) flock. I was just gifted some corn seeds, and I have the rest. We're on 2.5acres. Again, thank you immensely for this, it came at the perfect time.
How has it gone so far? Still plugging away at getting all the crops ready?
Yes please do one for rabbits 🐰
I can't even imagine all the work that went into figuring this all out, THEN putting it all together in a video! That is a LOT of focused brain energy on an extremely niche subject! Goddess bless her tenacity!
I CANNOT EXPRESS THE GRATITUDE I FEEL FOR THIS INFORMATION!!!!! You are seriously the best for putting this video together. A breakdown like this could literally be life and death for birds and families.
Now if only we could find a video this freaking in-depth and virtually all-encompassing for cats and dogs. A lot more meat and a lot less growing things, but super important for the smaller family members. This video is amazing, you did such a stellar frickin job. It's super easy to understand and you really did cover what feels like everything. Thank you so much for this invaluable resource.
For the amount of work that you put into this, I don't think anyone would fault you for including a list of amazon affiliate links to the recommended items.
Wow, can’t believe that you don’t have more subscribers. Not many people understand the scope or depth of off-road homesteading like this. Good stuff.
This is the most informative Chicken video I have ever seen! So refreshing to see somebody speaking from experience and intense research and not just regurgitating the same five points that everybody else says.
I spend $750 a year on chicken feed alone. That is currently spread across 33 chickens, 2 ducks, 3 turkeys, and 2 emu. I free range them all day every day. I have to purchase 4 bags every two weeks now that I changed my emu feeding. I was feeding 1 3qt scoop a day to my birds, I was dealing with egg losses I couldn't account for. I recently increased it to one scoop twice a day and my egg production has increased. I am on two acres and they spend time all over it as well as the woods behind our home. I appreciate your video. I am wanting to plant seeds that will benefit my animals to get them a more natural diet and live off the land more.
Just found this channel...best breakdown of diy chicken feed I have found....and I've wasted too many hours of my life on empty videos trying to find info on the subject.... THANK YOU! FINALLY A STRAIGHT FORWARD BUT INFORMATIVE VIDEO! Love it!! ❤
Amazing! I have 10 acres and have 25 straight run Rhode Island Reds coming in two weeks. Not my first year for that but first year for trying to grow more than half the chicken feed. This is the most info dense video I have ever seen! I will be replaying and taking notes. Seed saving is another area I can take to heart. Thank you so much! I am 76yo and expanding the gardens to feed chickens is getting harder every year. The price increase each year to buy seed is alarming. Heritage seeds are about all I buy now.
Love that you added your age! I am almost 67 and it is beyond encouraging to read your comments, wish we were neighbors! Much love to you !
Have you tried no-dig gardening? Charles Dowding offers videos on this. I'm a grandma, and no-dig means I can garden. Weeding is easier, too. I tried it and it works.
We use raised beds, which helps us not to have to bend so much. We have 14 Wyandottes and a Black Copper Marans cock. 2.48 acres. We are 73 and 75, and yes it gets harder! I always buy heirloom seeds. Am growing out tomatoes this year with seed I saved in 2015! Best wishes.
Very good video but your corn will need more spacing than you've shown ( 13:20 ) not "four plants per square foot" unless you grabbed Hybrid/GMO field corn. Heirloom varieties (Reids Yellow Dent, Bloody Butcher, and Blue Hopi which all give higher nutrition/acre than hybrids) will do a lot better at 12in but go no closer than 9in; better space means more stalks will have one great ear and even 1.5 to 2 ears. ... Use 30in rows if you have conventional equipment (I'm testing 15in rows this year to get more plants/acre without crowding plants). Heirloom corn really likes one plant per square foot, and that is square not a long narrow rectangle. ... Other advice: spring plow to bust the sod and be conventional the first year but grow winter rye cover crop in the fall (early spring oats if missed that), plant corn directly into the standing rye(oats) in the spring, then roll flat the rye(oats) after the corn plants emerge from the soil. That way you maximize your cover crop shading out weeds until the corn can shade weeds itself. If you disk down the rye(oats) and plant conventionally you'll have conventional weed management to do, and that's no fun.
Not going to lie that was one of the most well put together video's I've seen in awhile for overall summaries that are easy to understand and follow. Well done. I love that you read old journals that's an absolutely awesome way to learn the history and trials and tribulations of years past.
this is one of the most informative and interesting videos I've ever seen! One thing - I've found that if they free range, they need very little feed. 10 chickens get maybe a cup of feed in the morning, and another cup in when I put them to bed. If I feed them more, they don't browse as much, instead just sitting around pooping on my equipment. During the winter I obviously have to feed them more, but Spring, Summer and Fall, they get 90% of their nutrients from the land.
WOW! Now THAT'S real chicken math!! Amazing how inexpensive the seed it and how much space it takes to raise it all. I plan to start raising at least some feed for my flock, but from ur visuals that amount of garden to manage is practically unmanageable for most people. I have huge gardens and that's just a lot to just try prep for planting. Anyway, great content!!
True for me too. I will grow field corn, pumpkins, squash, and garden green waste for my birds. I will still be seen at the feed store😉
Girl, you nailed it big time!!! I have made so many of these calculations over the years but have never been able to gather it all together in one place. This video is golden. You're sense for details is priceless. What a fabulous woman you are! Thanks so much for creating and sharing this video.
I don’t have chickens. I will never have chickens. But I sat through the whole video…. A very informative and well presented video. Well done!
THIS IS THE MOST COMPREHENSIVE GUIDE TO SELF SUFFICIENT CHICKENS that I have seen in nearly 50 years of raising chickens!! Wow, thanks for putting all this info together in one place, absolutely a gold mine of everything a person needs to know.
My head was exploding with this information. And that means this video is well made and fully packed with precious info. I can't thank you enough
Excellent video. I'm planning to restart a flock. I've raised ducks, chickens, geese and turkeys. They free range all day on about an acre of grass. Other than the winged and four legged predators, I had no problems. Then the two turkey hens were successful at raising their poults and had two or three broods. They learned to jump the fence. The back porch was called the poo porch and the deck was the poop deck. They ate the vegetable garden, grapes and my ornamentals. Then the eagles visited several times. We decided the turkeys needed to make the transition to the freezer. None of us were happy about it, but we couldn't stand the sorrow and panic of the turkeys.
My question is the harvesting of the food and storage? What's the plan? Do you shell the corn off the cob or crack it in a grinder or just throw it in? Do you leave the peas to dry in the field and shell them or just lay them out on the vines for winter? What about the wheat? Did you thresh it or just cut the tops off? And then how did you store it? You answered so many questions but left me with so many more!
A lot of farmers would throw it into a corn crib (a building with a big roof that was protected from rain but only had wire sides or slatted wood sides to allow airflow) and then shell the corn as needed. For the peas, oats, and wheat you would ideally take a scythe or hand sickle and chop the tops off, let those dry, then store somewhere dry but with as much ventilation as possible. Chickens can pick through the plants so you don’t need to thresh it or remove the chaff, they can eat it all.
For those of us who live in humid areas in the south, we make have a problem “drying out the feed”. Do you know of a way to store it for my climate. We have Conexs to keep the rodents out, but if I try to store feed in the summer, sadly it will mold
This is my favorite video I have watched about raising chickens so far. Even if I know very little about gardening and even if I suck at it, I can still supplement by growing what I can and my chickens will certainly appreciate that.
Ive never taken so many notes before! OMG thank you! May your chickens always be healthy and your pillow always cool and fluffy
Hello from South Africa. Fabulous video. Thank you so much.
This was the best homestead video I’ve watched. Thank you so much for all of your research and time to create this content. There are a lot of “homesteaders” that are making videos, but don’t know crap about living off their land. Unfortunately, they share info that is incorrect or a practice that should only be utilized in an emergency. I look forward to your next post.😊
Great presentation. I will re-listen to take notes, but I like the no-nonense delivery! Rare in this type of information exchange (youtube video)! Would be interested in the rabbits! Thank you for your time and energy!
I live in the city but this was a fascinating cost analysis to watch.
Jeez, I put off watching this video because I thought it would be 90% crap and 10% information 2/3 the way through the video. Very well done. Thank you! ❤
That was AMAZING, thank you for taking the time to gather and share your info.
Absolutely loving the amount of research done for this video
This is by far the greatest video I have seen related to this topic. Great content, great structure.
Love your rapid fire math dealing with problem !
Your channel is healing Americans and the world thank you for your knowledge!
Thank you for your original and through content! It's fantastic to see that your breakdown isn't falling into echo chamber for raising and growing chickens!
Thank you so much I really appreciate it! ❤️❤️❤️❤️
Great video! Can you do one on the cost of feeding a husband? I think mine eats more than the average guy!!!😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂
I'd like one for rabbits as well. Being mostly grass eaters they've gotta be a little easier to sustain. And I've been struggling to find good information on what they truly need so maybe you'd do better than me!
I'd also be interested in hearing more about these old journals you like to read.
This was a super great video, breaking down stuff like that is really fun to me.
Rabbits eat a ton but if you have an acre or so and don’t mow you could theoretically feed your family with the meat from about three or four does and 1 buck. Theoretically 😅
There's a new channel that popped up in the last year or so. West Meadow Rabbits. He is about to overhaul his whole set up and film his process.
bunny tractors moving daily works.. but you DO have to move daily or they will destroy the small footprint of the tractor.. bonus is also improves the ground and they will dig up and eat thistles.. rabbits single 2012 and chickens my whole life (to include breeding for show and specific traits
b@@bygraceonly182 be very careful about tractoring rabbits, RHVD is prevalent in a lot of areas. Basically rabbit Ebola.
Thank You for getting straight to the point. Unlike other creators that talk about their feelings and life stories for the first 15 minutes. I appreciate it. 👍
Beautiful video. It’s like you can speak the language of my brain. Loved the number calculations and visual representationns
This video is a masterpiece and an incredibly generous gift of information to us as we delve into chicken rearing on our homestead. Thank you thank you thank you! You're BRILLIANT!
Oh my gosh thank you so very much!!! 🥹❤️ I’m so glad you liked it
Good info. I have had chickens past 14 years. What I have found is its cheaper to buy food for them at Costco and our scraps than the feed stores. Plus they are healthier! Mine are living longer now that got away from feed store! They are pets so I let them live out their natural life and reward us with eggs.
What do you buy for them from Costco?
@@Boringcountrylife Some produce, but mainly give them organic rice sold in big bags. Sometimes I treat them with the frozen corn or peas. They eat it all compared to the layer feed they would hardly touch.
That’s interesting as rice is mainly nothing but carbs and even with veggies where is there protein intake coming from ?
@@SugarBeeFarm Protein is in nearly all food. It varies. They have plenty of greens too via grass and greens we feed them from our leftovers. Plus they are always searching for worms and insects to eat.
@@annsalty5615 do you cook the rice? or just give it to them raw?
you did a good breakdown but I think you missed one factor. If your compost pile is in your chicken run the grubs/wild seeds/greens are part of the feed system. Also grass hay is a cheaper solution to feed a compost pile if you have ditches you can mow. This year I want to try a couple acres as chicken grains/peas and just adding black oil sunflowers/squash
Billy Bond from Perma Pastures Farm had a series where he fed meat birds compost and scraps. Seemed to work but they did use a lot of water on those compost piles. I'd assume the water bill was negligible but would still be a cost unless you're on well water.
@@joshua511I'm well water and I live in an area where water is not really an issue 30-40 in a year...we also can collect rain water without permits...our issue is cold winters 4a
Our compost pile was in the chicken coop, but they did have about 2 fenced acres to run on. They loved the compost, we would throw in just about anything for them, and they'd scratch it up to get it. Those gals would eat pretty much anything! Frogs, lizards, bugs, mice, anything was fair game.
The best meat for chicken is .... drumroll... earthworms. Canadian and French research have dialed it down to 1 to 2 per day of adult red wiggler. Saves you from fishing and hunting. You can still give the leftovers. But storing meat isa challenge. Keeping a tub of worms is easier
Loved so much the breakdown.
Red wrigglers i know as another name for composting worms or in latin eisina foetida. Not your in the soil worms, they need more dense food for that, so compost/animal manure will work. Keep it cool and damp in summer, warmish in winter and keep adding some food to it for year round chickensupplement. Or give chickens access to part of the heap and let them help themselves while speeding up the composting as well.
Amazing video. You managed to cram years and years of research into information that's covered in a 22 min video. Outstanding.
Very well done. The research you have done is an Olympic event.
Thank you so much for putting in the time to gather, sort, and present this information. I love the POV that a feed store source may not be available.
Wow! Fantastic video filled with great information that helps others make smart choices! I’m debating starting to raise chickens in my back yard (~1/4 acre), to begin learning the ins and outs before moving to a more rural property with more space. I’ve been studying about restoring my soil’s ecosystem and wondering how far I can stretch those concepts to maximize the amount of food I can grow and raise on my own property and reduce my dependence on the grocery store. Thanks for putting all this together - definitely saving it as a handy reference!
This is SPECTACULAR. I’ll be downloading it, but I’m also immensely grateful for the ability to screenshot so many of your slides! (And thanks for the reminder partway in!) FABULOUS!!!❤
I had no interest in raising chickens or homesteading (I’m in the uk, and land is prohibitively expensive for me) but i am rewilding my garden which is probably why you’ve arrived on my feed.
NOW I feel I’ve got all the knowledge I need to keep my nonexistent chickens fed and happy and can’t wait to get a few acres!
WOW ! This is, by far the most informative video that I have EVER experienced since I've been watching RUclips. I grew up with computers since the early '80s. I'm 72 years young, and I must say, there's more useable info in this video than I have ever seen in one place.
May I suggest that you develope this info into a book format and publish it....
And yes, to answer your question, I would LOVE, LOVE, LOVE to see what you come up with on your video concerning raising Rabbits! I raised them in the 90's while living in Arkansas. Military transferred me to Oklahoma, so I sold out and moved..... ( it really helped that there was a rabbit processor close by )
Thank you so very much for developing and sharing.
Looking forward to the rabbit video....
I was talking to my mom the other day about the egg layers she use to raise. I was shocked to hear that during the summer, she NEVER fed her chickens from bagged feed. They were free ranged and could pick through their compost pile for scraps, worms, and maggots and that was it. She never noticed a decrease in egg production. It also helped that she lived out in the countryside with little traffic and very few neighbors on the lane. When they got a rooster, they had almost no predation. They lost only one or two chicks through the summer to hawks. There were plenty of shrubs and thickets that they could hide in and the rooster fought off most predators. Egg eating snakes were almost always killed by the rooster and then eaten by the flock.
Wow very thorough video. Thank you for going thru all this. I've only got an acre so I can't grow all my 17 chickens food but I can make a dent in it.
If 0.1 acres will feed 10 chicken, I think 0.2 acres can feed 20 chicken....
@@doinacampean9132it really sounds like so much food to grow, but when she said it’s only a 1/10th of an acre to feed 10 chickens, it sounded so much more manageable 😅
Wow, great info. We just got enough land to do this, excited to grow our own feed.
We will also be farming worms, meal worms and crickets to feed them. Fortunately we have a pond and we need to reduce the catfish population
Snails are easy and chickens love so varieties of them.
@@TheRainHarvester I sent you another question. Do share with us please more about snail farming, please.
@@rwind656 oh i answered on my channel.
There is so much information packed into this video! Thank you for taking the time to put this together!!
ABSOLUTELY FANTASTIC VIDEO! I know it took a long time and work to create it, so I think I speak for all when I say, THANK YOU SO MUCH!
When you say "seed saving," are you including keeping your own seeds from the crops you grow from the seeds you purchase?
The engineer in me absolutely loves the organized and analytical approach you take here! When I started my own yuppie / suburban homesteading poultry project I built a spreadsheet and meticulously tracked every expense right down to the hardware to build the coop, then tracked every egg and amortized the cost so I could see the price per egg drop from a start of ~$200/dozen (gulp) down to pennies after a couple years. I've since gone back to buying most of their feed as the cost per month is less than half an hour of what I make at my current job, but this kind of content really inspires me and makes me look forward to 'retirement' where I can get back to focusing on these kinds of details.
9:58 if you can sustainably raise snails, freshwater prawn, & tiny tiny fish, could they also be used as feed?
8:35 What about amaranth? Is that a good choice?
This video was BADASS. More info than I have ever seen on one farming subject. Well done, my sister. WELL DONE. :) LOVE and LIGHT
I don't think I have ever come across a more densely packed video full of useful information on any subject before... I just watched an migardener video on alfalfa pellets as fertilizer that simply made me angry for its blah... blah... blahing. And realized why I had cancx my sub. So thank you for your efforts! You are an excellent youtuber!
Wow, thank you! I put a lot of time into this so I am really happy it was helpful ❤️❤️
I am with you- its so hard for me to get through any video on just about any topic when that is part of it.
@@tlcetc4506 Where's your Bam Bam, Pebbles?
Good job!
Haven’t even finished the video and this is the most informational straight-to-the-point video I’ve seen on RUclips. THANK YOU! We dont have time to sit through fluff. Keep doing what you’re doing!
Thanks for all those calculations. This is by far the most comprehensive video out there!!
Hello Sarah, first my admiration for your comprehensive and educational video. It's a truly gem in this site to find such a well done material.
But, and I tell this based in my farming experience during more than 35 years, your calculation as for quantities of grains and crops it works only in an utopian world, where every grain sprouts, grows and produce with no problems along the way, where you have not plagues, no droughts, no losses. I say this just to warn all that people new in this farming world who can think everything it is so easy.
But once again, wonderful video. Greetings from Uruguay
This was AMAZING. Your labor over doing the calculations alone is commendable. Also fascinating that there’s no smoke and mirrors around chickens’ diets but humans seem to be tricky. Thank you for this
This is a very high quality and informative video. I’m new to caring for chickens. Thank you very much.
Omg best video I’ve found all year thank you so much for taking the time and effort for going through all of this. God bless you
My younger years I worked growing field crops and feeding bovine, the facts you mention are astonishing to most people.. Just turned my chickens out onto a small pasture to eat bugs, slugs and green vegetation to reduce feed costs. Joe Salaini has great ideas of raising poultry on pasture and many homesteads use his model.. Apartment dwellers have a hard time understanding growing and storing 52 weeks of food past the convenience of a local store.
Just bought 7 acres in a rural Easter Coast area and I've wanted to have chickens but was pretty intimidated getting started because I want to do well by then birdies.
This video was my cup of tea and full of brainy but accessible information. Thank you so much for taking the time to make it!
BTW, this is the first video of yours that I have watched. It really struck me how "professional" your voice and your delivery is. VERY clear and precise. For what it's worth.
I’m surprised this doesn’t have several million views, well done video super high-quality, super informative.
The most comprehensive video on this subject I have ever watched, and I've watched a lot. Thanks for all your hard work, and caring enough to break it down for us newbies.
What an amazing labor of love!!! I’ve never tipped a RUclips video producer-but I’m delighted to do so for this one!
I am so flattered and grateful, THANK YOU!!! ♥️♥️♥️♥️♥️
I raised chickens 20 years ago. Now living in Japan, I'm looking forward to raising them again!
This was INCREDIBLY well done and extremely helpful! As a long time gardener, i found all your calculations more helpful than other videos i have watched on chickens and raising feed. I have yet to plunge into laying hens but your video has provided a structured plan and s way to make this almost free in the long run.
This is a top notch video introducing to us the ability to grow our own chicken feed! Thank you! This is the kind of video I needed to see. My friend saw it and shared it with me. I just shared it with my mom. We share the responsibility of raising and caring for chickens and ducks on our property. If we can manage to get a garden going we will be much better off feeding our flock. We've struggled badly with our health lately and this may help us maintain our flock better financially.
I cannot imagine a more comprehensive video on this topic. Just straight to the point. Thanks!
Never knew the complexity of feeding chickens would be huge! Great video explanation 🎉