NO GRAIN CHICKEN KEEPING
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- Опубликовано: 11 окт 2024
- #grainfreechickenfeed #thisOhiofarmhouse #Ohiohomesteading
Can you keep laying hens without buying feed? If you keep backyard chickens on your homestead you know that grains make up the majority of commercial chicken feed, so is it even possible to raise a flock of layers without running to the local feed supply every month? This is the question I am attempting to answer on my little homestead!
On our 1 acre homestead, our current flock of 16 hens and 2 roosters costs us around $45/month in feed. We only feed non-gmo and/or organic feeds so our costs are may be a bit higher than most, but we keep our hens not to have "cheaper" eggs, but to have our own food supply. With the recent disruptions in our supply chain, due to the pandemic, this potential threat became much more real.
This is why we think it's critical to find out if it's possible to feed our hens without store bought feed. Even though agriculture and food operations are considered "essential" industries and were not forced to close during the pandemic, they are not immune to fuel, labor or equipment shortages. What good is it to have your own flock if you can't feed them?
On this episode we begin an experiment to transition our chickens to a grain free lifestyle by incorporating compost piles in the chicken pen area. We have found a couple of examples of poultry keepers that have done this on a larger scale, or a modified process on a smaller scale, but wanted to find out if it could be done on our small homestead. The basic idea is to let the chickens eat the high protein insects, worms and vegetation to supply them with all the nutrition they needs to survive and still lay an adequate amount of eggs for our family of 4.
We know that eliminating grains, or commercial feeds, is not going to be a quick process and expect it to take several months for this transition to happen, if it is even possible. We invite you to learn along with us and to discover if this is something that may be beneficial to you and other homesteaders looking to create a more self-sustaining homestead and lifestyle.
Welcome to This Ohio Farmhouse! We are sisters, Jenna and Johanna, who moved our families to two separate farms just down the road from one another. We, along with our husbands, share a new video every Thursday about growing and preserving our own food, building projects on the farm, and living a natural and non-toxic life. We're so glad you're here! Hang out for a while!
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We must live and feed animals and ppl like our ancestors did !!
I can't eat grain, legumes and I found eating grain fed eggs was not good for me. Thanks for this.
New sub .... I'm doing starting same things ur doing.... Another thing I found was grow comfrey... Also... I'm gonna try it too...!! One more thing I'm gonna start is buy meat rabbits and put hay over their dropping... And keep it damp .. not wet... And soldier flies will lay larvae..... And u will have million meal worms... And they recycle themselves.... Non stop food.. high protein for chickens, duck, turkies, etc....I gotta be self sufficient.... Grow garden... Some veggies for animals... Plus comfrey, worms.... I'm plan on survival without feed stores.... Soon it won't be available....!!!
What will you feed the rabbits ? It’s nice to get into a complete rotational system where one thing feeds another !
Blessings
@@rnupnorthbrrrsm6123we feed our rabbits greens and hay all summer, supplement with pellets during Jan-march
This is the direction we are all headed and I thank you for showing your ideas. In the old days the chickens came out in the daytime and ate everything in the area, leaving some pretty bare yards. On homesteads that have orchards, vines, and generally more refuse, a larger flock can be fed in a coop and run system. With area to farm, peas, flint corn, sunflowers, greens and other great chicken feed can be grown yearly. Reducing the flock of two year old roasting hens each year is a good idea if you have a source of new birds. This is one reason we replace hens yearly. We always keep a few extra just in case. Do keep us posted.
Good input…thanks!
I’ve been using chicken compost systems for a year now and I’ve cut my feed bill by half it is a struggle at times to keep the pile high enough for it to keep composting and providing grubs and bugs, so I now have two piles one they work on and one resting and I rotate every couple of weeks, keep feeding the piles.
In KY, we have heavy predators too. Chickens are predators too, if you let them roam. In the 1970’s my dad kept a road island red/game hen cross and they ate no commercial feed. We had no mice or bugs.
Use some of that nearly finished compost, put it in a container and raise red worms for your birds. Lots of videos on how to do it. I used that as a way to feed my chickens and ducks. Also, if you clear an area where compost has been and turn over the soil, there will be lots of worms for the birds to eat. You can turn the soil in your runs to before you replant and find worms and till your soil at the same time. This was so successful for me that the birds would come running whenever they saw me carrying my shovel. I also raised mealworms. They are super easy ans the birds like them in all stages of life. We are getting ready to move. I will be doing these things again when we get our new home.
Best wishes on your transition to your new place. Very exciting! Love your ideas as well. Chickens LOVE worms LOL.
Great advice tks
It's been a year, and I see no updates on this project. How is it going? I'm super curious because I'd like to be able to be self sufficient with our birds....
Would love to see a follow up video on this please!
Hey! It's been a year, can we have an update video on how this is going?
Yea where is it?
If you want lots of green rotting Mass to get the good compost , to get the good bugs, plant a large patch of cover crop called SORGHUM SUDAN GRASS 👈
Diego Footer does a great RUclips video on how fast and how much this cover crop grows. For him it's a chop and drop type crop on garden beds but here it can all go to a compost pile . Really like your homestead and happy birds 😁
Sounds interesting, I will look for Diego's video. Thanks for sharing!
We get all free food from the supermarkets. They give us the expired greens 3 days a week. Greens make orange eggs !!
That’s great 👍
We dumped about 8 inches of free wood chips over our entire backyard and the chicken and duck runs. We have 4 large compost bins as well. All the garden beds are fenced off during veggie growing but the chickens and ducks have access to it all late fall and winter to dig and scratch in. We pick up over 100 leaf bags and grass from around the neighborhood. We set up 4 areas with garden fencing that the chickens and ducks can reach in an eat leafy greens, peas and beans all growing season. It is there little garden just for them. Look into growing Jerusalem Artichokes, Our chickens love to dig for the tubers and eat them. They are a perennial plant that also provides lots of material to compost in the late fall. The tubers are edible for humans as well and kinda like a potato/water chestnut taste. You can ask your egg customers to save and bring your chickens food scraps. Mine do and it's mind boggling how much they actually waste and call food scraps. My one customer actually brought me an entire 6 foot hoagie left over from a party and boy oh boy did the chickens love that. I also raise meal worms for the chickens as well as use the frass in the veggie gardens. Grow Comfrey another great plant and also a perennial to feed to your chickens. I do supplement our chickens and ducks with a 3 day fermented layer mash ever morning.
These are some great ideas! Thanks for the tips!
Grateful for your discussion. We have 16 black-laced silver Wyandottes. We feed them grain also, sprouted or soaked one quarter cup daily, plus layer crumbles. But we have 2.48 acres to mow weekly or so. We throw several large grass bags of cut weeds and grass into their run. They go through it and take out all the bugs and enjoy the greenery. A couple of days later all the green has become carbon and is ready for more grass/weeds. When it builds up too high, I move it out and start over. The mulch keeps the ground warm and moist beneath. I don't know what they find to eat under there; but in the evening their crops are huge. I'd like to get away from so much grain also. I've purchased an electronet fence and plan to put them on pasture soon.
It sounds like you have a great system going!
Check out what edible acres has done with his chickens. He is much smaller than Karl Hammer and it Definitely is attainable
I use a system were I put individual wheel barrows of manure from the goat stalls, Leave them in a row were the chicken can forage. The worms reproduce like crazy under that layer, then I flip one row over to expose the worms. I also put a feed bin under the goat hay manger and this captures the seeds that fall out and would be wasted ,this is tiny grain that I then feed to my chickens. You can also plant your own grain along your fences. I cut the tops off the grain and store it in old feed bags and use the rest as bedding for the animals. Lots of small grains like amaranth ,you can eat the leaves and save the tops with the grain for animals.
Wow! Some really unique ideas that I could actually see us incorporating. Really appreciate your input and love the fact these ideas are ones you have actually done and tested. It sounds like the solution is probably many small tactics all working together. Thank you!
I am always trying to work with things I have and jobs I have to do anyway like cleaning out the stalls. There aren't enough hours in the day to be doing things twice! I forgot to mention that I also leave some partially rotten logs in the run area and flip them over every week or so to expose extra worms for the ducks and chickens free protein!
These are great ideas. It’s a little harder in winter but I guess that’s where the homegrown grain might come in. We also keep a worm bin indoors.
Try fermented feed 2 or 3 days so nutrition is released to give more nutrients and probiotics
I visited an organic farm in Colorado. They put a big bale (3×6) of tricalate for their chickens to eat, sprinkling lay food in the bale periodically. One bale fed 50 chickens for a month or two?
I'd like to try alfalfa bale with fermented feed - 8 chickens... next season
If you had some kind of mobile coop, you could let them clean up your garden whwn it is done for the season.
Having several layers of food for chickens is a great idea. We also do several things like you're doing. compost, letting them forage (can free-range them except in winter), feeding them back their eggs and shells periodically, and we're hoping to make a soldier fly larvae bucket feeding system, too. BTW, morning glory is poisonous to chickens.
The chickens we got today are bred by humans but there are chickens that was bred by nature. They adampted to there enviroment. In Sweden we got some left. ”Landrace chickens”. They dont want your grains, They want Grass, bugs, vegatble, kitchen scraps. They are Very alert of predators. They adapted to poor farmers who didnt have so much food so the chickens had to find there own food. Look up landrace chickens, one good race are ”Öland chicken”
Super helpful! Thanks!!
We want to do grain free…. thank you for this video!
Hope youve done well with yr experiment and got a black soldier fly system going. With our green pick we put galvanised reinforcing fence panel on top of cinder blocks. The panel has been covered with small bird wire for them to walk on. They can pick the greens that grow up thru the holes but cannot scratch them up. Saves time we throw in new seed if necessary but very rarely and rest each section every 6 weeks.
I started doing something similar to this last year as well. Goal is to have a closed loop on property meat and egg system and I have a lot less property than you; 80x125. I'm growing a cover crop mix with clover, vetch, daikon, collards, a few grasses and added in black eye and pink eye peas. The cow peas produce a lot of fodder and are the goto for the birds second only to the daikon radish greens. I have sweet potato in there as well, but the birds are not as enthusiastic about those greens, which is a shame. I'm trying to produce as much fodder as possible so I have material for the compost worm, grub and BSF larva production. I have a maggot bucket, and being in Florida, black soldier flies are native here so I want to expand the larva production effort.
I'm working on a food forest as well; banana, feijoa, ever bearing mulberry, moringa, stone fruit, barbados cherry... It won't be easy, but nothing worth the time is. I have 3 bloodlines and will have a total of 9 birds for laying and reproduction after I cull for meat in a few months. I'm thinking I'll hatch out meat and layers every 4 months; still working on the numbers and plan yet. I have no problem trading my labor and effort for a forever supply of meat and eggs with little to no external cost.
Sounds like you have a great plan! It’s interesting what pests other regions have to deal with. Food forests are so cool!
Curious what breed you're using for both laying and meat.
Love his chicken runs, i only keep 6 chickens but that sure gives me a idea about makig a run for them, because i think i am thinking i will have them for awhile, meat is out the question, we even have names on them lol
One acre of arable land is a lot. If just half that is all thoroughly cleared up and ploughed, you'll easily produce 1,000 to 2,000 lb or more of any grain suited as a chicken feed base. If you're feeding 5 chickens, a single year harvest would last you a couple years in chicken feed.
Chickens require a lot of calcium & protein. When they are allowed to free range thru a farm yard, for example, they can acquire the necessary protein from picking thru dung from other farm animals or going into a treed area to scratch through the leaves for worms, grubs, etc, HOWEVER, if they are fenced with only greens to pic from where are they getting the calcium and protein they require?
We are purposefully adding materials into their fenced in area that attract a variety of bugs for this very purpose 👍
This is SUCH a great video! We are totally going to start doing this. Thanks for all the hard work you’ve put in here. New sub.
Glad you’re here! Good luck!
Is there a follow up video as to how the chickens are doing?!
following
I love your coop and wish you would do a tour or build plans of it. Great video!
Thanks! The closest we have … Building a Chicken Coop
ruclips.net/video/PtmnKecxAxw/видео.html
I'm looking into House Fly & Japanese Bug Traps to feed to chickens too. Just hang them on the coop & empty into a bowl.
What's your UPDATE?
what foodscraps don't work for chickens?
What about the Day1-Day10 chicks? Must they have grains? They can't eat veggie scraps can they?
Good thinking.
Microgreens (fodder): amaranth& Broccoli because I easily can keep the seeds going long term. Whatever comes out of the kiddie pool weekly (tadpoles, duckweed, larvae). Maggot bucket & BFL. Silage from corn stalks (store in 55 gallon sealed barrel). Acorns crushed in jeans. I plant more beans than we will ever eat on every climbing surface available to share with chickens, quail, rabbits, turkey, and sheep. Cooked eggs (baked egg shells) and kitchen scraps. Weeds, garden trimmings, dropped fruit, sunflowers, etc. Grow out tractors instead of cages (there's a cheap, simple, light pvc tractor build on utube built by kids primarily). Grow clover instead of grass. Possibilities are endless...the work involved is not. Feed them now like you're in grid down and cut your cost to zero. Find a use for everything. Grow excess to accommodate your animals without any waste. Amaranth and Broccoli can both be grown all over your yard and produce tons of seeds and will meet your poultry protein levels needed. Remember they need grit; Justin Rhodes consistently shows going to the creek to get grit for his poultry.
Great list of suggestions! Can you share more about the broccoli and amaranth? Are your chickens eating the greens or the seeds, and are you saving and replanting the seeds? Didn't think about acorns either 😊
@@ThisOhioFarmhouse I'm growing normal amaranth and Broccoli but way more than I need to make fodder all year long with the seeds. So seed saving is a huge deal but both produce a lot of seeds. Sorghum works great as well. I use compost in my fodder trays. Yes it is work, yes it is annoying to take time to do it everyday BUT we have zero food cost for multiple animals so we just get it done. Throwing in sunflower, cracked corn, beans/peas, etc gives them the "seed/grain" but it's just not the high amount most people are use to feeding them. I store silage from corn stalks for when we're short on everything else; although that is mainly for the sheep & rabbits everyone else will get into it. Remember feed them back cooked eggs and shells. People did things like this over a hundred years ago for centuries we can too! Fodder feeds chickens, quail, rabbits, turkeys, and sheep. It takes up about 30-45 minutes of my day processing 10 trays a day. 7 day rotation so I'm running 70 trays at one time. I should be running a 10 day rotation but I don't have the shelving yet. Build up...start small. Seed saving takes days but it last all year; I'm probably more ocd than needed, meaning there are easier ways but I'm cheap too. Silage usually takes a few days to cut, chop, and store. We usually have something to throw in the maggot bucket that keeps that going constantly. Dried beans and corn we run through a mill before giving to animals.
@@ThisOhioFarmhouse I rewatched your video. Great job and love the way you're thinking! I'm not sure long term that's enough though. You do you but I'd suggest... using a lightweight chicken tractor but move them daily so you don't end up with dirt instead of that beautiful grass; grow beans on their pen and your fence line; grow Broccoli and amaranth &/or sorghum as flower beds around every tree you have; maybe hang a maggot bucket in that back corner; maybe plant the fence line in that far side away from where it looks like you're actually using your backyard. Are you eating your chickens? I ask because I was shocked(?) that you're thinking of making a smaller flock.
My long term plan is to keep a flock of layers, say 6-8, just for our family egg supply. Then have a separate area where I can allow a couple of hens to "get acquainted" with a rooster and naturally go broody and raise some chicks once or twice a year. The males can become meat birds and the hens can either replace some of the layers or become dinner as well. I am trying to create a situation that will allow access to meat and eggs without being dependent of freezers. Based on your suggestions, and some other comments by viewers here, we are going to plant amaranth, sorghum and possibly wheat or barley along our run, fence lines and in a dedicated bed. We will then harvest the seeds and some leaves for feed but use the rest to give bulk to our compost pile to create additional food for the chicks to forage on. We do have a chicken tractor sitting idle as well, from raising meat birds, that could be put back into rotation as well. All the pasture seeds I planted didn't take off because the area is too shaded by our large Maple trees, so maybe I will cover the bare runs with wood chips.
This is a great idea! ❤ SE Ohio here, and just started raising chickens in the last year, so very curious to see how this works!
Good to hear from another Buckeye! You live in a beautiful part of the state. Tell us more about your flock and please subscribe so you don't miss the updates on this experiment. Thanks for watching.
@@ThisOhioFarmhouse I watched a video here where a fellow was feeding his chickens comfrey. It is high protein. One must get the kind that sprouts from roots only. I've had pretty good success from my Speckled Sussex just feeding them scraps and whole corn last winter. Out of 10 hens, I got 4-6 eggs a day(now three years old hens). I believe that one must attain chickens developed before the time of modern feeds to survive the bad times coming.
Do you have a calculation on how big the forage area has to be per chicken yet?
Ideas like this are interesting. Your containment area to keep them predator free is interesting. Is it strong enough to work against dogs? For me, most of my poultry deaths were ... 100% from dogs roaming free.
I like what you did. Just found your channel.
interesting that you mentioned trouble coming. Ohio has been in the news a lot this week for troubles.
"After making this video I have moved toward a model the utilizes compost materials inside the pen area to reduce feed costs. My pasture area was not successful because my specific area was too shaded. Personally, I think the best method would be a combination of using lots of compost combined with a "food forest" concept that uses perennial plants that proved fruits, seeds and leaves. You can search both these ideas and find lots of great examples. As for containment from dogs, the key is using a strong fence material. Stay away from flimsy plastic and stick with metal. Good luck and thanks!
You ever heard of a maggot bucket system? Good for summer, not so much in the winter however.
Yes!
9 chickens for a year if you grow your own grain you need about 4500 5000 square feet. It might be worth drawing a map of your land and kinda surveying it. I'm in a similar situation. My goal is turn my yard into food and cut out everything else
Keep some of those mulberry trees. They will produce fruit that the chickens can eat off the ground.
If you have a large, wild grass forging area that when your chickens run on it for a month is not totally grazed down that’s all you need. Ideally have something to attract insects, but a natural grass field will do that that would be their natural food things like miners, lettuce, comfrey, and different weeds attract enough bugs. I personally let my orchard grow wild the chickens. Keep the worms from investing my fruit in the tall grasses, attract insects, and feed my chickens.
Thanks buddy cheers Ricky try Growing comfrey
💃🕺💃🕺🎵🎵🎵🎵🎶🎶🐈⬛🎸😎🐓🦃
I get trimmings from my local market traders. Bread and meat that’s gone out of date from the supermarket I work for. Trimmings and bread from the local food bank. And neighbours I give eggs to give me back the shells and any kitchen scraps. Hi from Belgium 🇧🇪
That’s great!
I’m stumped at the slide. Lol. Do they slide down or is that a roof material so they can grip to walk up or down?
Haha. They walk down. It would be far more entertaining if they slid!
@@ThisOhioFarmhouse it really would. What a sight that would be though!
Is there an update video for how they’re doing with the food scraps and such?
I am looking for a lectin free diet for my chickens... no grains... if you pressure cook beans it destroys the lectins. Wheat lectins are indestructible.
I had a 96 chevy Z71 just like yours. I wish I kept it. Also, how do you like your wood furnace?
We really like it, though admittedly, a lot of work
…and black soldier fly larvae?
Geoff Lawton saw what Karl Hammer was doing and came up with a method more suitable for his contexts. Permapastures has adopted it for their context and breaks it down pretty well in this playlist: ruclips.net/p/PLaAkONMPbRRdpu49GNp-vHfOP7qb2DNDa I'm currently trying to adopt it to an even smaller context and it's working so far, albeit not pumping out the amount of compost i could with 30 chickens. Good luck! I'm interested in your results.
Cool! Thanks for the link. Finding a way for small flocks to be maintained without grain needs to be perfected to make chicken keeping sustainable. Buying bags and bags of grain is expensive and not possible in times of economic stress or other times of disaster. I am confident that the homestead community will lead the way in finding the solution and making it mainstream.
@@ThisOhioFarmhouse Ditto. That's exactly what permapastures is doing. I'm using about half the feed I used to and still have more progress to make.
Yes! I’ve seen both Geoff Lawton & Justin Rhodes tour Carl Hammers place & watched all Billy’s videos! I don’t have chickens yet, but was hoping to try the composting method in a stationary run, like Eric Sider & another guy I’ve run across. But was hoping it would still work with only a handful of chickens. I know it takes Eric longer for the compost to finish with his smaller flock. How many chickens do you have?
@@jenbear8652 Started with 12, now have 19 and looking to expand to 30. I've found my limiting factor to be stuff to fill the compost hoop with (especially in winter). I use their bedding (straw, some woodchip+poop), kitchen scraps, veg scraps from Natural Grocers and garden scraps. You might get away with fewer chickens but it might translate to more work on your end. I think Geoff Lawton recommends 20-30 chickens.
i think you need a chipper shreader!!! make everything go faster! 🙂
We actually have one but it’s a slow process! We need an upgrade!
@@ThisOhioFarmhouse I just moved back to Canton area and I totally get the “one thing at a time” mentality! I’m enjoying your videos! Nice to find you. 💕
I think you need about 150 square feet of corn and 50 square feet of alfalfa hay per bird to meet their dietary macronutrient needs. For 5 birds that's 20'x100', and probably doable for most people. I think you'd want a pelletizer to keep them from picking over the hay and not getting the full protein from it.
I don't feed my birds corn, no would I if it were free. No living thing on this planet should eat today's corn. Grains and seeds are the last things chickens will eat when given free choice. It's an opportunistic food for them, not their natural diet, which is weeds, grasses, other greens, berries, worms, grubs, bugs and any small animal they can swallow; mice, gecko's, baby snakes and so much more.
@@forced4motorsports My chickens get free access to a layer ration (probably corn and roasted soy) and free range 6 birds on 2.5 acres of mixed grass and pushes, and they they get a handful of corn tossed out to them each day. They care about the corn. They show up when I walk out the door. They will eat a little corn, then spend their days foraging, and then come back and nibble on more corn. It provides the calorie backbone of their diet. buts are few and far between, grass isn't very nutrient dense, each bird needs about 400 kcal/day and they aren't getting that from grass.
What a great idea! This is something we have done for a while now but never considered to do on such a scale that would be sufficient for them. How much of your pile did you create for how many chickens? I do wonder how winter would affect this?
Hi there! My plan is to put everything I can gather from my property into the compost pile and maybe get some woodchips from a tree service to give it mass. For winter I will try to pick up some pumpkins and squash after halloween for a low cost or free and throw those on throughout winter. Winter will be the challenge. As for the number of hens....I will watch to see how many I can support. It should be interesting!
@kschlies1995: A deep enough compost pile for them, and the chickens will be sleeping in it in winter, it'll be so warm.
How do you keep from attracting rats to your compost pile?
We don’t really have rat issues around here, though we have heard awful stories from other places in the country!
Here’s another solution; get a livestock dog and free range your chickens. Either let a large patch of weeds grow for them to forage in or plant a large enough “chicken foodplot”. You have enough land to feed a lot of chickens 100% on forage.
I free range my chickens and they barely touch feed when I give it to them.
Imitate don't innovate, the pioneers didn't make any money it was the ones that came in after and profited from the pioneers work.
I would just let the chickens free range with that amount of property! I do and only have 1.5 acres.
Except there’s nothing worse than a barefoot toddler stepping in chicken poop! It smells SO bad and requires a lot of extra work for mom!
👍
When and why did Ohio become a meme?
Recently? Probably the East Palestine, Ohio train derailment/explosion.
Horse manure with straw, cheap and lot of bugs.
not hard to grow grain less effort then compost hunting
You’d have to grow a whole lot of grain!
@spoolsandbobbins not really get about 2k lbs per acer and you don't have to hunting for food every week for them definitely if you fee roam them or chicken tractors bag if feed cost 20 bucks if it more then a hr a week to hunt for scraps for them then it's a net negative for me I make 35 dollar per hr working so I'd buy it or grow it before I did this
Stinking thinking. Youre missing the whole idea of the compost.
You can also check out YT 'EdibleAcres' He's grain free
Thanks!
He's not grain free, he still gives grains but sprouted mostly.
Flys , frogs, and chickens. Wounder if them go together. Water, frogs, chicken. Mosquitoes, feed the frog the frog feeds the chicken. Kiddie pool. Science.