Oh, my aching wallet! The price of organic chicken feed has gone up - again. Since I changed away from Scats chicken feed last year (they now only call their feed 'GM free' rather than organic), there has been a big increase every time I buy a bag of it. The matter is - well, hardly chickenfeed!
The title of this yarn, by the way, is not intended to trivialize the suffering of people in countries suffering from real famine. It is simply an observation that we have just had our second disastrous summer season, and were it not for imports half the population would be starving. Things are bad enough - another bad summer might well be one too many.
My model for egg production in the Hollow is simple: I have half a dozen chickens because at their very lowest point (the moult) six will still produce enough eggs for the family and a few to spare. Surplus eggs go onto a little table with an honesty box on it, and the money from that buys the feed; in other words, I get free eggs. As always, I like to support organic practices when I can, but I have to be pragmatic about it because my neighbours are. If I put the price of my eggs up, they stop buying them. This is simply because they don't care much about the 'O' word - not when there's a chicken farm round the corner selling allegedly* free-range eggs very cheaply.
So, what to do? Do I tough it out and wait for the price to come down after a better harvest year - at least a 12 month wait? Or do I chuck in the organic feed in favour of the petrochemical-grown stuff? Do I perhaps start to boil up a bucket of 'mash' (basically every scrap of organic food and garden waste that doesn't run fast enough) on top of the wood burner every night, to cut the feed bill down a little?
Or do I go in for a spot of guerilla chicken farming? I can see it now...
'Right girls, this is the spot. Out you go - quickly! Go, go, go! Scrawny, you take the side border. Butch, take care of that hedge. Chicken For A Hat, you're on point. Come on, ladies, move it! Quickly, get those ornamental alliums... don't miss the geraniums, there's good calories in them... shit! There's a light on, somebody's coming... GET BACK IN THE VAN! Come on, come on, the police will be here in a minute, get in! Okay Witchypoo, floor it!'
*Oh, don't get me started.
14 comments:
The feed companies have got you hooked! We feed only about 60% of the "required" feed for layers. I'd cut down to what you are willing to pay for eggs. Spend that much per day on imported feed and give them all the kitchen scraps, garden waste, and access to pasture you have. If they produce any excess, it's profit. If you choose to increase production beyond that it is on a cost/return basis. Keep it local and simple.
Yep...!!
I am in the same boat..feed 100% organic everything also any mite/lice powder, treatments etc and follow SA rules for any medication periods if the girls have to be treated....
and the way the price of feed has rocketed I am looking at the non organic stuff and thinking about my principles vs my purse......so far have resisted BUT not sure how long I can afford to be so principled, especially as we don't sell many ( few passing neighbours and no real marke around here....)
Its a tricky one...*I* am going to follow my princioples for as long as I can, whilst investigating non GM etc free range feed just in case AND will up the home grown food stuffs as much as possible...........
Bear in mind that it is illegal in the UK to feed kitchen scraps to poultry, and Animal Health/Animal Welfare officials do read blogs.
The Regulations prohibit the feeding of meat, fish and most other products of animal origin to ruminants, pigs or poultry. They also make it an offence to allow them to have access to such material. They also prohibit any catering waste being fed, whether processed or not. This also includes catering waste from vegetarian restaurants and kitchens.
If material such as vegetables, pastry, crisps or sweets is to be fed to livestock, it should originate from premises where no meat or most other products of animal origin are handled and may not come from any kitchen or restaurant. However, there are some circumstances where, providing premises e.g. bakers, supermarkets, crisps manufacturers, confectioners (but not from kitchens and restaurants) are able to demonstrate that they have Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points (HACCP) procedures in place to ensure that there is no possibility of the material intended to be fed to livestock being contaminated by meat or most other products of animal origin, it may be acceptable for the material to originate on the same premises (but not from vegetarian catering facilities). In such cases, operators are advised to ensure that their local authority is content that their separation procedures are adequate.
That includes domestic kitchens and chickens kept as pets, to produce eggs for your family or to provide meat for your family.
Officials do check and ask questions. I've had both Animal Welfare and Animal Health officers out, and they've also gone through my paperwork to see who I've sold pigs and poultry too. Then they've visited those people.
Thank god for that - I remember the smell of my Great Uncle's mashpot very well. I'm off the hook on that one, at least!
Of course, there is nothing to stop you harvesting vegetables, trimming off the excess in an outbuilding with a hob in it, cooking up your mashpot out there, and then feeding the animals, before bringing in the remaining vegetables for yourself. It's what we do with the pigs and, so far, it's still legal...
Even with the disease scares, it seems like you're over-regulated in the UK. My mother takes home the leftovers from the hospital kitchen for her chickens (including meat) and they love it. Of course, she isn't selling the eggs, but what a difference in rules.
Wait wait wait! You're telling me that were I a UK resident that I could not peel carrots in the kitchen and then take them to my chickens?
Apparently the local constabulary has too little to do that they raid people's chicken flocks?
I thought the US was nuts ;)
Hehe - no offense!!! Maybe we're all nuts.
I remember whan the Centre for Alternative Technology had to stop keeping pigs when they were told the scraps from their veggie restaurant were not acceptable fodder. Don't start me on the free range thing either [grin] I had some friends who went into free range, organic chickens and of 4,000 chickens most were never out of their houses and the organic bit? Forget it.
Love the blog - glad to have found you :)
Sal
Over-regulated? Surely not! Why, I'd come over there and box your ears if it weren't for the paperwork. And the risk assessment. And the insurance, and the CRB checks and all that.
ah well don't shoot the messenger. the law is what it is, and its as well to be aware of it.
There are still lots of scraps you can give, just so long as they dont enter the house. eg pulling spent calabrese plants and chucking them in the henrun
Hedgie - regarding the financial dilemma - I think best thing to do is continue feeding the hens the food your feel is right, but if you cannot now get your eggs for free by selling them at the going rate, you will just have to accept getting great eggs, fed on good food, at a subsidised rate instead.
Huh? Illegal to feed kitchen scraps to chickens? What are they thinking? Can't feed them meat or fish? Are they not aware that chickens are omnivores by nature?
And this from the people who have allowed ground up cows (and worse) to be fed back to cows, herbivores--the illogical justification is breathtaking.
Boy, I thought the Canadian regs were tough, but that is beyond ridiculous.
Note that you can use acorns as a proportion of their diet - I think it is up to 15% before the tannins start to affect their laying. My chooks love the acorns as treats in winter, the only hassle is crushing them.
Excellent - tip of the week! I'll look at doing that next year, if I can defeat the Greys in hand-to-hand. Thanks a lot!
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