Tips to Reduce Cost of Chicken Feed - AMA S4:E2

[@KaleidoscopeJunkie]

100% agrees with your grit comments. Grit needs more respect. Also - Every day I throw a scoop of soaked food in their pen. They still have access to dry but My over output dropped when I added the scoop of soaked. Sometimes I add ACV to the water.

[@terrim.602]

"We live the way we want to. Our lives are purposeful". I love this statement. I use something very similar to this statement all the time! You are a very smart, wise and thoughtful person. I appreciate your time and efforts to make amazing content for us! Thank you 😊

[@littlewhitedory1]

Lovin' your spirit Farmer John! TFS!

[@MrMillsy1986]

Thank you for answering the question. Great Vid.

[@WendyAchatz]

Tons of good info in this 6 min video!

[@AlpineVillage]

the other thing we do on our farm also is ferment your feed! you'll get almost double the amount of feed

[@featherweightfarm]

How do you avoid microtoxins from pasture or is it only in feed mixes?

[@ExtremePrepper]

This is a great video with really good advice. I continue to want to figure out a way to raise chickens without any bought feed. I wonder if there is some combination of letting the chickens graze on a more protein rich crop like alfalfa, combined with attracting/growing more bugs with compost. sort of a crop rotation where the chickens are moved over young alfalfa. None of the indigenous sustenance farmers around me feed their chickens, the chickens just wander around and eat scraps, and scavenge. I am not saying they are getting peak egg production, but they are getting eggs and eating meat with no input costs. Wonder if anyone has any ideas of something that could be planted for chickens to graze on that if supplemented with some bugs could lead to a no bought feed system

[@mascatrails661]

Karl Hammer over at Vermont Compost raises a sizable flock with no bought feed through letting them graze his compost piles. He is composting at a commercial scale, so this isn't exactly something easy to replicate at a home scale, but that hasn't stopped people from trying. Justin Rhodes has a video with Karl and EdibleAcres has been experimenting with chickens on compost & sprouts in a home-scale. Search youtube for "chickens on compost" and follow the rabbit hole...

[@paulmcwhorter]

@@mascatrails661 I have seen the videos on what he is doing and it is amazing. It is really a large scale operation with lots of equipment and tons of compost. Wondering if anyone has been successful with something like this more on the homestead or backyard scale. I have tried growing Black Soldier Fly grubs, but have never been able to scale production to the point of eliminating feed. The grubs have turned out to be more of a treat, than really eliminating feed requirement.

[@mascatrails661]

@@paulmcwhorter yeah, the Vermont Compost system is not accessible to most, but is certainly an amazing model that deserves to be replicated at that big scale! But check out EdibleAcres on KZbin. They've been experimenting with a homestead scale chicken operation based mostly on compost and sprouted grains that they mostly trade for.

[@ExtremePrepper]

@@roberts2514 Sounds like we are thinking along the same lines . . . not trying to commercially grow and sell chickens, but moving towards food independence, with minimal inputs. Deer, sheep and goats are really easy in lots of places. On my compound in West Texas, we can grow dorper sheep year round without supplemental feed . . . they graze, and then scraps from the garden. In Africa, I enjoy a year round growing season, very low cost labor, extermely fertile soil, and water pumped from a river. I am really going to try and make this work on that property. Right now I am focused on food bearing trees, and getting my organic raised beds going, but then up next will be a chicken project. I like your idea of food forest strategy. I am learning a lot, by the way, from John's excellent videos . . . even though I am not trying to sell things, his expertise is great as we try and become food independent.

[@neilmoffett9635]

www.history.org/Foundation/journal/Winter09/hens.cfm

[@jaypeck3905]

John, what do you do about mice and rats?

[@thisismeumbass]

So do your books show us how to store feed accurately?

[@CluelessHomesteaders]

Thanks for the tips!

[@mikemorrison281]

John, have you ever grown/fed duckweed or seaweed?

[@SunnySlopeHomestead]

Love the channel and hate to comment on the channel comment section but I need help We all share and let channels owners know what worked for you and so on. Where I need help is I’m new and reason I have a channel is for the community and comment interaction. I get views and likes but not a lot of comments on you guys and what you think or ideas. Guess it not asking for help more of support and getting in the flow of we all came here for . Thanks guys.

[@coziii.1829]

Fodder wasn’t talked about , scraps, 4 acres to roam . Bird seeds etc all help. They been eating stuff before humans started messing with them .

[@ewellacres]

I think the biggest mistake of farmers is they dont treat it like a traditional business with tight management of finances. making a tight margin industry less likely to be profitable. Even though it is a lifestyle allowing you to earn an income so you can be a farmer, rather then a farmer who also works full time at another job just to make ends meet.

[@Vean440]

See you out in the basement! :P

[@George-nx5lo]

unfortunately whole cooked chickens are less than $5 at my local Walmart.... How can you compete with sub $5 whole cooked chicken when you need $25-30 a chicken, people just wont pay it here in AR, not even close...

[@coziii.1829]

For me it equals out 30 cents per chicken a day . Plus farm raised is way better

[@imover9999]

You're paying for quality and to know where your food comes from. If you want feed lot junk that you have no clue what was in the chicken (I still eat the stuff right now, I can't hate), and the chicken didn't live a happy life in the sun, etc... Then yeah go for it, but if you want quality meat it's gonna cost a bit more and surely taste better and be more full of nutrients.

[@thisismeumbass]

Some people are selling free range eggs at $2.50 a dozen? This is only available if they cheat!