Cut Chicken Feed Costs 100% - 20 Creative Ways

hey I'm Justin Rhodes I've taught thousands of people to grow their own food in a more sustainable way especially with chickens not just growing chickens for eggs and for delicious meat but also using them in the garden preparing your garden fertilizing your guard killing it and then harvesting it spreading mulch all kinds of cool stuff I'm going to give you a free chapter from my movie from my course permaculture chickens it's there's been a lot of talk lately on my channel and a lot of excitement about creative ways to feed tickets I think this this I don't remember off the top of my head is whether there was 19 or 20 different creative ways basically so many different ways that you could feed chickens without commercial greens your chicken feet especially if you're doing it will with non-gmo organic is going to be some of the most expensive stuff but we've only had green four chickens in the last hundred years but they have been with us for at least ten thousands of years so enjoy this chapter if you are interested in more of that more on how to raise chickens I would I would suggest checking out my free online class on how to raise chickens the permaculture way to make it easier for you but give you more abundance at the same time check that out in the description a free video class includes three videos on various subjects related to chickens my interests in creative feed started several years ago and my wife and I switched from GMO to organic as you can imagine that was much more expensive actually it tripled in our price but a really cool thing happened when we made that plunge I also made about it find more creative feeds for the chickens and see if I couldn't cut my cost it was going to be impossible to raise our own birds and meanwhile as well buy them and store our expense was more than if we would have bought this equivalent in a store at the farmers market so first thing I started to do was move the chickens every day they were already on pasture and I was only moving on once a week but I got to where I could move them every day and about in less than 10 minutes I began to ration their feed so I began to every week measure how much I was giving them and I began to cut it back and with moving them every day I cut their feed consumption their grain consumption down to a tenth of a pound from one third of a pound a tenth at that point actually because I was moving them everyday and rationing their feed I was actually paying less for migraines even though I was spending three times as much on grain because they were eating so much less grain then we went to a free-range system the next year where I just let them go wherever they want to eat whatever they want and of course that cost nothing I compared two flocks I raised one flock with access to grain I raised another flock where they had to find everything themselves and when it came to Tring time now mind you these were heritage breed stock Australorp they're Hardy a founder of food when I came to 16 weeks that the flock vet was free-ranging actually weighed out a little bit more and had a little bit more fat I was just absolutely shot and it came to about 67 cents a pound for organic meat but not everybody can free-range it can kind of annoying you get poop everywhere you're not directing their work of work efforts so ultimately I came to the compost system that I talked about in the working chapter where I developed a system where in the just a chicken run you can feed your chickens 100% on compost it's just so so much biota there and then every week you get a yard of cubic yard of compost so only you cut your feed costs to nothing you get $80 worth of compost every week so from there I found out more ways more creative ways to feed your chickens and it can be so easy I've come up with 20 ways one is soil building plants like comfrey and stinging nettle you can order comfrey online you can plant it in fertile holes give them three square foot each harvested eight times a year cut it down to about two inches feed it directly to your chickens if if you have more than enough for your chicken put it in your compost pile it's a great source of nitrogen it's it's got vitamin b12 in it it's the only plant with that it's got a protein properties in that green plant the other one the stinging nettle you can harvest it in the wild or you can actually play stinging nettle the second creative feed is going to start getting real interesting here so this is animal carcasses this is classic turn a problem into solution you got a consistent predator that you just can't shake trap him or shoot him and feed him to your chickens remember they're omnivores you there's two ways to feed them to your chickens one is you cut them open so that the chickens cannot get the access to the insides cut them open for them to the chickens sounds gross they love it don't leave it in there too long just leave it there a couple more couple days if you want to be more efficient go to the maggot bucket it's just to suspend a bucket in the air which it's a little wooden tripod drill drill 3/8 inch holes in it put your carcass in there hey you could do fresh roadkill this way put your carcass in there or your mouth any of that kind of stuff put it in there the Flies will come through the holes they'll lay there there lay their eggs you'll have maggots that come and crawl out of the hole and fall the chickens and they'll eat and that's actually a more efficient way than if you were to just cut out and feed it to your chickens the maggots will consume more of the meat and the chickens will eat those maggots and will turn into eggs and chicken meat the third thing you could do is catch mice I catch I left my feet out one day I soaked it I had water above it I I usually kept it in a mouse proof thin but one night I left it out the mice the mouse actually crawled in there drowned and when I came the next day I said oh man I forgot to put this away but then I saw the mouse in there I'm like oh wait a minute she can eat mice so I just poured it into their trough with their feet and it was gone by the end of the day fourth thing you can do is cover crop if you're building your soil through cover crops why not when that cover crop is done and you're ready to fill it in why not put your chickens in there and let them till it they eat the cover crop they till it in nicely for you and then you go behind the chickens and plant whatever crop you were wanting to plant in there the fifth thing is weeds if that's such a thing I mean weeds can be so useful especially in chickens we have a plethora of dandelion stinging nettle lambsquarters clover yellow doc you can actually go and harvest those things or nowadays you can even plant those feet chickens from the garden there's so many ways to see them from that trimmings oh you know browning leaves things like that trim them off carry em do your chicken leftover crops maybe more than you need put your chickens over it after you're done or cut it up or uproot it take it to your chickens potatoes are a great source of food for your chickens don't need a feed up to them raw but cook them for them I take potatoes and cook them over our wood stove we're warming our house while our wood stove why not cook something at the same time winter squash it saves really well even at room temperature grow some winter squash put it away feed it out to your chickens cut it open they love the seeds they love the flesh another thing to do is feed wild seeds a lot of those can meet their grain needs like blackberries are in season right now but then you can feed autumn berries and June berries and wine berries then there's forage or grain crops go ahead and plant some crops just for foraging or even grain for your chickens dent corn sunflower Sargam amorous buckwheat alfalfa clover I planted myself buckwheat alfalfa and clover and amaranth and that's just a few there are many that you can plant for them number nine nut trees so prevalent in the fall especially around here with acorns just go out and harvest your acorns bring them in wrap them in some genes or hard material crush them up with a hammer or you could put them through a grinder if you have that and feed them back to your chickens a great source of protein and fat just from the wild creative way I've identified we're halfway through I'm going to tell you about 20 but number number ten is fruit trees go ahead and plant fruit trees for yourself but you're going to have so much excess you can feed it to your chickens I've planted pawpaw and persimmon you can plant mole we're planted apple trees peach trees you name it if you can eat it the chickens are going to eat it two ways of feeding that to them you can actually run your chickens through there after the fruit has fallen and they can get it and they sanitize the orchard or you can harvest the fruit and take it to them if it's a harder fruit you can cook it over the stove and haul it to them or just feed it to them as is another against the rot they begin to eat it number 11 is garden pests turn a problem into solution harvest harvest your bugs off the garden they're taking down the plants go ahead and get you a bucket of shallow water go around and knock the beetles down into that water they can't fly off with water on them and pitch that to them water at all and they love it it actually be the first thing they pick out out of the pot if you give them a variety of things of greens and grains and and bugs they're going to go for the bugs first another cool way to see them is through a pond grow fish in that pond for you and if you eat that fish and your leftovers from processing that fish give it to them also harvest fish just for them you can also grow duck weed it takes over but great it's a great source of protein you can harvest that duck weed it reproduces itself you throw the duck weed on the bank duck weed and let it dry out becomes 40 percent protein 13 is soldier flies soldier flies are amazing sort it's like getting protein out of thin air you get a specialized bin fill it with vegetable and rotting material the soldier fly looks like a wasp but it's black it's alive as an adult for just a few days but all it's looking to do is mate and lay eggs it doesn't even have a mouth it doesn't need meat there in that period it finds a place where there's rotting vegetables it lays eggs they hatch it grows into a grub eating the food the grub wants to then get out of the vegetable so with this bin there's a way for it to crawl up and out and we set a bucket next to it through the chute in the butt the grub falls down through the chute into the bucket and you just come in and you harvest that on a regular basis you add material you wet it down and you come in and you harvest your soldier grubs throw it to the chickens they absolutely love it if you're going to feed your chickens grains why not get whole grains and sprout them why because it can increase the protein digestibility up to 30% I'll talk more about that in the winter chapter also compost I've had my chickens 100% on compost they there's so much biota in the compost that the chickens can thrive on that I talk more about that in a working chapter then there's Burma composting which is putting worms on rotting manure or newspaper or cardboard why not turn that into rich varmint composting soil and then feed your chickens those worms and if you don't take all your worms out and feed them all at once to the chicken you leave enough in there they'll continue to reproduce themselves they'll be completely self-sustaining you just harvest the worms soil and all before it's completely into vermicompost thing so I'm just throw it to your chickens and since your chickens are on a garden bed or a future garden bed or on on a pasture just what they don't they won't eat the soil so the soil will be left it'll be great fertilizer and you can feed food scraps they say that 16 percent of our food waste is in our food scraps so save 16 percent on your trash bill and get a bucket or a pail depending on the size of your operation put your food scraps in there feed it to your chickens they can eat up to 1/3 pound of food a day so that could significantly cut your food bill and you turn all your chicken wet your kitchen waste into eggs and great chicken meat number 18 on the list would be grass 20% of their diet can be on grass you can do that in one of many ways you can cut and chop grass to them you could collect grass clippings from mowing or you could put them directly on the grass and move them around in paddocks you can also feed them especially there in the winter hey you'll be surprised at how much chicken all eat up hey especially during the winter if you're on a farm think about feme them other farm products I have a family cow so I have a lot of extra milk when we're in milk season I milk our cow we eat a lot of it I'll set some aside confirm it for the chickens I'll just leave it out for 24 hours that makes it even better feed it directly to them and a feed feed bowl or mix it into their grain you can also feed them slaughter from other animals what about the beef if you don't eat the tongue or the heart or the offal if you're not eating that stuff feed it to the chickens cook it or feed it to them roll or put it in the maggot bucket can also feed them bones as for the bones when you when you take your meat to slaughter there's always some meat left on the bones and if you don't use those bones for broth I hope you do but if you don't make broth for the chickens and then mix it into their feed or put it to them in a ball and they'll drink it you can also feed chickens their own eggs it may sound crazy but you'll have a time where chickens are giving you way more eggs than you can use you can crack them open and put them in with your kitchen scraps or you can go ahead and scramble them if you want to spoil and give it to your chickens that way you can also feed your chickens your own feathers from their own butchering if they need it at the title of protein there's some things in there that they might need throw them some of the feathers and if they need it though even if they won't it'll come post right where it is last but not least is fermenting I know it's not a alternative source to grain but it is greatly improved proving on it if you're going to film grain why not firm in it it boosts their health and it helps them digest it so it's going to go further and it's so easy to do all you do is take a bucket or a bowl and you put a couple days worth of food into it then you cover it with water at least two inches the water doesn't let the oxygen in and it allows the food underneath to ferment leave it for a day you've already broken down the Inchon nutrients and it's already easier for the chickens to digest leave it for two to three days and it's firm go in there on that third day and scoop the daily ration out and get a two chickens and then just go in every day as you go and just replace what you've taken out with new product and the fermenting process continues on and on indefinitely it should smell sour not moldy if you begin if you begin to smell mold just throw it out fermenting process should be sour if it gets moldy that just means too much air has gotten to it and you need to throw it out and start over I hope you enjoyed that if you guys want more of that info on how to raise chickens the permaculture way where less input more output hey you see the trick if you want more of that I've got a free class be sure to sign up for that it's three videos I think it titles like 40 minutes sign up for it link in the description

Channel: Justin Rhodes

Views: 369,166

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Id: gtp58gjrw8I

Length: 16min 21sec (981 seconds)

Published: Thu Jun 15 2017