My fencing bucket.
We pick up used food grade containers wherever we can, for storing chicken feed, minerals etc. Most of the time I don’t look at the labels. If we do, we are always surprised at the what the labels say. I have 55 gallon drums that held tomato paste, 7 gallon buckets that held Nacho Cheese sauce, but this one takes the cake. Organic Roasted Chicken Flavor #22028, production date: 3/13/04 expiration date: 3/13/05. What the heck is Chicken flavor? Especially 5 gallons worth. That is like one gigantic bouillon cube! This is not food. This bucket is doing a more noble job of holding my electric fence supplies.
It’s no wonder people aren’t healthy. If you are eating processed foods, you are basically eating swill. I know I’m preaching to the choir, but it is sad that this is what passes for food these days. Anything produced on an industrial level will have less than quality ingredients in it, even if it is organic.
It is just the scale of production that allows this to go on. We had a terrible time with organic processed chicken food. We started out grinding and mixing our own chicken feed, and it looked like 7 grain breakfast cereal. But we couldn’t keep up, so we thought we would buy organic feed. At first, it seemed good - chickens were eating less, but the gray appearance turned us off. Well, they were eating less, because it wasn’t palatable. Even worse, because it was processed, there isn’t any way to check on ingredients. When the chickens decided to start eating chicken instead of the chicken food - we freaked out. Cannibalism is not a pretty sight. We acted quickly, giving the hens free choice kelp and minerals that we had on hand, and we quickly mixed up some feed with leftover supplies. Within 24 hours the chickens were back to their normal selves. What we should have seen, is that a steam plant is a steam plant. Shift work and economics come into play. Maybe the guy on graveyard is tired or can’t understand English enough to bring the correct pallet to the grinder. Who cares - it’s just animal food.
The lesson we learned, if it doesn’t look good enough to eat, it probably isn’t. Even conventional grains in their whole state and then ground as needed made better chicken feed than organic grains subjected to high heat and extruded into pellet shapes. Just the same as the breakfast cereal process is explained in Nourishing Traditions, the cookbook put out by the Weston Price Foundation. More than just a cookbook, this book exposes the food industry for what it is. We try to follow the guidelines as much as possible. We already knew about cooking with cast iron, and stainless steel, and no microwave, but soaking the grains before eating has helped us immensely. The part I like best is that it proves that all the people I knew, that had followed a traditional diet of whole foods, and animal fats were right. I have been privileged to know many people that lived normal active lives well into their 90’s. The good food and an active and engaging lifestyle all add up to longer lives.
The other day a quite rotund fellow struck up a conversation with my husband in line at the local building supply store, and the guy was quite talkative. He mentioned that his parents had just moved to an assisted care facility. They needed help, and they never had eaten right. “You know, I think they ate butter and bacon everyday for breakfast!” My husband nodded nicely and asked how old they were? “Well, my dad is 96 and my mom is 95!”
Not too bad - from the description of the son, we don’t think he will make it to that age.
Mole and vole hunting.
I don’t use the dogs for herding, since the cows come when I call, but they have to have cow sense.
i have added cracked corn, scratch and oyster shell to my pelletized feed with good results. when i don’t make it look good they don’t eat as well. maybe they aren’t as stupid as some think they are..lol
i believe that i could probably do away with the pellets and just use combinations of whole-crushed grains. they sure love the huge trash bag of lettuce trimmings and mushroom stems that comes from my brothers restaurant.
peace
Can you tell me how you make your chicken feed. We raised chickens 2 years ago so we would have the fresh eggs for our family….we are going to try to start again and I would like to raise them as naturally as I can. Any info would be appreciated. Thanks a bunch.
Woody - You can’t blame them for not wanting the pellets, they are lucky you give them other good things to eat. Do you have to trade eggs for all the restaurant treats you get? Sounds like a good deal.
Kristen - We bought the whole grains and ground them with a burr mill, and then mixed the ground grains with our supplements in a cement mixer. We used a recipe from Fertrell in Pennsylvania because we use their supplements.
You might want to check with the American Pastured Poultry Producers Association (www.apppa.org) for farmers in your area - they may be able to connect you with a feed mill or a producer that would be willing to sell you small amounts. Like Woody, we offered free choice oyster shell, grit and scratch grains in addition to their mash.
Hope this helps.
When my girlfriend started her baby on food at 6 months I convinced her to go organic and make her own food, and I helped out to get her started. A couple of times she purchased organic bottled baby food, but by then baby knew full well there was better food to be had and wouldn’t eat it. Perplexed, my friend tasted the baby food, and then tossed it in the trash. BLAHHH!
Lynetta - Smart baby! We had that same experience with organic bananas. Our daughter wouldn’t touch them, it’s the same with the dogs, if they won’t eat it, we won’t either.
I do bookwork and report typing for a soil testing lab that a friend nearby owns. They also do food testing for various substances that are allowed in food. What an education. I don’t even trust organic food. Certain crops uptake pesticides more than others, so those crops are “allowed” in soils with less residue. When you are dealing with ppb there isn’t much difference on one side of the line or another.