Golden Harvest Organics
Companion Planting--The Natural Way to Gardening
Rodale's Organic Gardening
Ed Hume Seeds
No Dig Vegetable Garden
MSU Problem Solvers-Companion Planting
Wednesday, April 29, 2009
Tuesday, April 7, 2009
Pastured Chicken
As noted, (Check out these chicks!)we bought Rock Cornish cross chicks for the freezer a couple of weeks ago. It has been four years since we bought chicks, but I think that this will become a new annual tradition for us. We are going to need another freezer, but each spring we can raise enough meat birds to get us through one year.
I have found that the price of chick starter/grower feed has gone up at least 50% and even 100% since four years ago. Right now that seems like our only option. What we are using is Purina non-medicated chick starter/grower and paid $18 for a 40 pound bag at one place, but have since found another place that charges $13. I have not done the math since the chicks are not yet ready to butcher, but considering how much these birds eat, it seems like I am going to need to look for another way to feed them. Ideally, I should have a portable brooder that I can move daily onto fresh green grass. This would be the healthiest option for the birds and also for us. They will still need more according to what information I have found so far. Here is a website on chicken feed which looks like it has some good information, but I have not yet had the time to read it thoroughly.
It will be easy to graze the goslings as the adult geese should protect them, but the chicks will need some more protection. That is where the portable chicken tractor will come in...I will think about electric fencing too, but that will not address our main concern around here which is winged predators.
I have found that the price of chick starter/grower feed has gone up at least 50% and even 100% since four years ago. Right now that seems like our only option. What we are using is Purina non-medicated chick starter/grower and paid $18 for a 40 pound bag at one place, but have since found another place that charges $13. I have not done the math since the chicks are not yet ready to butcher, but considering how much these birds eat, it seems like I am going to need to look for another way to feed them. Ideally, I should have a portable brooder that I can move daily onto fresh green grass. This would be the healthiest option for the birds and also for us. They will still need more according to what information I have found so far. Here is a website on chicken feed which looks like it has some good information, but I have not yet had the time to read it thoroughly.
It will be easy to graze the goslings as the adult geese should protect them, but the chicks will need some more protection. That is where the portable chicken tractor will come in...I will think about electric fencing too, but that will not address our main concern around here which is winged predators.
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