the daydream fund challenge thread

COOLTRIKERCHICK

well we are all clear here near swansea....:rotfl:

re- food bills, we have our local animal feed supply deliver every friday.. we have a standing order of

2 sacks of mixed corn
1 sack of layers, which we have now changed to growers, as its higher in protein for the cold winter

3 x6 trays of giant dog food
1 tray of crickets/locusts

and this comes to approx £43 per week..


but somewhere along the line ( in theory) W should have the odd week where we will not need a delivery)

my chickens and ducks flipping waste loads, but i just done know how to stop the wastage, we try to amke sure they have access to food all the time, as now the ground where they are has no grass what so ever...

maybe one day they can have a huge field to cluck around in....

alfie_1

COOLTRIKERCHICK wrote: »

well we are all clear here near swansea....:rotfl:

re- food bills, we have our local animal feed supply deliver every friday.. we have a standing order of

2 sacks of mixed corn
1 sack of layers, which we have now changed to growers, as its higher in protein for the cold winter

3 x6 trays of giant dog food
1 tray of crickets/locusts

and this comes to approx £43 per week..


but somewhere along the line ( in theory) W should have the odd week where we will not need a delivery)

my chickens and ducks flipping waste loads, but i just done know how to stop the wastage, we try to amke sure they have access to food all the time, as now the ground where they are has no grass what so ever...

maybe one day they can have a huge field to cluck around in....

they wont starve if you feed them just once with the amount they WILL eat and then give them a handfull to go to bed with. i wouldnt leave more out. they soon get used to that amount and then dont waste it ? good luck

lostinrates

alfie_1 wrote: »

trouble is they all have different in the winter...[summer just grazing mainly] corn and layers pellets [ha ha] for 4 weeks. sheep mix for 3 weeks,minis..mix and speedi B, TB;speedi beet, condition cubes, barley rings,plus mix, joint juice,. 3 weeks. ruby similar plus hay 3 weeks, doves, 4 weeks, geese,4weeks. pot pigs mix 3 weeks, MABEL sow rolls 3 weeks, dogs 4 weeks, cats 4weeks, wild birds 4 weeks !!! oh plus aviary birds.....
see what i mean , if i drank id have a whisky. :eek:

One of the few things that's useful to me is the academic study I id as an undergrad on animal nutrition. I save a lot of messing about and money by sitting down every now and then and reading nutrition info and working out a properly balanced diet. A lot of it is in the holes left by my broken brain and it gives me a headache when I do it, but it means I get it right. One of our olds is a ''paying guest'' and it has been noted how much better it looks, simple adjustment to diet from its previous retirement livery place...their grass was as good as ours. I could do with a few more paying guests now.

Do you find speedi beet useful? I've used it a few times in the dead of winter but find it really expensive for what it is for my lot (we use grass pellets and old fashioned sugar beet with evil molasses in it). I find it easier to make up 24 hours in advance than I do to mess about waiting for 10-20 minutes when the horses are waiting (they KNOW when their food is coming) especially for the olds who eat a few times a day (by far the most MSE way to feed older/hardworking horses if you live on site).

I have often thought of marketing a feed scoop the size of the average horse stomach. A lot of short food is wasted by the size of meals. The frequent counter argument is that its not absorbed through the stomach, but the point is the bits absorbed higher up the gastrointestinal tract are pushed through by the bulk digested later on....


cooltrikerchick, is it the ducks that are wasteful? I don't find our chooks particularly wasteful of much apart from shell or grit...they love to throw that stuff about the place!

ATM the horses and chickens cross paths quite a lot. The chickens have learnt which horses are messy eaters and sit waiting for the treat of spilled horse food. Its obviously much nicer than their pellets!

Lotus-eater

alfie_1 wrote: »

they wont starve if you feed them just once with the amount they WILL eat and then give them a handfull to go to bed with. i wouldnt leave more out. they soon get used to that amount and then dont waste it ? good luck

That's what I do almost, mostly to stop vermin being attracted. Give alot of greenstuff, but don't overfeed on grain, pellets etc Let them eat what is there, including stuff spilt on the ground.

lostinrates

Lotus-eater wrote: »

That's what I do almost, mostly to stop vermin being attracted. Give alot of greenstuff, but don't overfeed on grain, pellets etc Let them eat what is there, including stuff spilt on the ground.

And keep ground clean. If they are spilling a lot on ground where they also poop then your risk of parasite problems increases...and its just generally icky.

I leave feed out, but don't have this same problem, but it is an area I clean daily, around the hanging feeders, just with a broom. Our feeders are in an unbedded part of their dairy so its quick and easy.

Lotus-eater

I have a home made feeder, which is very difficult to spill anything out of.
A high sided plastic tub, with a small hole drilled in the bottom and a round tent peg through it, pinning it down. It's impossible to tip over and difficult to get into, to scratch food out of.
The tub lasts for a few months, then I use another.

rhiwfield

Our hens have layers pellets in a gavanised trough that goes in a slot on the ground under the coop. Given half a chance theyd up-end it on the floor but a full brick weights it down nicely. Gets taken in nightly to reduce rat attraction. Going thru a full sack of pellets in about 6 weeks, so that works out at 6.5p an egg at current laying rate

lostinrates

Lotus-eater wrote: »

I have a home made feeder, which is very difficult to spill anything out of.
A high sided plastic tub, with a small hole drilled in the bottom and a round tent peg through it, pinning it down. It's impossible to tip over and difficult to get into, to scratch food out of.
The tub lasts for a few months, then I use another.

Thats a great idea...how much are tent pegs? I'm wondering if I could use this as an ''enrichment'' idea for outside with just a couple of handfuls of stuff.

Been outside unexpectedly. Special horse realises I've been out a lot so is waiting in all the different places she gets fed hopefully:rotfl:. The chickens are bored of huddling in the dairy so they've shuffled out, waddled under a gate and gone past the hay barn into a pretty much empty barn with dirt floor where they can dust bathe. Its huge, the size of a cow barn, as long and wide as the dutch barn and open fronted with its own little paddock. would you say my chickens are a little spoilt with a cow barn, a paddock and a dairy:rotfl::rotfl:

RAS

I know at least one other poster on this thread read stoney's blog sometimes.

Given the challenges of the snow faced by a lot of people, this thread http://stonehead.wordpress.com/2010/11/29/roping-snow-from-the-roof/#more-7897 stuck me as being more that a bit useful if the snow keeps falling. Wee'uns photos explain what is going on.

alfie_1

Lotus-eater wrote: »

I have a home made feeder, which is very difficult to spill anything out of.
A high sided plastic tub, with a small hole drilled in the bottom and a round tent peg through it, pinning it down. It's impossible to tip over and difficult to get into, to scratch food out of.
The tub lasts for a few months, then I use another.

do you top up the tub or just fill it to the top? if the latter, doesnt this atract mice/rats? im trying to picture where the chooks actually feed from.