"Feed wheat is often surplus to human requirements or low-quality wheat unsuitable for human consumption (low test weight or damaged wheat), but wheat is also grown specifically for feed purposes (Blair, 2008; Lalman et al., 2011). " https://www.feedipedia.org/node/223 'Surplus to human...
I don't think the only options are all or nothing. I certainly don't embrace ignorance, and I have little time for those who do.
I have found it useful to think about quantities in terms of 'enough', 'too little' or 'too much', using 'about' and e.g. body parts for size guides rather than the...
I'm not knocking feedipedia; I think it's a very good resource, and the sources are great if a bit dated in many cases (they are revising lots of pages). But there are other good sources of nutritional profiles for food, and feed, e.g. https://fdc.nal.usda.gov/ https://www.myfooddata.com/ (same...
interesting point. Do you keep records? Do you know how many each of your hens lay, and for how long they lay and how long they cease? And how old they each are?
so why do you present the things you are interested in in percentages to decimal points, giving such a spurious sense of precision and accuracy in what are really variable factors? The first thing anyone needs to know about mealworms is that they are what they eat. That's why dried mealworms...
again you have dealt with the issue by changing the subject from what I am talking about, LIVE mealworms, to what you want to talk about, dried mealworms. It is not a better source if it deals with a different thing!
that's a bit of a misrepresentation. The goal is at least 100 eggs per year (p.6), and the chief point of the pamphlet was that the average flock yield was depressed by a lot of poor performers (page 39 ff). That apart, on page 25 it states that "almost any hen, backed by decent breeding and...
since you fail to provide any links to such, let me for those who want to pursue it: this is a review of several
https://doi.org/10.1007/s11250-019-02033-7
I do not understand the repetition of nonsense about feeding live mealworms. Regarding fat, many of the nutrients in grain are fat soluble, so if there is no fat served with them then the nutrients are not metabolized. That's why fat is added to commercial feed in the form of veg oil...
Katie Thear?
I share 1 x 125g tin (smaller than a pack of cards) of sardines in oil, costing about 40p, between about 20 birds. The cost is negligible, and anyway I am interested in feeding my birds well, not in getting eggs out of them at minimal possible cost.
Yes. I leave piles of wood of different species and sizes dotted around the garden. They encourage and support a number of different food webs, which the chickens pick over episodically. You may even gets toads under big ones.