Chicken Feed

Since Paul had to leave for his National Guard Drill weekend today, I wasn't able to go out to the land. So instead I developed the feed recipe I'll be giving to the mill. With around 100 chickens, I'll be using enough feed to be able to order in bulk. This is what I came up with, for 500 lbs (the minimum the mill can mix).

corn	250.0
roasted soybeans	160.0
crimped oats	62.0
feed grade limestone	25.0
Thorvin kelp	2.5
Fastrack probiotic	0.5
Total	500.0

The kelp and the probiotic will probably raise some eyebrows at the mill. I had to order them myself, because no one around here uses them. The kelp is a mineral supplement, and probiotics are beneficial bacteria and yeast that help the digestive system.

I've also heard good things about Fertrell Nutri-balancer, but I was unable to find a source for it. The company's website has no indication that they accept direct orders, and none of the dealers are within a two hour drive of here. The only contact information on the website was an email address, so I sent an email asking if they do direct sales or not. This was several days ago, and I haven't heard back yet. At this point I'm just going to give up on Fertrell. I figure this will make a nice control, anyhow. If I ever manage to get some of it, I'll already have a baseline of performance on my regular feed.

I also ordered the broilers today. I should receive 75 Cornish cross chicks on May 10th. I had hoped to start them at the beginning of May, but this was the earliest date the hatchery had available. So I'll probably begin processing them in early or mid July.