Chewbawkbawka
Hatching
- May 2, 2016
- 4
- 0
- 7
I happen to live in central Texas, where four different Non-GMO or organic chicken feeds are produced.
I have been studying these forums for months, and am making a go at raising Cornish Cross in moveable pens.
Since so many good people on here have given so many different and interesting things to try, I would like to pay back what I have learned by doing a controlled trial on the four feeds.
So, about the Feeds, in alphabetical order.
1. Coyote Creek Organic. This mill is close to Austin, TX and produces certified Organic feeds.
2. H & H. Their focus is Soy-Free/Non-GMO.
3. Hugelland. The difference in their feed is the essential oils. I chose the Premium simply because it was in stock at the local feed store.
4. Texas Natural Feeds. Located in Waco, TX, this feed relies heavily on peanut products as a base ingredient.
I will post pictures of the feeds so that a visual comparison can be made.
The goal of this trial is simple, to find out which feed produces the most weight of healthy chicken for the lowest price. Kinda like Miles Per Gallon; my metric is Meat Per Dollar.
I also want to do a comparison of Fermented Feeds vs straight-from-the-bag.
So, here is my set-up. I have an outdoor brooder divided into sections, one for each feed type. The floor area for each feed type is the same. The brooder bedding is 3-4 inches of concrete sand, or to be exact, 2.28 Tons. (Had no idea the old truck could carry that much...). This is to limit the birds solely to the feed (no pasture supplementation), for ease of cleaning and health, and finally, cost.
I will ferment the four feeds, give it to the chicks in the morning, at which time I will weigh each chick, This data will be put into a wonderful spreadsheet designed by one of my children, and the results will be posted on a fairly consistent basis so that you can observe along with me. At the end of the eating day, the leftovers will be returned to ferment (or back to the bag for the control). I figure that chicks with a hen probably don't eat at night, and maybe the resting without feed will remove the overgrowth health issues. Also, no rodent predation to skew the results.
The control group will be fed Hugelland Premium straight from the bag, so it can be compared to the trial with fermented feeds. Again, no outside supplementation.
Oh, by the way, there will be some Eggers. These will be Red-Sex Link/Golden Comets. They will get weighed, also.
Each week another fifty birds arrive to be divvied up.
There will be eight weeks of trials.
The trial will be for three weeks for each group.
At the end of the third week, I will have to decide which company I will use for growing the birds out.
I am saddened that I cannot provide sprouts/grass for the trial, because I want to see how much of that is taken care of by the formulated feeds. Having seen the effects of fresh grass daily and the gorging and weight gain on sprouted Black Oil Sunflower Seeds on my first little batch....
I will do my best to let the numbers speak for themselves.
By the way, the first six CX were given names, even though that may not be always a good thing: FilA, Bush's, Kung Pao, Sweet and Sour, Roasted, and Stewart.
So I hope to have something worth following, especially those that live in Texas.
The trial will start in 3-10 days, depending on chick arrival time.
The screen name came from my middle child. Pretty clever, eh?
And my other child is helping me to complete the brooding pen. It is wonderful when the whole family is involved.
Praying for customers, and lots of them!
I have been studying these forums for months, and am making a go at raising Cornish Cross in moveable pens.
Since so many good people on here have given so many different and interesting things to try, I would like to pay back what I have learned by doing a controlled trial on the four feeds.
So, about the Feeds, in alphabetical order.
1. Coyote Creek Organic. This mill is close to Austin, TX and produces certified Organic feeds.
2. H & H. Their focus is Soy-Free/Non-GMO.
3. Hugelland. The difference in their feed is the essential oils. I chose the Premium simply because it was in stock at the local feed store.
4. Texas Natural Feeds. Located in Waco, TX, this feed relies heavily on peanut products as a base ingredient.
I will post pictures of the feeds so that a visual comparison can be made.
The goal of this trial is simple, to find out which feed produces the most weight of healthy chicken for the lowest price. Kinda like Miles Per Gallon; my metric is Meat Per Dollar.
I also want to do a comparison of Fermented Feeds vs straight-from-the-bag.
So, here is my set-up. I have an outdoor brooder divided into sections, one for each feed type. The floor area for each feed type is the same. The brooder bedding is 3-4 inches of concrete sand, or to be exact, 2.28 Tons. (Had no idea the old truck could carry that much...). This is to limit the birds solely to the feed (no pasture supplementation), for ease of cleaning and health, and finally, cost.
I will ferment the four feeds, give it to the chicks in the morning, at which time I will weigh each chick, This data will be put into a wonderful spreadsheet designed by one of my children, and the results will be posted on a fairly consistent basis so that you can observe along with me. At the end of the eating day, the leftovers will be returned to ferment (or back to the bag for the control). I figure that chicks with a hen probably don't eat at night, and maybe the resting without feed will remove the overgrowth health issues. Also, no rodent predation to skew the results.
The control group will be fed Hugelland Premium straight from the bag, so it can be compared to the trial with fermented feeds. Again, no outside supplementation.
Oh, by the way, there will be some Eggers. These will be Red-Sex Link/Golden Comets. They will get weighed, also.
Each week another fifty birds arrive to be divvied up.
There will be eight weeks of trials.
The trial will be for three weeks for each group.
At the end of the third week, I will have to decide which company I will use for growing the birds out.
I am saddened that I cannot provide sprouts/grass for the trial, because I want to see how much of that is taken care of by the formulated feeds. Having seen the effects of fresh grass daily and the gorging and weight gain on sprouted Black Oil Sunflower Seeds on my first little batch....
I will do my best to let the numbers speak for themselves.
By the way, the first six CX were given names, even though that may not be always a good thing: FilA, Bush's, Kung Pao, Sweet and Sour, Roasted, and Stewart.
So I hope to have something worth following, especially those that live in Texas.
The trial will start in 3-10 days, depending on chick arrival time.
The screen name came from my middle child. Pretty clever, eh?
And my other child is helping me to complete the brooding pen. It is wonderful when the whole family is involved.
Praying for customers, and lots of them!
