Well, it's 7F outside, the snow is blowing EVERYWHERE. Since I was going to the store this a.m. for milk, I decided to raid the bulk section and give this recipe a try. I tried to find ingredients that are higher in protein and organic when it was available. I spent about $5, so not too bad. When my kids walked in after school, they exclaimed, "It smells like cookies!" and were quite disappointed to find out that the cookies were actually for the chickens.... These were a bit crumbly when straight out of the oven, but firmed up as they cooled. Not cement-like, so that's a good thing. The chickens loved them.
Here's my adaptation:
Home-made Chicken Muffins
3 cups scratch (mine consists of: 1½ c BOSS, 1 c red and white millet, ¼ cup Cracked Corn and ¼ cup Safflower)
½ cup Winter Wheat Berries
½ cup Ground Flax Seed
1 cup Blanched Peanuts, coarsely chopped
1 cup Raw Pumpkin Seeds
½ cup Wheat Germ
½ cup Oatmeal
½ cup Raisins
4 Eggs
3 Tablespoons real Maple Syrup
Lard or Shortening
Preheat oven to 300F. In a large bowl, combine all dry ingredients and toss by hand. In a smaller bowl, beat eggs. Stir beaten eggs into the seed mixture and add syrup. Lastly, add raisins and stir mixture gently until all is evenly combined. Generously grease a muffin tin (I used a regular tin and a mini-muffin tin) with lard or shortening. Using an ice cream scoop, fill the muffin cups to level and tamp down with the back of a spoon until firm. Bake for 1½ hours. Let cool and remove from muffin tins. Store a few on the counter for the coming days and put the rest in the freezer in a tupperware.
And for ultasol, I feed my chooks home-made lard suet when it's cold outside. It gives them a little bit of protein and some extra calories from the fat, and keeps things greased up nicely. They go CRAZY for it. I don't bother with a suet feeder and just give it to them on a plate. But I suppose you could use a feeder... I just don't have one. Anyways, that rendered fat can be stored in the freezer. I use lard year-round for my own cooking. Yum!
Here is my recipe for home-made lard suet:
Wintertime Suet
3 c rendered lard, I prefer pork, but beef works too
1 c peanut butter
2 c misc. scratch grains (mine are BOSS, corn, millet, safflower)
1 c dried fruit like raisins, cranberries, chopped apricots, whatever
Soften lard until stir-able, but not liquid. Mix with peanut butter, scratch and dried fruit. Pack mixture into a cake tin (or ice cube trays if you have multiple available). Put in freezer (or just on the porch if youre in the Midwest like me...) until solid. Let it thaw SLIGHTLY until it can be removed from the pan and sliced (no need to slice if ice-cube size). Transfer slices to a Tupperware or ziplock baggie and store in the freezer. Thaw a slice on the counter before feeding to the chooks. You could probably feed it frozen, but that seems un-fun to me. Mine eat it quickly, so I dont even bother with a wire suet feeder I just put it on a plate and let them have it. They get one or two slices a week while its cold outside. BTW, my ding dong laborador thinks this is the bees knees. I guess she thinks that the chooks are getting special treatment and doesnt want to be left out.
eta a photo
Here's my adaptation:
Home-made Chicken Muffins
3 cups scratch (mine consists of: 1½ c BOSS, 1 c red and white millet, ¼ cup Cracked Corn and ¼ cup Safflower)
½ cup Winter Wheat Berries
½ cup Ground Flax Seed
1 cup Blanched Peanuts, coarsely chopped
1 cup Raw Pumpkin Seeds
½ cup Wheat Germ
½ cup Oatmeal
½ cup Raisins
4 Eggs
3 Tablespoons real Maple Syrup
Lard or Shortening
Preheat oven to 300F. In a large bowl, combine all dry ingredients and toss by hand. In a smaller bowl, beat eggs. Stir beaten eggs into the seed mixture and add syrup. Lastly, add raisins and stir mixture gently until all is evenly combined. Generously grease a muffin tin (I used a regular tin and a mini-muffin tin) with lard or shortening. Using an ice cream scoop, fill the muffin cups to level and tamp down with the back of a spoon until firm. Bake for 1½ hours. Let cool and remove from muffin tins. Store a few on the counter for the coming days and put the rest in the freezer in a tupperware.
And for ultasol, I feed my chooks home-made lard suet when it's cold outside. It gives them a little bit of protein and some extra calories from the fat, and keeps things greased up nicely. They go CRAZY for it. I don't bother with a suet feeder and just give it to them on a plate. But I suppose you could use a feeder... I just don't have one. Anyways, that rendered fat can be stored in the freezer. I use lard year-round for my own cooking. Yum!
Here is my recipe for home-made lard suet:
Wintertime Suet
3 c rendered lard, I prefer pork, but beef works too
1 c peanut butter
2 c misc. scratch grains (mine are BOSS, corn, millet, safflower)
1 c dried fruit like raisins, cranberries, chopped apricots, whatever
Soften lard until stir-able, but not liquid. Mix with peanut butter, scratch and dried fruit. Pack mixture into a cake tin (or ice cube trays if you have multiple available). Put in freezer (or just on the porch if youre in the Midwest like me...) until solid. Let it thaw SLIGHTLY until it can be removed from the pan and sliced (no need to slice if ice-cube size). Transfer slices to a Tupperware or ziplock baggie and store in the freezer. Thaw a slice on the counter before feeding to the chooks. You could probably feed it frozen, but that seems un-fun to me. Mine eat it quickly, so I dont even bother with a wire suet feeder I just put it on a plate and let them have it. They get one or two slices a week while its cold outside. BTW, my ding dong laborador thinks this is the bees knees. I guess she thinks that the chooks are getting special treatment and doesnt want to be left out.
eta a photo
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