Cost of feeding chooks...........

[Snadger]

Thats why when I bought my retirement house I factored in (BIG garden) for keeping a few chooks.
I'll always have chooks, just maybe not as many.

If wheat has went up in price so much lately though, *Wonders why?*.......... why haven't bread prices went with it.........or have they?

Tesco's use there bread as a loss leader and to permeate the shop with the smell of fresh baked bread so I can't see there's going up in price too much.

[VirginVegGrower]

�1.35 for a loaf is extortionate! I lived in Turkey where bread is a staple at every meal and dirt cheap fresh baked three times a day! Here we pay masses for something akin to cardboard. I notice the farmer behind me is growing wheat in his fields.

[chris]

Dunno, we make our own... So much nicer than shop bought bread!

[Snadger]

Dunno, we make our own... So much nicer than shop bought bread!

Has the price of flour increased a lot lately then Chris?

[Polly Fouracre]

Organic layers pellets from our local agricultural suppliers have gone up from �11 a bag last year to �14-40p. Can't afford it, so will have to look for cheaper alternatives. As long as it doesn't contain G.M. soya or any oils extracted using Hexane, I'll buy it!!

[Anna Stox]

I am always amused by my local Countrywide store - whenever I go in there are what appear to be new chicken owners (buying all the bits of kit, feeders, waterers, runs etc) and picking up a big bag of very expensive feed from the shelf. I always feel like pointing out that if they don't mind non-organic and just ask at the till they can get a bag of their own brand feed for half the price, which they sneakily don't have in the main display! Sneaky, but also clever marketing.

I couldn't believe how much an emergency really tiny bag of feed cost from the Petsathome shop recently - over what I normally pay for a bag three times the size!

[chris]

Has the price of flour increased a lot lately then Chris?

Hehe, don't know in all honesty mate - We tend to buy big bags of flour as we use a lot of it, and we buy decent (organic) flour whenever possible so it is more expensive than normal I guess. It's not only the taste but the texture of HM bread is far nicer in my opinion.

Just the chap was asking if I wanted a bag of wheat to throw down for my chickens (he was going to give me some eggs to hatch before my wife poo pooed on the idea), saying it's not a "feed" - just something for them to scratch. I did want to ask why bother then, surely it'd fill their crops and if theres not much nutrient in it - but he's been keeping chickens for 60(?) odd years, so didn't want to question him incase it came across wrong (tact isn't a strong point of mine ) and led him to believe a "new kid on the block" knew better than him.

He's got rid of most of his flock now as the cost of them has gone up and up, he had a whole plot of chickens, leghorns, english bantamns - and black rocks. Really nice to watch when you're digging (my plot was pretty much opposite) but now he only has the leghorns. He is getting on a bit mind, at 83 he said a) he can't be bothered (in a 'few' words heh), and b) the cost has gone up, and c) if we have another winter like last he doesn't want to be farting around numerous times a day trying to get down to the plot to break the ice, etc

[chris]

I am always amused by my local Countrywide store - whenever I go in there are what appear to be new chicken owners (buying all the bits of kit, feeders, waterers, runs etc) and picking up a big bag of very expensive feed from the shelf. I always feel like pointing out that if they don't mind non-organic and just ask at the till they can get a bag of their own brand feed for half the price, which they sneakily don't have in the main display! Sneaky, but also clever marketing.

I couldn't believe how much an emergency really tiny bag of feed cost from the Petsathome shop recently - over what I normally pay for a bag three times the size!

Yup, I saw them too - the 5Kg bags? I picked one of them up - only on my way to the tills did I see the 20kg sacks for less than the cost of the 5kg bag - so bought that. Forgot I gave some pellets out that normally is my timing to buy a new bag (so I always have pretty much half a sack of seed in the garage). Won't make that mistake again!

[Flummery]

Mine are pets so cost of feed doesn't come into it. I'm lucky enough that I'm not on the bread line (though that seems to be quite high from what people are saying!). It's a lifestyle choice. Like Chris, we choose to make our own bread - I try to use Allinson's when I can get it, lovely flavour - and love to have our own girls' eggs. I can tell you (because Himself doesn't read The Grapevine) that my patchwork and quilting hobby costs me much more!

[baldrick]

Not allowed these days...EU carp an all that!!! At one time chooks could be fed on scraps alone, including meat (they are omnivores and worms are meat ain't they?) Not now though..........now they have to be fed on over the counter chook food which is getting dearer by the day!

now thats interesting. they must have tweaked the book a bit coz it states definately no meat...........

[gillian62]

Just picked up a new bag from our local breeder - another 50p extra from one I bought 3 weeks ago. He is very good with his prices, and only increases when he has to. But he used to sell 25kg bag for �8.50 a few months ago, and it's now �7 for 20kg bag.

As not all chucks are laying at present - (I have 12 but only get average of 5/6 per day) - I have been debating cutting down the flock for a while now.

The only thing is that they are so much fun. My eldest son has been chicken watching while we went away for a long weekend. He told me that he now understands how interesting the chickens are, and spent more time watching and feeding them as the days went on, and he really isn't an animal/pet person (although he loves the eggs).

[Snadger]

now thats interesting. they must have tweaked the book a bit coz it states definately no meat...........

I had an old chicken book from the late 1800's (Now sold by me on eBay for a princely sum!) that extolled the virtues of feeding them raw meat, straight from the abattoir and allowing them to pick it from the bones or minced up.

Mad cow disease and foot and mouth put paid to that though, and rightly so.

If you have ever seen a chook with a mouse or a shrew you will see how carnivorous they are.

[Snadger]

Hehe, don't know in all honesty mate - We tend to buy big bags of flour as we use a lot of it, and we buy decent (organic) flour whenever possible so it is more expensive than normal I guess. It's not only the taste but the texture of HM bread is far nicer in my opinion.

Just the chap was asking if I wanted a bag of wheat to throw down for my chickens (he was going to give me some eggs to hatch before my wife poo pooed on the idea), saying it's not a "feed" - just something for them to scratch. I did want to ask why bother then, surely it'd fill their crops and if theres not much nutrient in it - but he's been keeping chickens for 60(?) odd years, so didn't want to question him incase it came across wrong (tact isn't a strong point of mine ) and led him to believe a "new kid on the block" knew better than him.

He's got rid of most of his flock now as the cost of them has gone up and up, he had a whole plot of chickens, leghorns, english bantamns - and black rocks. Really nice to watch when you're digging (my plot was pretty much opposite) but now he only has the leghorns. He is getting on a bit mind, at 83 he said a) he can't be bothered (in a 'few' words heh), and b) the cost has gone up, and c) if we have another winter like last he doesn't want to be farting around numerous times a day trying to get down to the plot to break the ice, etc

One of my very learned allotment 'old hands' who had numerous chook books he lent me, used to feed his chooks on mixed corn only.
They always looked healthy, and layed loads of eggs. He called pellets or mash "that crap that they sweep up from the floor" and wouldn't have anything to do with it.

He did give them grit and oyster shell as a supplement though!

Mine get a handful of mixed corn as a treat on an evening to allow them to scratch for it. Scratching birds is what my Gran always called chickens!

[frias]

Re the meat. When I first got my chickens I read lots of books from the library about chook keeping. More than one said to give a pooly chook tinned cat food as a pick me up. (Not sure if my lot have had a mouse but they've had lots of frogs. My garden used to be full of them but not now.)
Last time I was in hospital I shared a room with a lady from Jersey who had kept chickens for 60 years. She only fed corn and let the chickens free range. She said she would never feed layers pellets as she thought they were full of dust and goodness knows what else. She said the chooks may not lay as much fed on corn but were much healthier and lived longer.

[VirginVegGrower]

Dunno, we make our own... So much nicer than shop bought bread!

Last time I made bread I could have used it to knock fence posts in. I can turn my hand to anything else in the kitchen, make my own pasta, etc. but bread always ends up with a crusty shell. Thinking of investing in a Panasonic.