Eggs

[muddstopper]

Well my math was not off but my fat fingers sure were. I meant to type $6.88 but for some reason I typed $8.88. If it is a simple protein issue then I will assure you soybean meal is cheaper than buying pinto beans. I would have to look and see what the protein content of whole pinto beans are and work a Pearson square but I really doubt they will be more cost effective. If they were we would not be using SBM.

Well, I dont know anything about soybeans, but I do know that they are 20% oil if that makes a difference. Also, different beans have different nutrient levels and it could be a nutrient deficency the white beans are meeting. And it could just all be BS. I have heard this before to not feed chickens a diet of soybeans or not use to many soybeans in the mix. Dont know the reasons for how any of this works.

 

[Bill G]

Well, I dont know anything about soybeans, but I do know that they are 20% oil if that makes a difference. Also, different beans have different nutrient levels and it could be a nutrient deficency the white beans are meeting. And it could just all be BS. I have heard this before to not feed chickens a diet of soybeans or not use to many soybeans in the mix. Dont know the reasons for how any of this works.

NEVER feed raw soybeans to anything. I am talking about soybean meal which is the primary protein ingredient for the vast majority of livestock feed. It is on the low end 38% protein but most runs 44% with some at 48%. protein. The final protein content depends on what you are grinding with it. The standard for corn is 8.8%

If you are grinding a 2000lb batch, 1591lbs of corn and 409lbs of bean meal with produce a final 16% protein mix. All you need to do is figure the protein content of your ingredients into a Pearson square. I looked and dried pinto beans are 24.5% so to make a 2000lb ration at 16% protein it would take 1053lbs of corn and 947lbs of dry pinto beans. I am betting you will find dried pinto beans are a HECK of a lot more than bean meal. I can check prices if you would like.

 

[sean donato]

Well, I dont know anything about soybeans, but I do know that they are 20% oil if that makes a difference. Also, different beans have different nutrient levels and it could be a nutrient deficency the white beans are meeting. And it could just all be BS. I have heard this before to not feed chickens a diet of soybeans or not use tomany soybeans in the mix. Dont know the reasons for how any of this works.

Beans need cooked otherwise they arnt good and can be harmful. Hence why they are roasted. Thought I put an article up about that the other day. The whole bulk the protein to chicken is bs. Just like with everything else once you hit a certain point you can cause more damage then then good. Thays why you typically pick a complete feed and stick with it for the bulk of the birds (or any animals) diet.

Here's the bean article.
https://sorrychicken.com/what-cant-...s (Dried or Raw),is highly toxic to chickens.

 

[muddstopper]

OH, the rabbit holes one can fall into. Started doing a little digging and found a new thread on a chicken forum, Not sure about posting a link, but it has to do with raising chickens in your back yard. It seems someone did a spread sheet back in 2018 listing all the nutrient contents in different brands of feed and comparing to feed being sold today. While protein levels seem to have remained the same, other nutrients are down by as much as 0.005%. Now that might not seem like a lot, but when feeds are milled with just the bare minimum levels and those levels are .03%-.05% to start with, losing another .005% is a big deal. It makes me wonder if feeding a bowl of pinto beans might be enough to make up for that loss of 0.005% of what appears to be necessary nutrients. I also noticed that other types of feeds such as chick starter, and flock raiser had above the .03-.05% levels of the missing nutrients. Now my simple thoughts are that instead of buying pinto beans, cooking them and supplementing into the regular feed, why not just buy a bag of the chick starter or flock raiser and mix it into the regular layer feed. I'll let BillG do the math if he is inclined to do so. See just how much per lb would need to be added to make up for the missing .005%, I have already fell to far down this rabbit hole.

On another note, I made another feeder for my chickens so I could use two different kinds of feed at the same time without mixing. My problem with the mixing is the birds would flip out all the layer pellets to get to the livestock feed. They would clean up the pellets off the ground but not what I want to see. Its only been a week but I have already noticed a slow down in my already dismal egg production. One feed type is the Nutrenia layer pellets, 18% protein and the other is the bulk milled livestock feed, 15% protein. I got one egg out of 9 hens yesterday, none the day before. I see a bowl of pinto beans in my birds future and if that doesnt help I see a pot of dumplins. Maybe 2 or 3 pots.

 

[muddstopper]

Here's the bean article.
https://sorrychicken.com/what-cant-...s (Dried or Raw),is highly toxic to chickens.

Thanks for that article. My thoughts was to buy a bag of dried beans and run them thru my grinder to mix with corn. Looks like thats not a very good ideal.

 

[muddstopper]

 

[Bill G]

OH, the rabbit holes one can fall into. Started doing a little digging and found a new thread on a chicken forum, Not sure about posting a link, but it has to do with raising chickens in your back yard. It seems someone did a spread sheet back in 2018 listing all the nutrient contents in different brands of feed and comparing to feed being sold today. While protein levels seem to have remained the same, other nutrients are down by as much as 0.005%. Now that might not seem like a lot, but when feeds are milled with just the bare minimum levels and those levels are .03%-.05% to start with, losing another .005% is a big deal. It makes me wonder if feeding a bowl of pinto beans might be enough to make up for that loss of 0.005% of what appears to be necessary nutrients. I also noticed that other types of feeds such as chick starter, and flock raiser had above the .03-.05% levels of the missing nutrients. Now my simple thoughts are that instead of buying pinto beans, cooking them and supplementing into the regular feed, why not just buy a bag of the chick starter or flock raiser and mix it into the regular layer feed. I'll let BillG do the math if he is inclined to do so. See just how much per lb would need to be added to make up for the missing .005%, I have already fell to far down this rabbit hole.

On another note, I made another feeder for my chickens so I could use two different kinds of feed at the same time without mixing. My problem with the mixing is the birds would flip out all the layer pellets to get to the livestock feed. They would clean up the pellets off the ground but not what I want to see. Its only been a week but I have already noticed a slow down in my already dismal egg production. One feed type is the Nutrenia layer pellets, 18% protein and the other is the bulk milled livestock feed, 15% protein. I got one egg out of 9 hens yesterday, none the day before. I see a bowl of pinto beans in my birds future and if that doesnt help I see a pot of dumplins. Maybe 2 or 3 pots.

What nutrient are you wanting to replace?

 

[Bill G]

OH, the rabbit holes one can fall into............................

If you really want to go down a rabbit hole look around for references to "high speed chicken feed". There are truly idiots thinking they are going to make meth from chicken feed. They think the same thing about mineral lick blocks.

https://www.ojp.gov/ncjrs/virtual-l...action-methamphetamine-chicken-feed-and-other

 

[muddstopper]

What nutrient are you wanting to replace?

If I knew that I would go get a bottle of flintstone vitamines and feed that to my chickens. I aint a scientist. I kind of thought you might be interested in jumping on the band wagon and figure out what it is that makes chickens lay more eggs.

If you really want to go down a rabbit hole look around for references to "high speed chicken feed". There are truly idiots thinking they are going to make meth from chicken feed. They think the same thing about mineral lick blocks.

Also aint interested in making meth. Dont know what meth is made from or what it contains, and am not even sure I want you to post that kind of information in public. The world is blessed with a abundance of idiots that might read what you post and try making it themselfs.

 

[muddstopper]

If I knew that I would go get a bottle of flintstone vitamines and feed that to my chickens. I aint a scientist. I kind of thought you might be interested in jumping on the band wagon and figure out what it is that makes chickens lay more eggs.

Also aint interested in making meth. Dont know what meth is made from or what it contains, and am not even sure I want you to post that kind of information in public. The world is blessed with a abundance of idiots that might read what you post and try making it themselfs.

I do know of something you can make out of chicken and livestock feed. You take a little yeast some hot water let it ferment a few days and then cook it off.

 

[Bill G]

If I knew that I would go get a bottle of flintstone vitamines and feed that to my chickens. I aint a scientist. I kind of thought you might be interested in jumping on the band wagon and figure out what it is that makes chickens lay more eggs.

Also aint interested in making meth. Dont know what meth is made from or what it contains, and am not even sure I want you to post that kind of information in public. The world is blessed with a abundance of idiots that might read what you post and try making it themselfs.

Well I have never had trouble with hens not laying eggs. I can calculate a ration but I need to know the ingredients.

As for high speed chicken feed it is a urban legend that is a joke around here

 

[sean donato]

Thanks for that article. My thoughts was to buy a bag of dried beans and run them thru my grinder to mix with corn. Looks like thats not a very good ideal.

Chickens like all animals need different levels of nutrition at different life stages.
Cook the beans then they are fine to feed. You just need to figure out what they are missing and adjust accordingly. I'm not a nutritionalist so I couldn't begin to tell you what needs added. There are labs that can test the levels and tell you what to adjust, but I'm sure that's kinda expensive For back yard chickens like we have.
Any chance of switching feeds? We only switched to the local mill cause the local farm store was double the price.

 

[Bill G]

I do know of something you can make out of chicken and livestock feed. You take a little yeast some hot water let it ferment a few days and then cook it off.

You will then have brewers distilled grains and it does make a decent feed. The alcohol plant I used to work for produced a lot. We sent many semi loads out each day. They also own the feed company my son works for at the feed research farm.

 

[sean donato]

You know Bill, my wife was saying something about fermented feed being a good over winter feed. Never gave it a thought that it would be a by product of making alcohol.

 

[Bill G]

You know Bill, my wife was saying something about fermented feed being a good over winter feed. Never gave it a thought that it would be a by product of making alcohol.

I just know that is what it is used for here but I cannot speak to any other areas. I do not know anything about making beer but I am assuming at the large beer brewery's they have a lot of mash to get rid of. I know we have (you probably too) a large amount of small micro brewers. I am not sure what they are doing with theirs.

The place I worked was not an ethanol plant or brewer. They took corn and made a multitude of food grade and industrial products from it once they removed the alcohol. Their big seller was Maltrin.

 

[esshup]

We have a local micro brewery that got a bunch of grain that was toasted a wee bit too much. They gave a bunch to a neighbor because they couldn't use it to make beer. He fed it to the birds and didn't blend it with anything else - they really slowed down laying. They picked back up after switching back to layer crumbles, but still not to the level that they were laying last winter. They will be 3 this summer I think. They are the easter egg chickens. 23 birds, 7-9 eggs/day now. On the brewers grain it was only 1-3 eggs/day.

 

[JRM]

The ol' girl put some real work into this one today

 

[Bill G]

If anyone wants to feed distillers mash from anywhere especially a beer brewer you would be money ahead to pay a feed lab to do a protein test. I looked around a bit on the web and I see some really crazy protein numbers being quoted. I am not saying they are false but I would sure want to check before calculating a ration.

 

[muddstopper]

Well, a little update on the pinto bean theory. I bought a small can of Lucks pinto beans and fed them to my chickens this morning. This evening I gathered 3 eggs. Yesterday I got one, day before, one, the day before that, none, and the day before that 2. Probably a little early to be sure, but encourageing. If I find 9 tomorrow I might start getting giddy.

 

[esshup]

Well, a little update on the pinto bean theory. I bought a small can of Lucks pinto beans and fed them to my chickens this morning. This evening I gathered 3 eggs. Yesterday I got one, day before, one, the day before that, none, and the day before that 2. Probably a little early to be sure, but encourageing. If I find 9 tomorrow I might start getting giddy.

I'm going to boil some beans/pasta tomorrow morning and feed the neighbors birds tomorrow afternoon. I will be watching their birds from Tues-Sat and I'll compare my egg "harvest" to theirs for the last week.