The roads here were like skating rinks last night, so we ended up staying home. Freezing rain and alcohol are never a good mix. It was above zero here this a.m., about 6 above,but the wind made it feel a lot colder. When I finally went out to do chores about 8 a.m., my pen of three brown red large fowl pullets already had two eggs waiting for me. They are proving to be outstanding winter layers. I set another 50-something eggs yesterday, and will set again next week. So far fertility and hatchability has been excellent for this time of year. I wanted to share with everyone a way to save money on breeder feed.
My local feed mill mixes layer feed by grinding a Layer Concentrate (brand = Prince) which is 38 % protein, both animal and plant proteins, with ground corn. Their normal laying formula comes out to about 16 %, but I asked them to mix mine so it comes out to about 20% or slightly less. The chickens are doing very well on it, and the eggs are hatching. So instead of paying $14 or $15 per fifty pounds of Purina Game Bird Layena as I have done in the past, this mixture runs just over $10 per fifty pounds. And they are doing very well on it. Of course, I also feed a small amount of thawed raw ground venison scraps for extra protein and fat, so that may be having a positive effect as well. Anyway, Happy New Year to everybody.
