Well, the first round went well and now we’re going to try it again. A little differently this time… We are changing the ration fed to the chickens from the feed mill (using fish meal) to a totally local vegetarian certified organic ration. The feed is from Mr. Alfred Farris at Windy Acres Farm in Orlinda, TN, just 30 miles from us. They are a certified organic grain producing farm and I think we’re lucky to have such an opportunity so close! I picked up the ration on Monday and unloaded it into our little storage shed and it filled the WHOLE thing to the rafters. I now have to find another place to put my layer feed and all the other chicken accoutrements like waterers and lamps and such.
Raising chickens so far is fun and I’m approaching it as an experiment, I am an engineer after all, and we’re trying to change as few variables as possible. So for this next batch we’re changing the feed ration and the weather will be different. I have also changed the pen very slightly to make it a bit easier to move, but I don’t think this will have any bearing on the experiment. The weather this time is MUCH warmer than the last, so it will be an interpretation of results in the end and a challenge to attribute differences to either the weather or the food.
Our next batch of chickens arrives tomorrow or Saturday and we’re ready and excited! Oh, here’s a picture of the feed stacked to the ceiling:
I was trying to find some information on how to plant in my little garden. I don’t know why but Bing pulled up your article, I found it interesting and so I decided to read it. I’m glad I did because I can safely say I came away with an interesting read.