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  • From: Harvey Ussery <huboxwood@earthlink.net>
  • To: livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [Livingontheland] Maggots as poultry feed
  • Date: Sat, 29 Jul 2006 16:42:04 +0000

My responses to Greg H.'s questions interspersed below:

Let's see if I'm reading this right.

With thin skinned animals and dressed meat you don't have the problem of large parts of pelt with uneaten meat on it as you do with thick skinned pelts.

That's been exactly my experience, with regard to dressed meats. Though now that I think about it, there's been a consumption problem with *any* carcasses with pelts I've tried feeding raw. I mentioned earlier feeding roadkill squirrels. Well, that's as thin a pelt as you'd find, I guess, but the birds wouldn't eat it well with the pelt on.

As I think I said earlier, I don't have any idea why the birds don't "clean their plates" when served pelt-on entrees. It's counter-intuitive: Aside from scratching, what do chickens love to do more than anything? Pecking. One would think that the sheer entertainment value would lead to pelts and bones picked clean. But when feeding carcasses with pelts, I've always subsequently found funky chunks of carcass later, buried in the litter or abandoned out on the pasture.


Have you dressed the thick skinned animals, removing the skin before feeding chunks?

Yes, with beavers, and they ate the meat. Have you ever skinned a beaver? I find putting the carcasses thru the buckets *much* easier.


Have you feed your chickens rabbit before? If so how and what were the results?

No, I don't raise rabbits, and I'm not a hunter. As said, I've fed squirrel, with results noted.

Joel Salatin's son Daniel has raised rabbits for many years, and it's my understanding that he always disposes of the heads, offal, and pelts by throwing to the chickens on a deep wood-chip litter. I guess he's gotten results that differ from mine if he's still using that method. However, I never saw any of the pelts he'd passed on to the chooks myself.

~Harvey
--
Harvey in northern Va
www.themodernhomestead.us



  • Re: [Livingontheland] Maggots as poultry feed, Harvey Ussery, 07/29/2006

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