permaculture

[Ute Bohnsack <sustag@eircom.net>]

Hi Arina + Sue,
my Mum occassionally gave us bread topped with a mix of Quark (a thick sour 
milk
product not unlike cottage cheese but not as fat, and very cheap), chopped up
hard boiled egg and chopped chives. Very tasty. She refered to the mix as
'Kükenfutter' (chick food). So when we kept our first chickens I remembered 
that
stuff and asked her had that mix really been used as chick food or was it a
nickname and she confirmed that they used to feed that to chicks when she grew
up (1930s/40s). I gave it a try, mixed in some extra porridge oats and fed the
chicks on that. They thrived very well on that and for a small backyard flock
it's not much bother preparing the mix. I didn't have comfrey then but would
probably use it now too, as Su does, except I haven't raised chickens for some
years. 

 
> Hi Arina, I too started out raising chicks on commercial chick food because
> even the organic poultry breeders mag said to. AfterwArds I got bold and
> have never looked back. I think the main thing is to isolate the sitting
> hen/s from the rest of the flock in a mobile chicken house so that when the
> chicks hatch  you can make sure they are on fresh ground every day and not
> contaminated by poo . Make sure water contains are small so that the chicks
> cannot drown in them and feed them small amounts frequently (4-5 times a
> day)Sounds like a rolls royce diet they are getting at your place I used
> the scrapings of the rolled oat porridge + a little milk or egg yolk (must
> be room temperature). Keep feeding the hen her grain and soon they can eat
> it too. All my beasties love comfrey and I do too
>  Cheers, Su
> 
 
*********************************************************************************
Dipl.-Ing. TU Landschafts- und Freiraumplanung
Ute Bohnsack
Sailchearnach, Clogher, Kilfenora, Co. Clare, Ireland
mailto:sustag@eircom.net
Agri-Environmental Consultancy and Translation Services 
(English-German-English)
http://www.atril.com/bin/directory.dll/1546
                ~~~~~~~~~
Seedsavers Resources http://homepage.eircom.net/~merlyn/seedsaving.html
*********************************************************************************