Cow manure

[flowerbug]

Only fresh road kill.....a friend hit one, tossed it in his truck and gave it to us. A friend showed up with a deer that was hit, both legs were broke. The people shot it to put it out of it's misery, friend drove up, they gave it to him. He made a beeline to our place because he had no idea how to process it. He does now.

i've read about it, but never done it myself... i'm pretty sure i don't want to unless it is the end of civilisation as we know it and i'm about to starve to death.

 

[Nyboy]

A BYC member that lives near me took a deer she hit to a processor. She was told the meat was to bruised and wasn't any good.

 

[Beekissed]

Would it be possible to raise chickens without grain just from garden produce? I know timing would be very important

Short answer....nope. Not a balanced diet for them and they will neither thrive nor produce eggs and meat as you would wish them to, so what's the point of having the chickens in the first place?

If your garden was HUGE and had plenty of bug, worm, snake, toad life, you may keep them alive, but again, they will not put on the size and meat quality nor lay as efficiently without having a huge range, a wide range of nutrients and the right kind of feed available on that range. And, even then, they would be walking off most of their nutrients to find enough to produce well. But, you won't find that kind of nutrition in a typical garden.

 

[Nyboy]

How did early farmers keep chickens here. I believe the pilgrims had them.

 

[Titan Farm]

The chicken settlers would have brought are very different fowl from what we have today. The more "primitive" chickens the they would have brought with them to North America were more like a Game Fowl, a hardy strain of chicken that didn't need a humans hand to care for them. Also these fowl had less meat on there bone and laid far less eggs. These fowl were used more for sport than food.

The Greeks, Romans, Chinees, Vikings, Polynesians and Egyptians all were all to North America before Columbus and the Pilgrims. So chickens were most likely here way before Columbus was born.

 

[seedcorn]

@Titan Farm What???? This can’t be. I’ve seen many shows/movies that show modern bred chickens with fancy houses like @ninnymary ’s where they throw grain everywhere (no value to grains) & their chickens thrive..... you would not be suggesting that Hollywood isn’t factual? You are just joking correct? Good one...

 

[Titan Farm]

@seedcorn Hollywood uses creative editing. They creatively edit out 99.9% of the truth.
What we don't see is the real feed being fed to keep thouse birds thriving. Lol

 

[Beekissed]

How did early farmers keep chickens here. I believe the pilgrims had them.

They fed them grains through the winter or they would not have survived at all, but I'd wager to say they got fed what they could scratch up any other time. But, they also didn't have a lot of meat on them nor did they lay daily. MANY feral chickens out there in the world, though they live in more moderate climates, and no one feeds them any supplemental feeds.

 

[baymule]

i've read about it, but never done it myself... i'm pretty sure i don't want to unless it is the end of civilisation as we know it and i'm about to starve to death.

You never had road kill? Or you never processed anything for the meat? haha, you would have a hard time if it were the end of civilization ........ But that's ok. There are reasons why we need industrial raised meat, but I am not one of those reasons. I know how to slaughter and process meat and it doesn't bother me. I do take hogs and lambs to the processor because I don't have the equipment to properly cut up pork chops and lamb chops.

 

[Nyboy]

Key west wild chickens are famous. They are all over the island. last time I was there law was past making it a crime to harm them. That was years ago not sure how it is today