Fatten your Chickens with a natural Treat Mix

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Fatten your Chickens

An article on how to fatten your chickens with natural foods and treats!

Hello, My name is Ayslen Redmon, owner of Lots ‘A’ Cluckin’ Farms. I started out raising chickens two years ago. To have a healthy bird you must feed it healthy meals! For Orpingtons that means high protein foods so they can build muscle instead of fat. Most chicken feed is only 16% protein and that is an exceptionally small amount of protein for growing and producing Orpingtons.

How to Fatten your Chickens

Along with free-ranging daily for greens and bugs, here is what I feed all of my Orpingtons on a daily basis:

These measurements fill a 7lb. feeder and will fatten your chickens.

4 cups Chicken Feed

4 cups Flock Raiser

1 cup Cracked Corn

1/2 cup Black Oil Sunflower Seeds or Sunflower Seeds if the black oil is not available.

1/4 – 1/2 cup Calf-Manna

I will soon be adding 1/2 cup Rolled Oats to their daily feed ration. This will help you to fatten you chickens!

For an Orpington hen in lay, I would recommend also adding free-choice oyster shell for calcium needed to produce eggs.

Calf-Manna is my very favorite supplement that we have added recently. It contains tons of wonderful healthy ingredients and vitamins that are crucial for growing a bird the size of these Orpingtons.

Here are the ingredients that are in Calf-Manna: Crude Protein Min 25.00%

Soybean meal, corn, hominy feed, feeding oatmeal, dried whey, dehydrated alfalfa meal,

linseed meal, brewer’s dried yeast, vegetable oil, fenugreek seed, anise oil, vitamin A supplement, vitamin D3 supplement, vitamin E supplement, vitamin B12 supplement, folic acid, biotin.

I also give them a daily treat mix consisting:

2 cups Cracked Corn

1/2- 3/4 cup Black Oil Sunflower Seeds

1/4 cup Calf-Manna

You will find this will also help you fatten your chickens!

For the treat mix I just put 4-5 piles on the ground in their run so they can get it before they go in for the night.

They also get other treats when available: Watermelon, Tomatoes, Apples, Pears, Bread, among other table scraps that we may have. Treats are always a good source to help fatten your chickens!

Another step we have recently taken to keeping healthy birds is Apple Cider Vinegar!

ACV has many advantages to it: It contains many vitamins, minerals and other nutrients and substances to improve the health of your flock.

It also improves the digestive health of your chickens by maintaining proper pH balance in the digestive tract. Increases egg production, kills germs that cause respiratory illnesses among chickens and keeps your chickens’ water free of harmful bacteria.

Another great advantage to using ACV that I have heard about is that since it lowers the pH level in the chickens, it also lowers in the

pH level in the eggs they lay which means you may have a higher female to male ratio when it comes to hatching chicks! More pullet’s are always better!

Be sure to purchase organic unfiltered, unpasteurized, naturally fermented ACV for its medicinal features. ACV ranges in color from light golden to orange. You’ll know you’ve found the right stuff if you see sediment, referred to as the “mother of vinegar” in the bottom of the bottle.

Do NOT buy white distilled or distilled Apple Cider vinegar, as it has none of the beneficial elements listed above.

We add 2 tablespoons per gallon of water daily. You would not think Apple Cider would be a good source to help fatten you chickens but it is and is healthy for them also.

And that is just a few of the ways we keep our Orpingtons happy and healthy at Lots ‘A’ Cluckin’ Farm!

You can pick up a Gallon of Bragg Apple Cider here, Raw Organic Apple Cider Vinegar by Bragg (1 gallon)

You can pick up 2-16oz Bottles Here, Bragg Apple Cider Vinegar Organic Raw — 16 fl oz Each / Pack of 2

You can pick up a case of 12 – 16oz Bottles here, Bragg Apple Cider Vinegar, 16 Ounce — 12 per case.

Raising chickens is a fun and exciting hobby to have. There are so many places to buy birds of all different kinds, and you never know just what you might get!

Story submitted by: Ayslen Redmon, owner of “Lots ‘A’ Cluckin’ Farm”

Check out their, Facebook Page

Ayslen raises BBS English and Project Lavender Orpington Chickens. They are so beautiful and healthy! Give her a shout if you are looking for any of these wonderful birds.

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Thank you for stopping by Back Roads Living.

Here is a Video for some less expensive Chicken Feed and how to mix it. This will help you fatten your chickens on a smaller budget.