My chickens let me know when they have knocked their waterier...... or a feeder over: I can recognize the tone in their ba-gawking when they are complaining about something wrong in the coop. For the last two weeks....it's been all good chatter from the "ladies". Oh.....I heard the "oinkers" too......the sure sound of delight from those two Pot Belly pigs....Richard and Vicky. Everyone is happy about the new feed that Farmer Deno has created.
Freshly shredded cactus leaf and a heaping helping of imported rice. The combination is a big time winner. Shredding with the kitchen food processor works great.....but I have more than a few ladies to feed. Later this month I am constructing a shredder that will take 1/10th of the current time (about 45 seconds per leaf). I'll have pictures of that in the shredder post....that's to come soon.
Here's what the big deal is about all of this.......a 50 pound bag of non organic chicken feed is around $15.00. A 50 pound bag of organic chicken feed is around $36.00!
I shopped around and found rice for $18.87 at one of those "cash n carry" joints. Cheaper than the Costco.......but no buck fifty hotdogs :-( Next......I take 3.5 pounds of dry rice and add it to 12 pounds of boiling water. I get 12 pounds of cooked rice. Adding 12 pounds of shredded cactus leaf....the batch is 24.5 pounds...let's call it 25. For $2.62....you got 50 pounds of superior feed.
Cactus pads contain beta carotene, iron, some B vitamins, and are good sources of both vitamin C and calcium. Rice contains Carbohydrates, Fiber, Protein, Calcium, Phosphorus, Potassium, Sodium, Vitamin B1, Vitamin B2, Starch, and other vitamins and minerals such as Thiamine, Niacin, Iron, Zinc, Riboflavin, Selenium, and Magnesium.
After posting all this great nutritious stuff......I heading out to the kitchen for a..........steak!
Reminder: You may have missed MANY of the posts I have submitted.... due to the crazy email notification application. I urge you, that next time you get a notification in your email.....just go to the main page of my blog thenatomasfarm.blogspot.com to see ALL of the day's posts!
