Grass Fed Chickens

Seems adding some natural grasses to the food along with legume scraps and other natural non-meat makes chickens much healthier and thereby able to produce much healthier eggs. Here is some common sense... and an excerpt from www.loinsgrip.com

"Very few commercial chickens really get to eat grass or scraps. Chickens, being birds, naturally need to eat grains along with their grass, so free-range chicken is not as high in Omega-3 as is grass-fed beef or lamb. The best Omega-3 levels in chicken come from a poultry diet to which abundant fish meal has been added. By marketing chickens with "all vegetable diet," we are throwing the baby out with the bath water. Chickens need bugs and animal protein! Fish meal brings about great poultry health ~ English farmers who feed their chickens fish meal report their chickens live and lay eggs for over 10 years. In some leading-edge restaurants in the US they are beginning to use the "grass-fed" label in their menus. Many big-city chefs and butchers have heard a rumor that "chickens cannot eat grass." Pastured poultry farmers just love to hear about things like this ~ they roll around laughing ~ it makes their day. Chickens that are really free range will consume about 30% of their calories from grass. Since grass has very few calories, that translates to a LOT of grass.

Omega-3 Eggs:

Eggs with the highest levels of Omega-3's come from chickens raised on grass and/or fed fish meal, with the grain component greatly minimized. But lacking this, some commercial enterprises are producing eggs from chickens fed on flax seed. They use the words "Omega-3" on the egg carton, and state the Omega-3 levels in their eggs. If your heart health is important to you, try to get fish-meal-fed, grass-fed eggs. Better yet, raise your own. Most cities allow 5 "domestic" animals. If you keep your 5 chickens clean and in a large, caged area, with lots of grass growing behind wire so they can't kill it, just eat off the tops, and feed them fish meal and good bugs along with their regular diet, you will have some really good Omega-3 eggs.

So off to get some fish meal....!

HobbyFarms?

I am sorry, but this is a world of discovery for me. All of you have probably hit this site and seen the great information it has. Everything I am trying to do wrapped up in a neat little magazine. And now, Urban Farms? - How cool does it get? I am dizzy from excitement. Having been raised with an entreprenuer mind-set and "control -issues"... I rail against authority - mainly government intervention. I loathe it, find it to be the most fruitless form of transactional relationship anywhere in the world. I digress, Urban Farm is more my speed, as I am trying to turn my lawn into a place where we as a family can forage. I know, we'll be competing with the chickens and possibly other neighbors, but that is why I've purchased a shotgun.

A couple of tips in these sites -

1. Great chicken description pages in HobbyFarm.

2. Great ideas on gardens in both; including composting, seed starting...etc.

3. Great ideas on "Out-Buildings"... every home needs one. I built the Simpson Strong-Tie shed, using it's plans and connectors, yet added some of my own features - windows, dutch doors and evetually, water and electricity - Man's Got To Have Some Peace!

Check these out... very nice sites.