My new chicks have arrived and instead of buying the commercial meat chicken feed these ones are going to be grown exclusively on my own feed. Usually we start on the commercial baby chick food then switch to mine about a month later. The four grain feed oats, barley, corn and wheat is my favourite. All local grains, hand mixed, plus my seaweed, mashed boiled eggs, yogurt, DE and dried molasses. No soy at all. 
I have found that my layers lay extremely well on this mix. They are full feathered and healthy and fertile. With cider vinegar and garlic in their water and lots of yogurt milk.
So I will see how the meat chickens grow on a similar recipe. I will increase the protein level add linseed and sunflower seed, grind it up and see how they go. 
The meat chickens are the last to be changed over to my Four Grain mix. The piglets and pigs and even Lady Astor’s milking treats are all a variation of the same theme. My other pig feed is the Sow and Pig from Purina which is leaner, this is made with vegetable proteins but I am trying to get the breeding pigs bellies off so much soy and mysterious fillers.
The layers having a dust bath. 
They love the dust in their feathers.
And I have been talking to a young woman from Washington who is going to come and spend a week with me from next Monday. This is good news as with the wet and the heat and the wind I am being overwhelmed in the gardens. And she is bright and clever and cooks! More on that soon.
I am fostering a pot belly pig from Lori the pig rescue lady.Though not for a few weeks. He was found abandoned, very, very fat – so fat his eyes have closed over and he cannot see and he can barely walk. And he had been poisoned with rat bait. (His owners put it in a bag of corn evidently and left him). Horrible people – just horrible. But he was found somehow and Lori was called and they caught it all in time. (Vets are free to Animal Rescue nonprofits so he is getting the very best care.) He is recovering very slowly and when the vet says it is ok for him to be in the light again (the poison has a caustic affect on the skin evidently and it is peeling off – I will learn more soon) he will come here to recuperate and lose weight. Poor boy.
By fostering he is still in her care – there will be ongoing interventions to get him well again and she will manage all those – but he will live in the sun-room of the barn for a while with the field to exercise in when he is able to walk properly again. And if all goes well he will eventually go to live with Tima and Tane.
Lori is writing all this down for me so I will be more clear on the information soon. But I am calling him Waimarie which means Lucky (Wai for short) and I will keep you up to date.
She said he is depressed down there in her hospital room so we are hoping he does not have to stay too much longer in isolation due to the open burns all over his body from the poison. Poor Wai.
Time to go get my Lady Astor and milk the old cow. She is so good this summer – all I do is call out to her as I walk to the barn, I open all the gates and then go about the preparations and after a while she appears at my elbow in her usual slow lumbering way. None of the others come up – just her. A well trained bunch this year.
Have a lovely day.
Love celi
Weather Forecast: A mixed bag.
Friday 06/16 60% / 0.18 in Mixed clouds and sun with scattered thunderstorms. High 87F. Winds SSW at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 60%.
The Kitchen's Garden 
59 responses to “Feed for new chicks”
Poor Pig. i continue to be boggled by the abuse people do to animals, all the while proclaiming they love them and spoil them. It’s utter selfishness.
I wish I knew what treat those cats are so fascinated with in the bottom pic. Milk?
That poor piggy. I hope he recovers and likes his new home.
yes. we will see how he goes – at least he will be out in the fresh air, at the moment he is in a basement and I cannot imagine that is happy for him..
I hope the fact that the details are known about the pig’s previous owners means they will be prosecuted.
I have not heard anything about prosecution.
Have you tried Herakleophorbia IV?
What is that?
Look it up. 😊
I’ve learned from reading here why pigs like mud, but chickens and dust? Is it a beauty thing, sort of like special hair treatments?
Or perhaps a method of cleansing? Or does it keep them cool, by fluffing out their feathers? Probably it just feels good. Those pictures, especially the closeup of the ladies with their bums in the air, — don’t show them around at the farmy. The chickens might feel embarrassed.
The dust actually does clean the feathers and also helps them rid their skin of any cooties that have attached themselves. Dust baths are actually a very important part of a birds health – similar to a sparrow in a bird bath I would imagine. c
Great work
Oh such beautiful kitties .. I always enjoy seeing chooks dust bath! Saddens me that people can be so very cruel .. shame on them