19 Ways to Avoid Pre-Mix Commercial Feed! - Abundant Permaculture. Years ago, as the cost of commercial chicken feed skyrocketed, I found myself in search of a more creative option. At the time, I experimented with rotating the flock on pasture and successfully cut my feed cost in half. After that, I experimented with free ranging and cut my costs by 90%! Finally, I ended up with a compost feeding system that cut my chicken feed bill by 100% and gave me three cubic yards of compost a week! My fascination with more natural (and much less expensive) feeds continues to grow and my list of creative food sources expands. In this article, I’ll share with you many alternative food sources for your flock that will dramatically (if not completely) reduce your dependency on commercial grain.
Once you’re ready to implement one or more of these ideas you can download my free printable worksheet at the end of the article. Before we explore the list of creative food sources, we should look at some basic principles to reduce our need for food in the first place. Ration. Home-grown Quail from Egg to Plate in 10 Easy Steps. When people mention poultry for backyard suburbia the first bird which comes to mind is the chicken. And why not? I mean, the humble chicken is easy to look after, there’s lots of information out there about keeping chickens, and everyone is familiar with chicken eggs. However, say the “quail” word and most people have heard about them as a great eating bird in top French restaurants but wouldn’t have a clue about keeping them in the backyard. This is such a shame, because the real truth about keeping quail is that they are actually easier to keep than chickens.
I would go as far to say, people who are considering keeping chickens should first try a few quail as a way to “ease into” the poultry keeping game. Some Texas A&M (white) and common Jap coturnix quail (image above) So to help those who have no clue about quail or are considering keeping quail but haven’t heard much about how, I thought I would break it down into 10 easy steps to get a quail from an egg and onto a plate. 10 Steps. 12N05A07.pdf.