Please visit (and like!) The Guelph Chicken Keepers Association on Facebook and add your voice to the discussion. This week we are looking for ideas for feeding your birds. Do you feed organic or not? Where do you buy your feed? Are oyster shells a better source of calcium than crushed egg shells? Do you routinely feed your birds weeds from the garden? And what about table scraps? Please share your ideas and thoughts with us.
Tuesday 26 July 2011
Feeding The Birds
When I first started keeping chickens, one of the things I found challenging was the desire for most chicken people in Guelph to keep a low profile. In small neighbourhood communities throughout the city are tightly-knit groups of urban "coopers" who are strong supporters of each other. While the by-laws are explicit, the beauty of keeping a backyard flock is that it is, by nature, self-regulatory. This approach, so different from standardized factory and industrial farming practices, not only makes for happier animals, but allows for new ideas to flourish that can be shared among new chicken-keepers and veterans alike. Like raising children, we all have methods and philosophies that work for us, and supply us with not only the eggs we enjoy so much, but a deeper fulfillment that is felt in a unique way to each urban chicken keeper. My dream is to bring together the chicken-keepers of Guelph in a cross-neighbourhood collaboration of ideas and support. Is one of your birds acting weird, and you don't know why? Need some organic feed in a pinch? Are you ill, or going away and could use a caring hand for your flock? Have extra straw to share? To have a family of like-minded people to turn to for support and encouragement makes embarking on, and sustaining, a successful urban coop so much easier.
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