Chicama Run Family Farm

This question is asked a lot of us and the simple answer is COST.

Right now we pay $9 per 50lb bag of chicken feed - that's when we buy 2 tons at a time.  We over winter our chickens - and so we need to cover the cost of feeding them in January & February when some days we get only 2 eggs.  So by our calculations we can pay for their feed and such by charging the $4 per dozen.  The feed we get is non-GMO and made in MD and we can live with that (though we do try to keep as much in VA as possible)...

Now - the current price for a 50 lb bag of organic feed is $23.50.

See the price difference?

We did try really hard to be organic when we first started with chickens and we had only 50 birds.  We spent over $450 in one month and egg production dropped like a rock.  They wouldn't eat it!

Goat feed is the same - we use a locally grown and processed feed and pay $18 per 80 lbs.  Organic feed - $24.00.  Ok not as big a difference (except for the 30 pounds) - but now I need to pay shipping on top of that.

We don't give our animals anything that we don't recognize.  I have been known to stop a certain feed or never give it if they put something in it.  There is a sheep feed out there that has something in it which helps the rumen which is great.... but they don't call it medicated and that's a medicine in my opinion.

I wasn't able to find ANY de-wormer that I would ever want in my dairy goats.... so I'm using an herbal de-wormer - safe and natural!

Hope this explains a little bit :)