A question we get is, “What do you feed your fish?”

I think people are concerned because of what other countries tend to feed their tilapia. We don’t feed them undesirable things and we also haven’t broken the bank on the amount of feed we’ve needed to purchase.

Duck Weed & Carolina Fern
The grower we got the tilapia from also gave us duck weed & Carolina fern to feed the fish. They have gobbled up all the Carolina fern. The duck weed, though, multiplies like crazy & we’ve been rationing it. So, we still have plenty to feed them.

Flock Raiser Crumbles
Yep, we’ve been feeding our fish chicken food. Sometimes ya just gotta use what you have around. And, we always have chicken feed around. The crumble is small – perfect for the small size of the tilapia when we first got them. It’s also high in protein.

Fish Food
Now that the fish are bigger we also feed them from a bag called fish food.

December 2015 UPDATE:
We have harvested a couple of the tilapia and they are delicious. They are not muddy or dirty tasting. They are a good, mild tasting fish.

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Over the summer, we grew wheat for the first time. It was a fun experience for all of us.

Growing the Wheat

We started the process with tilled soil.
May 19, 2013

Left: Seedlings coming up. June 10, 2013

Right: Coming in nicely. July 17, 2013

Left: All of a sudden it really took off. July 30, 2013

Right: August 4, 2013

My favorite thing about the wheat was how pretty it was, especially at sunset.

Field #1

The largest wheat field was over by the coops. The chickens were able to free range in this area.

The chickens loved it. By summer’s end, the wheat was gone.

Harvesting Field #2

We don’t have special tools or machinery for harvesting wheat. So to reap our harvest, Farmer John used a weed eater.

The kids & Farmer John hand picked up the down wheat stalks. Then they threshed the wheat by shaking the seed heads into a garbage can.

The wheat kernels at the bottom of a garbage can.

Shaking the wheat into a garbage didn’t do a complete job of removing the inedible chaff. They used a fan to blow away the chaff & the wheat kernels fell back into the garbage can.

Dumping the wheat & chaff into a bowl for another round of using the fan.

After the final time using the fan, we were left with this. The chaff was picked out & we had a beautiful bowl of wheat.

All that work was condensed down to this jar. We don’t have plans for it, so for now it sits on our kitchen counter. Farmer John would like to grind it into flour or we might just feed it to the chickens.

It was fun to go through the complete process of harvesting wheat. It grew very well here & was definitely worth the effort. Letting the chickens free range in the wheat was awesome. It took nearly no work from us. I’m really not sure, though, how much money it saved us in buying feed since we still had to buy feed for other chickens. Hand harvesting the wheat took too much time to be worth the effort, but was a great experience for everyone. I even bet Farmer John would like to harvest it again some time.

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We have tried a variety of watering methods & the thing that has worked best for us are the use of waterer nipples. Farmer John attaches 2, 3 or 4 nipples in a bucket or similar container then hangs the bucket in the coop or brooder. Sometimes he adds 2 tablespoons of apple cider vinegar to the water, as well. This keeps the water clear & free from algae type growth. It also acts as a natural dewormer for the chickens.

THE NIPPLE

The nipple we use is a push in style, as opposed to screw in. Farmer John drills a small hole in a container and the nipples attach easily.

There are many places to get the nipples, and as they are becoming more popular the farm stores are starting to carry them, but Farmer John orders ours from QC Supply. We’ve had them a number of years, and they haven’t needed replacing.

HOW WE USE THEM

The nipples are attached to a 5 gallon bucket (or something similar). The bucket hangs right at chicken height & water doesn’t drip out of the nipple until a bird pushes against it.
A definite advantage to this type of system is the ease of refilling the waterer. I don’t have to fight with an annoying plastic container that doesn’t want to unscrew. I just put a hose in the bucket.

My other favorite thing about this set up is that it keeps the brooder clean! Chicks can’t step in, poop in or drop food in this waterer. They learn very quickly how to get a drink.

Waterers hanging in a chicken tractor, duck pen & brooder. We adjust the height of the bucket as needed.

Our friends at Sain Creek Poultry & Hobby Farm don’t use buckets, but have quite a system of pipe through much of their coop with the nipples attached.

We use this watering method for all our feathered friends.

Here’s to Happy Chickens/Turkeys/Quail/Ducks & Clean Waterers!

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