I have no shortage of chickens in my back yard: the kind that squawk, scratch, sometimes fly a bit, and lay eggs.
I keep them well fed. In return, they serve us breakfast every morning, and fertilizer for the garden in the spring and fall.
But keeping those cantankerous bags of feathers fed is getting more and more expensive.
I go about an hour out of town, into farm country, to buy large quantities of feed twice a year. I have a trailer - which hauls about 1 and 1/2 times what my pickup truck hauls, and I fill it with 50 pound sacks, which I store in a shed until needed.
So the last time I bought feed was late summer.
I paid $9.99 per sack for Purina Nutrina 16% protein layer feed back then.
I went back to the same rural feed store this afternoon.
That same sack of feed is now $13.99 each, for 50 pound sacks.
And that is the CHEAPEST place I can find good quality feed.
Tractor Supply’s cheaper brands are a bit cheaper than what I buy my girls, but that stuff is awful! My girls won’t eat the stuff. Personally, I think Dumor brand stinks. I don’t blame my girls for turning their beeks up at Dumor feed.
The rural Tennessee feed store manager where I bought my girls feed this afternoon told me that, back about a month or so ago, they had some trouble getting chicken feed, but not right now. She has plenty on hand, as does the local Farmer’s Co-op.
Right now, all she is having trouble getting is some varieties of horse feed.
