For Poultry People: a Home Made FLock Block Recipe
For some of you who have turkeys or chickens, and are interestd in making your own food, this recipee was offered by a member of my Rare Heritage Turkey list and I am interestd to try it. I would love any comments on any of your own recipees for poultry food and also what commercial brands you feed, as well as where you procure it.
Enjoy
Dorene and the Poultry People
It's best to wait until you have a refrigerator full of leftovers you want to get rid of and a kid with strong hands who doesn't mind getting them all messy.
I start with at least a dozen eggs WITH the shells and mix them up with the mixer. I add a quart of yogurtand/or buttermilk, molasses and some applesauce. Now's where it's gonna get messy. I throw in the small cannister of corn meal, three cups of whole wheat flour, some cooked pre-cooked rice, some bird seed (wild bird seed with millet), some black oil sunflower seeds and raisins. Add spices like garlic, cayenne pepper and Basil, anise, wasabi if you can get some cheaply. Those spices will all boost the immune system. Remember do NOT eat these eggs for several weeks.
Now mix that up and anything you have sitting around leftover that you aren't going to eat like some mashed potatoes and gravy (they LOVE the stuff and I confess I actually buy some instant mashed potatoes to add to my flock block), left over veggies, leftover meats, stale bread, and any old cereal that the kids aren't eating. I usually end up with enough to fill up two 8x 13's or 4 8x8's.
She ends her directions there, and did not process it (I assume bake it?). I have emailed her, but she is attending a dying mother and I am not sure how available that she is. I will look at further posts to see if anyone suggested anything, and pass that along in the comments section when I find out.
I had not gotten complete information about what to do at the end of the recipe and have promised to send the rest of the advice from the woman who had written the post from my rare heritage turkey list. Here is what she responded:
The flock block can go into whatever size pan you need to get all the glop cooked. It's not going to rise or even bubble much so you can put it in anything from a jelly rolly pan to bread pand depending on how many different pens you're going to be giving it to.
Naturally the depth of the stuff is going to affect how quickly it gets done. I usually fill the pan about half way full and when you can stick a knife in it and have it come out clean you're done. Leave it to sit overnight if you can unless it's winter and you want to serve it to them semi-warm. The drier it is the longer it will last because it will be harder for them to chunk off a piece.
I hope that helps. Since I don't have a real recipe and tend to use a lot of leftovers it's never the same thing twice. I guess the important things are the molasses with sulfur, your cayenne pepper for parasites, egg shells yogurt for more calcium, and garlic and yogurt for immune system. The oatmeal, wheat flour, grits, flax, quinoa, rice.....whatever you have laying around are just the things that make it wondrous for the chickens to chew on while the eggs hold it all together.
I made one once that had spinach and rhubarb in it. For some reason that I will never understand it was the smelliest darn flock block I'd ever made. The girls loved it like always but OH, I had to air out the house for two days.....maybe it wasn't the spinach and rhubarb so much as it was the spinach, rhubarb, GARLIC and ONION. Remember we're worming with some of these flock blocks so we throw out all eggs for a week.
I hope that everyone is faring well in this heat,
Dorene - who is NOT faring well in the heat!
