Organic chicken feed or grains in Arizona?

[beingofleisure]

This is in response to the above inquiry.  There is a local Phoenix community called Valley Permaculture Alliance.com that has brought together a group of local backyard chicken farmers to create enough volume to get wholesale discount on USDA certified organic grain mainly for their egg-laying chickens.  The groups first order was delivered on December 7, 2011.  The order from a grainery call Big Sky Organic Feeds.  

I was part of this first order and received my 150 lbs of organic chicken feed.  The whole groups full order was 7500 lb.  It was kind of an experiment for everyone, but it seemed to work wonderfully.  Each backyard chicken farmer seemed to get everything they ordered.  There were no mix ups.  

They also had several different types of feed.  

1.  15% Organic Non Soy

2.  17% Chicken Starter

3.  15% Organic Grower

4.  16% Organic Layer

On average everyone agreed they saved about $10 per 50lb bag.  It is organic feed at non-organic prices.  I am very excited and want to spread the word, since it was so great.  Many people in the group claim the quality of this feed was better than the organic feed they were getting at the retail stores locally.  

The group ordered many different kinds of feed, but all of them were organic.  Different formulations for layer, broiler, starter, grower chickens turkeys pigs and beef.  however most of the order was for chickens of various types.       

The Phoenix Valley Permaculture Alliance will be ordering another large order in mid February again.  I plan on being a part of it.  If organic matters to you and you want to save $10 per 50lb bag of feed, you are going to like this.  

The blog is available on the following links:

http://www.phoenixpermaculture.org/

http://www.facebook.com/BackyardChickenFarmersUnite

- 50lb bags of 15% Organic NON-SOY chicken layer feed for only $18.65 per 50 lb bag.  I am quite certain nobody can beat this price point on organic food, and all the prices were comparable.  

I am excited to see a community coming together to save each other money and taking care of their chickens and themselves.

As part of the group, I am interested in seeing the group grow because it seems we may be able to pull even deeper discounts with even more volume.  

If you are considering this, just figure out what a 2 month supply is for your chicken setup and order accordingly via an email to one of the guys on the links above.  

SB