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Last Notes

2025-06-09 21:55:28

Found some aliens in the forest. #nature #photography #weird
https://blossom.primal.net/d1aebf53f96386b3e70b0fa43a95d354c7b942d925e724b039b76d45d3497bce.jpg
https://blossom.primal.net/fa9de2225970e0062a000739de8b2b71b6fe8a03aaacfa4dcf4dc6003d0bb56a.jpg

2025-05-20 04:40:19

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Soooo good. Haha.

2025-05-18 04:59:03

"You deaden your own energy when you force yourself to work."
-- Ray Peat. #peatstr

2025-05-07 23:05:29

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Having begun deploying more saturated fat and less seeds, I immediately notice more zoomies.
Current Code:
1700g Gamebird Finisher (.22)[.03]
15g Flax Seeds (.155)[.422]
5g Hemp Seeds (.30)[.50]
15g Dehydrated Pilchards (.709)[.043]
10g Dehydrated Grass-Fed Beef Liver (.621)[.179]
25g Paprika (.141)[.129]
1.3g Dehydrated Bull Kelp/Durvillaea potatorum (.1)[0]
19g Grass-Fed Butter (.006)[.814]
10g Coconut Oil (0)[1]

2025-04-26 20:16:48

I'm going to immediately ship the current amended amendment code, as per usual.
#eggprogramming #roosterprogramming
1700g Laucke Gamebird Finisher
40g Flax Seeds
5g Hemp Seeds
15g Dehydrated Pilchards
10g Dehydrated Grass-Fed Beef Liver
15g Paprika
1.3g Dehydrated Durvillaea potatorum
19g Grass-Fed Butter
—> 22.2% Protein, 5% Fat.
Some old additions and rough doses were:
-- 9.53g Turmeric
-- 6.66g Dry Olive Leaves
-- 1.52g Onion Powder
-- 1.52g Cinnamon Powder
-- .953g Ginger Powder
I reckon I'll get into some literature regarding these in future notes as I consider reincorporating one, or all of them, and consider reconsidering appopriate doses.
#eggstr
#nevent1q…xkq9

2025-04-26 04:52:56

Okay, so I feed Bull Kelp (Durvillaea potatorum) to my birds.
Why?
Mainly for iodine.
In recipes where I am not using commercial feed, the iodised salt that I add does not add enough iodine to hit the target dose for poultry, which is somewhere in the range of .5–3mg/kg of feed.
Sending .3% salt (of the total mix) only provides about .2mg/kg of feed.
It seems many still reference an old guideline from the 1994 National Research Council book "The Nutrient Requirements of Poultry", which puts iodine requirements at .3mg/kg of feed. Since then, there have been discussions of the NRC's values being too low in some instances for birds to really thrive.
When you think of iodine you are probably thinking thyroid and metabolism, which are appropriate things to think. But, we can further think about circulation, muscle function, neural function, immune function, reproductive function, maturation processes, and secondary skin structures (i.e., feathers!)
Indeed, some notice better feathering as the dose approaches 3mg/kg of feed.
When iodine is deficient we would expect to see immunodeficiency, metabolic disorder, and perturbed organ and reproductive development—you know, unwell birds.
Similarly, we can go too far in the opposite direction and inhibit egg production and even puberty when iodine provision is excessive, so it is not advisable to go overboard.
The Laucke Gamebird Finisher I am currently deploying in my commercial amendment recipe has iodine added. Do they provide the dose? No.
I suspect it is closer to .5mg/kg of feed.
The dose that vitec.com.au provide for adding Durvillea potatorum to poultry feed is 1%. They do not provide an iodine concentration for their product.
Instead of adding their recommended 18g, I have been adding 10g.
This below article puts the concentration of iodine in dry Bull Kelp at .25%, which is 25mg of iodine per 10g, which suggests a more ideal dose would 1.8g instead of 10g . . .
https://www.publish.csiro.au/mf/MF9720011
This other below article puts the concentration at about 7mg per gram, which would suggest .64g would be the ideal addition to my ~1.8kg mix . . .
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10811-023-03074-0
Have I been providing too much iodine?
Maybe.
The issue of hens going off the lay do not seem to come into effect at these doses. The below article indicates minimal effects below 100mg/kg of feed and they reference an article involving turkeys being unaffected regarding laying below 35mg/kg.
https://image.nostr.build/f292a0305d25bbc700ecb6f575dfca513989cd2fbe059bb7e7189d066266f3b2.jpg
https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/british-journal-of-nutrition/article/responses-of-domestic-fowl-to-excess-iodine-a-review/889949FF7F31FB4FE9D064C29E00A92C
However, they do indicate that embryonic mortality and hatchability of fertile egg are considerably affected at the dose I am currently providing (~13.88mg/kg of feed).
https://image.nostr.build/7d9a4a4050e3f2bbda1fa64e57e7b8e0c176175311888f859b81986657866423.jpg
Page 35 of this paper is particularly interesting regarding programming the ideal amount of iodine into the yolks. Krouoova et al. (1999) suggest 3.5mg/kg if feed is ideal, whilst Ishikawa and Kamimae (1980) suggest 150mg/kg.
Fascinating iodine discussion here for sure.
Will I be reducing my current feed's iodine concentration to below 3.5mg/kg so that none of my crew are sexually retarded?
Yes.
I will also send Laucke and Vitec some enquiring emails me thinks.
Anyhoo, here is a pic of Lloyd Floss harvesting some Bull Kelp.
https://image.nostr.build/9bfb8fda367f5f7ae6554f23f5c59fe8541e9479d95607269373784460462f2c.jpg
#nevent1q…528h
#nutrients #iodinestr #birdstr #quailstr #bullkelpstr

2025-04-25 21:08:50

Here is a lower linoleic acid commercial feed amendment recipe if you are eating le eggs and also have a few extra roosters you might need to consume.
(Protein)[Fat]
1700g Gamebird Finisher (.22)[.03]
40g Flax Seeds (.155)[.422]
5g Hemp Seeds (.30)[.50]
15g Dehydrated Pilchards (.709)[.043]
15g Dehydrated Grass-Fed Beef Liver (.621)[.179]
15g Paprika (.141)[.129]
10g Dehydrated Bull Kelp/Durvillaea potatorum (.1)[0]
18g Grass-Fed Butter (.006)[.814]
Protein = 22.25%
Fat = 4.97%
I try to keep the fat in the higher range (closer to 5% for Japanese quail) as the slower gastrointestinal transit time due to the higher fat percentage seems to give them more opportunity to absorb nutrients.
Moreover, my crew smash a lot of greens which lowers the overall percentage of fat and protein in their diet, so I feel that sitting a little higher on both (16–24% being a typical protein range, 3–5% being a typical fat range) is nutritional insurance.
#quail #flax #butter #eggs #ranch
#nevent1q…5602

2025-04-22 21:30:38

Dopamine is about expectation coding.
When you take a bite of that steak and it is better than expected, you will get a little positive blip of dopamine that programs into you "hey, that was better than expected".
The next steak you have, you will expect it to be better than you expected the last steak to be because of that last positive blip.
When it is not very good, you will have dopamine pull back and it will program into you "hey, that was worse than expected".
This is for navigation.
Perhaps a steak is always serving you well, but perhaps the place that always serves bad steaks is not—so you can navigate away from that place.
To extend the analogy beyond steaks, you could navigate away from that person, that behaviour, that thing . . .
Dopaminergic drugs like amphetamines are unideal because everything you do on them will be coded for as "better than expected".
A lot better than expected.
You will automatically navigate towards things that are coded this way.
Dopaminergic drugs like methamphetamine, amphetamine (speed), dexamphetamine, methylphenidate (ritalin), cocaine, and "geary pingers" that contain MDMA as well as amphetamine, highjack your expectation coding system and this new, non-accurate program persists.
It is prudent to keep this in mind as you consider getting sent this weekend, or as you consider commencing a typical ADHD medication like dexamphetamine.
It is more tricky to navigate through life when you mess with dopamine in this way.
"Of course it's your own trip, so be my guest. But be advised that there is a warning on that one, okay?" #woodstockbrownacidwarning
#drugs #speed #meth #dexamphetamine #adhd
#dopamine #brain #CNS #party

2025-04-22 04:34:45

Welcome back to the #eggprogramming note series.
This note is for those who want to add some ingredients to their commercial poultry feed to improve the health of their birds and the quality of their eggs.
In this instance I am feeding adult Japanese quail gamebird finisher which is 22% protein and 3% fat, but my additions change those percentages.
Here is the recipe:
N.B., (Protein) [Fat]
1700g Gamebird Finisher (.22)[.03]
55g Flax Seeds (.155)[.422]
25g Hemp Seeds (.30)[.50]
15g Dehydrated Pilchards (.709)[.043]
15g Dehydrated Grass-Fed Beef Liver (.621)[.179]
15g Paprika (.141)[.129]
10g Dehydrated Bull Kelp/Durvillaea potatorum (.1)[0]
Total Protein = 22.6%.
Total Fat = 5.01%.
I have gone into depth about a lot of these ingredients, but the TLDR is:
Flax Seeds: Improve bird health, disease resilience, and fatty acid profile of eggs so they are more anti-inflammatory.
Hemp Seeds: Further increase gastrointestinal enzymatic activity alongside flax seeds.
Pilchards: Improve overall bird health and increase EPA and DHA in yolks (anti-inflammatory). (Gamebird feed might often have fish it it already, but the fats have probably been removed to make fish oil supplements.)
Liver: Micronutrient supplement, especially copper, selenium, vitamin A, vitamin B2, vitamin B3, vitamin B6, vitamin B9, vitamin B12, and choline.
Paprika: Micronutrient supplement, especially iron, copper, manganese, vitamin A, vitamin B2, vitamin B3, vitamin B6, vitamin E, and vitamin K, as well as a pigment additive for darker/oranger yolks.
Bull Kelp: Micronutrient supplement, especially for iodide.
I suspect most poultry would respond well to these additions to their diets, although I only have experience with Japanese quail.
#nevent1q…uve5
#bird #poultry #homestead #homesteading #food #feed #livestock #farm #nutrition #quail

2025-04-19 20:16:50

This probably my favourite muscle. It is called Quadratus Plantae. (Name = Square in shape and involved in Planting le foot).
https://image.nostr.build/53c5830c967d690aeef64f059f5a52bd86dbcdfd9e735dd196c550f398a2a5ab.jpg
It is cool and weird because it inserts into the tendon of another muscle—Flexor Digitorum Longus.
This changes Flexor Digitorum Longus's angle of pull so that its action flexes your toes in-line with your foot.
You can see which direction Flexor Digitorum Longus would rather pull by following its tendon as it wraps around the medial aspect of the ankle.
Is cool.
#anatomy #science #muscle #tendon #foot #toes #human

2025-04-14 19:45:14

Let's talk about some weights training splits.
There is the classic "push, legs, pull", which looks something like this:
Monday: Chest, Shoulders, Triceps.
Tuesday: Off/LISS Cardio. e.g., 30 minutes on a bike in zone 2/@ a HR of 120–140 BPM.
Wednesday: Quadriceps, Hamstrings, Glutes, Adductors, Calves.
Thursday: Off/LISS Cardio.
Friday: Back, Biceps, Upper Trapezius.
Saturday and Sunday: Off/LISS Cardio.
This is effective and how I trained in the months before bodybuilding competitions. You can train abdominals wherever you fancy, but perhaps keep them non-fatigued for big things like squats and deadlifts. I have also done extra LISS cardio on training days for periods during show prep—at a different time of day to the weights training.
If you would rather be lifting more than three days per week, and would rather dig smaller holes more frequently, you can compress these down into a four-day rotation:
Day 1: Push.
Day 2: Legs.
Day 3: Pull feat. Abdominals.
Day 4: Off.
You will need to be mindful of recovery here. It is probably prudent to actually take the fourth day off—i.e., no cardio, take it easy.
Similarly, you will need to adapt your training: as an example, it would be unwise to do heavy deadlifts on the pull day after having done heavy squats on the legs day—so you could focus on supported rowing work on pull day and perhaps bring deadlifts across to the legs day, or instead do them light and focus on fast concentrics.
Vibe that out.
There is another four-day loop that I am quite fond of, it is one that Lee Haney used to deploy:
Day 1: Chest and Arms.
Day 2: Legs.
Day 3: Back, Shoulders, Abdominals.
Day 4: Off.
I remeber Lee saying that he encountered less tendonitis with this split than he did when training biceps with back and triceps with chest. I especially like that shoulders are trained with back here, because if you are training your shoulders comprehensively, other than posterior, anterior, and middle deltoids, you are training everything else that attaches to your scapulae—rhomboids major and minor, upper, middle, and lower trapezius, levator scapulae, infraspinatus, supraspinatus, subscapularis, serratus anterior, latissimus dorsi, teres major and minor, basically all the muscles you might train on back day except those responsible for extending and rotating the spine. Thus, it works well to group shoulders and back together.
This does mean that anterior and middle deltoids get tickled twice per rotation as they will also recieve load on Day 1. So, a deciding factor might be which you would rather hit twice per rotation: most scapulae musculature, or just anterior and middle deltoids. Your development and recovery would determine this, and perhaps it is safer to give your posterior shoulder stuff more time to recover.
You can also run these two splits together:
Day 1: Push.
Day 2: Legs.
Day 3: Pull feat. Abdominals.
Day 4: Off.
Day 5: Chest and Arms.
Day 6: Legs.
Day 7: Back, Shoulders, Abdominals.
Day 8: Off.
There are indeed lots of ways to split the body up. A super simple and effective one is:
Day 1: Upper Body.
Day 2: Lower Body.
Day 3: Off.
You can vibe this one out and do something like:
Monday: Upper Body.
Tuesday: Lower Body.
Wednesday: Off/LISS Cardio.
Thursday: Upper Body.
Friday: Lower Body.
Saturday and Sunday: Off/LISS Cardio.
I am currently deploying this split and particularly enjoy that my knees, shoulders, and elbows get ample recovery time, albeit more load on the days they are trained.
If you are say 50+/have a more stressfull or jam-packed life/or aren't recovering quickly enough you can do this:
Monday: Upper Body.
Tuesday: Off/LISS Cardio.
Wednesday: Lower Body.
Thursday: Off/LISS Cardio.
Friday: Upper Body.
Saturday and Sunday: Off/LISS Cardio.
And then do the inverse the next week with lower body recieving stimulation twice.
Another interesting split is:
Monday: Upper Body.
Tuesday: Off/LISS Cardio.
Wednesday: Lower Body.
Thursday: Off/LISS Cardio.
Friday: Full Body.
Saturday and Sunday: Off/LISS Cardio.
A perk of being able to train the whole body in one day is that you can bounce between upper body and lower body on each set—e.g., military presses alternated with squats, deadlifts alternated with bench press, and so on. This style certainly has more of an athletic vibe about it.
On the althletic vibe front, I used to prescribe or generally orient around this following split for general sporting athletes like football players and such, military people, female bodybuilders of the bikini variety, and females generally like soon-to-be-in-shape mammies/mums/moms:
Monday: Full Body.
Tuesday: Off/LISS Cardio.
Wednesday: HIIT. e.g., 100m sprints, then walking back—10 sets kind of a thing. Perhaps on sand.
Thursday: Off/LISS Cardio.
Friday: Full Body.
Saturday and Sunday: Off/LISS Cardio.
Here's another note about a six-day split:
#nevent1q…j7jw
I am fond of all of these splits.
Perhaps one suits your persuits.
Happy lifting!
#train #exercise #gym #muscle #fitness #hypertrophy #strength #health #wellness #bodybuilding

2025-04-11 05:40:35

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Watch their droppings with this recipe. If they look wetter and/or different in colour and it persists, try reducing the rice, replacing with peas, and adjusting the fat to hold at 5%.
Something like this (~22% Protein):
-- 1.5kg Laucke Gamebird Starter
-- 665g Yellow Peas (Decorticated, Cooked, and Dehydrated)
-- 650g White Rice
-- 45g Flax Seeds
-- 30g Paprika
-- 15g Dehydrated Durvillaea potatorum (Bull Kelp)
-- 10g Hemp Seeds
-- 4.5g Iodised Salt
-- 30g Dehydrated Pilchards
-- 10g Dehydrated Grass-Fed Beef Liver
-- 20g Grass-Fed Butter
-- 10g Coconut Oil

2025-04-05 02:52:01

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Also important to mention: the Yellow Peas are decorticated.

2025-04-05 02:27:14

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This recipe also includes 10g of Dehydrated Bull Kelp (Durvillaea potatorum), which appears to have disappeared from the list temporarily! You could possibly double this dose.

2025-04-05 01:52:18

Welcome back to the #eggprogramming note series.
Today I am going to provide a streamlined recipe that deploys 50% commercial gamebird starter feed.
If you have been mad enough to follow my current program, and you have a lot of birds, you may have found yourself spending quite some time preparing peas and thinking "golly, this is a lot of work, I miss the simplicity and yield of commercial feed".
Well, this note is for you. It also features a couple of P.S.A.s regarding B.V.M powder and flax seeds.
This is the recipe:
-- 1.43kg of Your Local Gambird Starter.
Here, I am using Laucke Mills which is 28% protein and 3% fat. The lower the fat the better so you can build-out the feed with the fats you want in your eggs. I have noticed Purina, for example, is even lower fat than Laucke.
-- 385g Yellow Peas*
-- 896.5g White Rice
-- 30g Dehydrated Pilchards
-- 50g Flax Seeds
-- 10g Hemp Seeds
-- 35g Paprika
-- 10g Dehydrated Grass-Fed Beef Liver
-- 14.4g B.V.M Powder
P.S.A.: I am going to stop deploying B.V.M once I run out, and no longer recommend it as the manufacturers will not tell me the strains of the probiotics they use. This is a red flag to me. The strain is as important to the Genus and species as a Dobermann or Chihuahua are to Canis familiaris.
—> Different strains do different things.
-- 4.2g Iodised Salt
-- 25g Grass-Fed Butter
-- 10g Coconut Oil
* = Rinsed then soaked for 3–12 hours. Then drained, and then roasted for 90 minutes at 170°C/338°F, then dehydrated for ~ 5 hours at 70°C/158°F.
This mix will be ~20% protein and ~5% fat.
Since I have slipped a P.S.A. about B.V.M into this note, I will slip another one in regarding my thinking, particularly around flax seeds.
You may have note-iced me rabbiting-on about about balancing linoleic acid with alpha-linolenic acid by deploying flax seeds. And I have gone into detail about certain peculiarities in flax seeds like phytic acid and cyanogenic glycosides. But, I haven't mentioned nor factored into any of my equations that flax seeds, whilst being 20% alpha-linolenic acid, are also ~5.2% linoleic acid . . . So I do feel a little like the ouroboros in my quest for the 1:1 omega 3:6. It also makes me wonder whether the flax seeds are worth the antinutrients, the toxic load, and the linoleic acid . . .
At this stage, I still think they are.
My reasoning for this is detailed in the flax seeds note, but I will extend it here by referencing this paper:
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0032579119320462
If you go to Table 6, you will see that hens fed flax seed oil deliver eggs with considerably less arachidonic acid (inflammatory), when compared to the no-added-oil control and the other groups fed sunflower and soybean oil. Further, the eggs of the hens fed flax seed oil are the only ones to contain eicosapentaenoic acid (anti-inflammatory) and they also contain at least twice as much docosahexaenoic acid (anti-inflammatory) than the eggs of the other groups.
These last two fatty acids are the legendary "marine" omega 3s. But, we can sidestep heavy metal concerns in fish and make them the new and improved
—> poultry omega 3s.
You will also notice that the linoleic acid concentration in the yolks increases from 12.18% in the control to 14.83% in the flax seed oil group, compared 18.99% in the sunflower oil group and 19.81% in the soybean oil group . . .
I am currently okay with this increase, considering the aforementioned anti-inflammatory profile and other apparent benefits to the birdies.
The 50g of flax seeds added to this mix have 2.6g of linoleic acid, which constitutes about 0.09% of the total mix, which really isn't too hectic in my eyes.
Anyhoo, happy feeding and eating.
Here's the flax seeds note if you are interested in further reading:
#nevent1q…uve5
#birds #food #eggs #nutrition #homestead #health

2025-03-23 20:01:30

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1kg dry will last 10 birds about 6 days.

2025-03-23 05:49:55

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Here is a more comprehensive and up-to-date presentation of nutritional requirements for poultry. Some of the values in that Table are a bit skint. You can definitely send some things harder.
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/01652176.2020.1857887#d1e389

2025-03-23 04:37:42

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Here's the lentils and peas note. It appears I linked the phytochemicals note twice, using different note IDs . . .
#nevent1q…fva9

2025-03-23 02:28:49

Welcome back to the #eggprogramming note series.
This note is about feeding flax seeds to birds, and humans.
TLDR: Flax seeds are nutritious. They also have anti-nutrients, which are not necessarily bad. They also exhibit toxic activity, as well as medicinal activity. They increase the brain size of chicks. They increase enzyme activity in the digestive tract of poultry. They improve resilience against certain microbes in poultry. They improve certain egg quality parameters.
It goes on . . . So let's get into it.
Flax seeds are very impressive and interesting seeds. They are typically 20% α-linolenic acid—which is the plant omega 3 fatty acid. They are thus also appropriately known as linseeds. This fatty acid profile is the primary reason for including flax seeds in the feed. I have gone into a bit of detail about omega 3s in the fish note which I will put at the end of this note.
So, let's talk about other things regarding flax:
Flax seeds are 18.3% protein, 42.2% fat, and 28.9% carbohydrate (27.3% fibre).
They exhibit decent concentrations of vitamins B1, B3, B5, B6, B9, and folate, as well as calcium, iron, magnesium, zinc, phosphorus, potassium, copper, manganese, and selenium.
The following article by Kajla et al. (2014) called "Flaxseed—a potential functional food source" gets into some nitty gritty about flax seeds. They also present excellent discussion about omega 3:6 and inflammation.
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC4375225/
These authors get into great detail about secoisolariciresinol diglycoside, which is the major lignan in flax seeds. It is a phytooestrogen. I produced a note that touches on phytochemicals and links to an article that gets into some nuance about phytooestrogens. I will leave that note at the end of this note, after the fish note.
Essentially, secoisolariciresinol diglycoside is a therapeutic compound that is disease preventative (neurological, lung, cardiovascular, diabetes, etc.) as well as anti-cancer. These effects are all probably downstream of its capacity to scavenge free radicals.
As was touched on in the phytochemical note and the article it links, and the above article, phytic acid is an interesting compound in flax seeds. It is one of the compounds we discussed as an anti-nutrient in the lentils and peas note, which is also linked at the bottom of this note. Phytic acid forms metal complexes, which from an anti-nutrient perspective sequester copper, zinc, iron, and magnesium away from utilisation . . . However, it is not necessarily that simple. There are many factors involved, and phytic acid might instead be thought of as a regulator of these metals, although this is also a simplification.
Here is an article that goes into depth about this:
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC7539747/
Evidently, it is not all great stuff with flax seeds. There are other weird things like linatine which pertains to B6 deficiency in higher doses, and cyanogenic glycosides, which can produce thiocyanates which relate to iodine deficincy . . .
Further, a TLDR of a portion of the below article which is citing other articles relating to cyanogenic glycosides:
100g flax seeds = 21mg hydrogen cyanide.
The tolerable toxic level for humans = 30–100mg per day.
Recommended daily allowance for humans = 1–2 tablespoons of flax seeds.
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/361997742_A_comprehensive_review_of_flaxseed_Linum_usitatissimum_L_health-affecting_compounds_mechanism_of_toxicity_detoxification_anticancer_and_potential_risk
Perhaps (. . .) whole flax seeds are not worth the trouble and deploying flax seed oil instead might be prudent—for humans, and for birds. Oil extraction here might be thought of as similarly utile processing to decorticating lentils and peas to avoid large concentrations of phytic acid . . .
So, how do flax seeds perform on the ground/in the feeder? Let us squiz some papers:
https://www.mdpi.com/2077-0472/12/9/1402
—> In conclusion, up to 12% of soaked flax seed meal in Rhode Islad Red hens’ diets had no adverse effects on the productive and reproductive performances; at the same time, they improved the yolk color, plasma lipid profiles, yolk lipid profiles, and immune parameters.
https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/physiology/articles/10.3389/fphys.2024.1400611/full
—> "We showed that feeding flaxseed to mothers increased the brain size in broiler offspring and altered brain FA composition in layer offspring."
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1751731123000617
—> A combination of flax seed and hemp seed resulted in highest enzyme activity in the digestive tract of chickens, and their growth performance corroborated this enzymatic activity.
This is exciting to me as I have been slipping (closed source until now) 10g of hemp seeds into the feed and cutting the coconut oil by 5g as I have a tub of hemp seeds that need to be eaten!
Before getting completely carried away, let us finish this pseudowayward note by extending the nuance on the whole flax seeds vs. flax oil/nutrient vs. anti-nutrient stuff.
Below is an article that discusses the deployment of defatted flaxseed meal (the stuff we might throw away if we were to just use flax seed oil) in chickens: "Research indicates that whole flaxseed increases adaptive immune capacity by augmenting cecal Bacteroides and short-chain fatty acids while also attenuating the heterophil to lymphocyte ratio in chickens. Moreover, flaxseed accelerates chicken recovery from infection with Salmonella Enteritidis or Eimeria tenella; however, future work is needed to better understand (i) defatted flaxseed’s superior performance against Eimeria species and (ii) Eimeria maxima’s resilience against whole flaxseed. In the context of vitamin B6 antagonism, we propose that 15% whole flaxseed overcomes S. enterica’s insult to estrogen synthesis by sustaining the activity of phosphatidylethanolamine methyltransferase (PEMT) in liver. We also propose that 10% defatted flaxseed (as a metformin homologue) strengthens chicken immunity by safeguarding gonadal physiology and by increasing plasma thymidine bioavailability."
Hilarious.
https://www.mdpi.com/1467-3045/46/11/732
#health #homestead #food #flax #eggprogramming #toxins #nutrients
#nevent1q…782y
#nevent1q…vp98
#nevent1q…vp98

2025-03-23 01:49:27

- reply

Hard to give an accurate ball park figure for food-bird-egg-day stuff because of nutrient and bird size variability, but I'll have a go:
1kg dry feed (you could work backwards to wet)
10 birds
6 days
55 eggs
11–13g per egg
:)

2025-03-22 21:56:25

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I think a good leaping-off point might be to look at Table 1 in this article, which was adapted from an earlier article. You could also look around for other papers to cross-reference and perhaps challenge these stipulations, particularly more recent papers.
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/336926989_Canola_meal_as_an_alternative_dietary_protein_source_in_quail_Coturnix_coturnix_diets_-A_review
I would then use https://tools.myfooddata.com/ and investigate each individual plant you are considering—you might find several of them, or at least a decent proxy.
Clam shells sound like a great solution for calcium! :)

2025-03-22 21:36:47

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That's amazing. What a feast (you might be)! Haha.

2025-03-21 21:23:29

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Sounds dreamy! Certainly seems doable. Having a solid animal protein source through winter would seem to be prudent to me. I presume it will be cold and the worms will be less available in winter? What about other insects? Will you be hunting and fishing or raising beasts? If there is a way to have some animal protein and animal fat on hand, you would be ticking a lot of boxes like fat soluble vitamins, B12, lysine, methionine, etc.
My covey love dandelion greens, so that might be a cool addition that grows itself. Haha. Is growing lentils an option? They are quite performant on the protein and micronutrients front. Peas come in at second best too. You might even get away with these as the major protein source for winter as the hens will stop laying for a while. But then if you do do that, you will need to be mindful of fat. You could send sunflower seeds at them I suppose, but that is a lot of polyunsaturated fat, too much for my liking. But it could get you through winter. As long as you are hitting 4–5% fat, and 16–24% protein (higher end if plant-based) then they should be groovy in winter.
You could also think about plants that are accumulators of iodine. Quail need iodine and salt . . . Salt source?
If they are getting sun, they should be sweet on the D3 front.
You will want to think about calcium too. I am blessed to have tiny snail shells everywhere here. And cuttle bone within walking distance. They will need a little extra on top of their egg shells and whatever they can get from greens.
So yeah, high calcium greens that accumulate iodine but that are not high in oxalic acid would be useful!
Perhaps you could tick a couple of boxes at once by rearing insects with calcium-rich shells.

2025-03-21 04:51:53

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No I haven't.

2025-03-21 04:51:25

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Oh yeah, for the liver I find a beast and dehydrate its liver. Dogs tend to be very interested in the dehydrator on this day. Haha.

2025-03-20 18:52:28

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I juat look around for the quality and price I like. This is where I am currently sourcing them from:
Yellow Peas — Supermarket.
Raw White Rice — Supermarket.
Paprika — Spanish stuff from an Indian shop.
Dehydrated Pilchards — I buy a block (for bait) from the petrol/gas station and dehydrate them. Western Australian pilchards.
Flax Seeds — Supermarket.
Grass-Fed Butter —Supermarket, from New Zealand.
Coconut Oil — Supermarket.
Dehydrated Bull Kelp — vitec.com.au
B.V.M Probiotic Powder — Lots of places online have it.
Iodised Salt — Supermarket.
Other herbs and spices —Indian shop or Supermarket.
Onion powder—peel from onions from the Market or the Garden.
Olive Leaves — Garden.

2025-03-20 18:07:46

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The Japanese quail and the Coturnix quail are the same lovely creature. They are easy to care for—20 mins or so per day would do it, providing you aren't mixing your own feed or rearing young. You will probably want to spend more time with them anyway as they are fun and cute to hang out with. They are amazing egg layers. They send about 300 per year. And they are TASTY. Pretty yummy meat birds too, if you end up with too many roosters. The roosters also make very cool crowing sounds which bring a smile to my face. Highly recommend these birds. Very beautiful looking. Hardy too.

2025-03-20 17:57:14

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Glad to have been found! And yes, I am mixing my own feed—it is lots of fun.
Here is the current recipe:
#nevent1q…4y5f

2025-03-20 07:08:53

Welcome back to the egg programming note series. 🍳
Today we are getting into something I LOVE: feeding paprika to birds, and myself!
Paprika is dried and ground red peppers/capsicum. Sometimes it also consists of mild chilli peppers, and sometimes it is smoked.
But it is ALWAYS: delicious.
However, we are not feeding paprika to our birds to make the eggs taste like peppers. It is instead primarily in there to change the colour of the yolks . . .
There are a few carotenoid pigments in paprika, here are some of their names and concentrations per 100g that I am pulling from tools.myfooddata.com, which is a great website that I use a lot when egg programming:
β-Carotene, 26.16 mg
α-Carotene, .595 mg
β-Cryptoxanthin, 6.19 mg
Lutein + Zeaxanthin, 18.94 mg
Paprika is also relatively impressive on the macronutrient front: it is 14.1% protein, 54% carbohydrate (34.9℅ fibre), & 12.9℅ fat.
Further, paprika is pretty impressive on the minerals and vitamins front with performance particularly across iron, potassium, magnesium, zinc, copper, and manganese, as well as vitamins A (as you might expect from some of the pigments present), B2, B3, B5, B6, E, and K!
So, paprika is actually a multi-nutrient and multi-pigment additive for your food, and, evidently, your food's food.
My current mix is 2.38% paprika. But, you do not need to dose so hard.
Looking at a 2014 article by Liang et al. involving Suqin hens, it seems .2% is enough to deepen the yolk colour, and .3% is enough to increase egg weight.
Lokaewmanee et al. (2010 and 2011), looking at Charoen Pokphand browns, found a change in colour even at .1% paprika.
It takes a week or two for the pigments to begin to be well deposited in the yolk, so be patient initially.
Interestingly, Orhan et al. (2017) found that capsaicinoids (you might be thinking spicy things, but paprika, with or without chilli, has them too) regulate ovary-specific genes that alleviate oxidative stress in heat-stressed Japanese quail.
So, if the weather is hot where you are, this trendy red stuff might just be a cool(ing) addition to the food your girls are gobbling down.
It is most certainly groovy stuff: that cheeky old paprika. 🌶️ 🚀
#nevent1q…4y5f
#eggprogramming #homesteading #nutrition #poultry #hens #chickens #quail #health

2025-03-18 09:29:16

I have spent a lot of time obsessing about gym programming and how to split the body up across the week, particularly for hypertrophy. I find myself currently reverting to an old Miloš Šarčev six-day split I deployed with great success when I was 16.
I met Miloš when I was in my early twenties. He was nice, and I thanked him for what his split and ideas about pre- and intra-workout nutrition had done for me.
I have slightly modified this split to mention glutes and adductors, as well as to hit abdominals twice.
Monday: Quads, Glutes, & Adductors.
Tuesday: Chest & Calves.
Wednesday: Back & Abdominals.
Thursday: Shoulders & Calves.
Friday: Hamstrings, Glutes, & Upper Trapezius.
Saturday: Arms & Abdominals.
Sunday: Off.
If you are aiming for 10–30 sets per group, you will probably want to mostly stay away from fatigue and failure if you are going to be able to deploy this for eight weeks (prior to a deload week) without burning out. That being said, you should probably also deload in some way on days when you aren't "feeling it", or when you are perhaps feeling things you shouldn't . . . like a sore knee or an inflamed glenohumeral joint.
Lifting six days per week can be demanding, but it can also be a lot of fun.
Listen to your body.
#hypertrophy #muscle #gym #weightlifting #bodybuilding #strength #performance #power

2025-03-12 06:57:16

Feeling triggered?
Observe it as an inner child trying to protect you.
Where is it located in your body?
Focus on it there.
Notice how you feel toward it.
Do you dislike it?
Are you afraid of it?
Do you resent how it dominates?
Do you depend on it?
If you cannot get in, ask the other protective parts of you to rest so that you can get in:
Ask it what it wants you to know about it.
Ask it what it is afraid would happen if it didn't do this inside of you.
Extend it some appreciation for trying to keep you safe.
How does it react to your appreciation?
Ask: If you could go to what it protects and heal or change that so it was liberated from this protective role, what might it rather be doing instead?
Ask it how old it thinks you are.
If it got your age wrong, update it and see how it reacts.
What does it need from you going forward?
This is paraphrased from Dr Richard Schwartz from the recent Huberman Lab podcast.
I am finding this line of enquiry and update useful and hope it might also be useful to you.
#psychology #wellbeing #child #innerchild #therapy #healing #internalfamilysystems

2025-03-10 01:30:48

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Oh yeah, I am sending 400mcg of Nascent Iodine too. Sometimes more. :)

2025-03-10 00:34:09

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I take:
Boron Citrate @ 20mg (Top end of appropriate dose, 10mg is fine, but I am trying to lower sex hormone binding globulin levels in order to free-up more testosterone.)
Magnesium Glycinate @ 133–266mg (vibing the dose)
Lake Deborah Magnesium Bittern @ 98.5mg (new addition)
D3 @ 5000IU (2000IU is probably fine for me in summer but I am sending 5000IU anyway this year).
Creatine Monohydrate @ 5g
L-Glutamine @ 10g
*Fish Oil @ 3–8 capsules, depending on amount of fish eaten that day.
*Cod Liver Oil @ 5mL
*I am basically aiming for 3g combined EPA & DHA.
I put psyllium in things to help me hit 50g of fibre per day.
I send a good whack of ground flax seeds at meals that do not have an omega 3:6 of 1.
B Complex with methylcobalamin and calcium L-methylfolate.
Olive Leaf Extract @ 80+mg of oleuropein, but currently making tincture so do not know the dose anymore.
Cycled/Sporadic:
Tribulus terrestris @ 15g root & 15g fruit, extracted.
Ashwaganda @ 3g
Astragalus Root @ 10g
Maca @ 3g
Ground Fenugreek Seeds @ 10g
N-Acetyl Cysteine @ 1g
An immunological mushroom of some kind: mainly Reishi of late as I have some around.

2025-03-08 06:43:59

Here is the current egg program, with amendments implemented upon discovery during the egg programming note series.
-- Japanese Quail Food for Magnificent Eggs --
To make ~ 1.43kg @ ~ 20% Protein & ~ 5% Fat:
-- 1kg Yellow Peas*
-- 270g Raw White Rice
-- 34g Paprika
-- 30g Dehydrated Pilchards
-- 30g Flax Seeds
-- 25g Grass-Fed Butter°
-- 10g Coconut Oil°
-- 10g Dehydrated Bull Kelp (Durvillaea potatorum)
-- 10g Dehydrated Grass-Fed Beef Liver
-- 7.2g B.V.M. Probiotic Powder
-- 4.2g Iodised Salt
Optional:
-- 7.5g Turmeric
-- 5.25g Cloves
-- 5.25g Dry Olive Leaves
-- 1.2g Onion Powder
-- 1.2g Cinnamon Powder
-- .75g Ginger Powder
Calcium carbonate/egg shells/cuttle bone/limestone/oyster shell grit provided separately and consumed at the discretion of the performer.
Grean leafy lower oxalic acid things also provided daily.
* = Rinsed then soaked for 12 hours. Then drained, and then roasted for 90 minutes at 170°C/338°F, then dehydrated for ~ 5 hours at 70°C/158°F.
° = Melted and poured through mix.
Note within a note (noteception): entire mix is ground prior to feeding.
The next note in the series will be about #paprika.
#nevent1q…782y
#feed #food #poultry #birds #quail #nutrition #eggstr #henstr #roosterstr #eggprogramming

2025-03-07 04:16:32

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Taken*

2025-03-07 04:03:45

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Here is the third image that didn't work. https://image.nostr.build/4ec6eb46526c94013e6a7f35b3b5e5b257ce6a8f6e6f5165033a51b97d53c8f9.jpg

2025-03-07 03:59:40

Welcome to another episode of egg programming.
This note is about feeding fish to poultry.
Two vital components of fish are eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA).
These are the notorious marine omega 3s.
Up until this point we have been talking about the plant omega 3: alpha-linolenic acid (ALA).
We have been deploying flax seeds to balance ALA with omega 6 fatty acids; and we have been doing this because humans do well when this is balanced.
Here is an image of the chemistry of these fats:
https://image.nostr.build/7dcac6b0095a8713cd7b75c304b8d3c4fff6109c530e7a6463d5c3422c40bf10.jpg
The different elongation pathways for these fatty acids compete to use the same desaturase enzymes, as you can see here:
https://image.nostr.build/e9bb5eb27754ff2e353216f19ea40c6f547af23c5bbf0e134984a78e6e5d942d.jpg
You will notice arachadonic acid on the omega 6 side. This is the precursor to inflammatory eicosanoids, which are vital for lots of things. However, we do not want them around in excess.
To grug it out a bit: we want inflammation to be well managed, and this is why we balance the omega 3:6.
You might say that another purpose is to make more EPA and DHA from ALA, and this is true. However, those elongations are inefficient processes. But, conveniently, we can utilise other creatures to access more EPA and DHA.
Birds are more efficient than humans at converting ALA to EPA and DHA, so we are kicking goals just eating eggs from birds who eat ALA.
However, we can do better than that.
We can eat fish, and we can also feed fish to our legendary egg producers!
Al-Daraji et al.'s (2010) study "Effect of dietary supplementation with different oils on productive and reproductive performance of quail" found that fish oil at 3℅ of the feed produced the best results in regard to egg weight, hen-day egg production, egg mass, cumulative egg production, feed conversion ratio, fertility, hatchability of eggs set, hatchability of fertile eggs, and embryonic livability—followed by the results of flax oil. The lowest values for these traits was recorded for corn oil and sunflower oil—neither of which (oil nor whole) feature in this egg program.
A more recent review by Alagawany et al. (2019) titled "Omega-3 and Omega-6 Fatty Acids in Poultry Nutrition: Effect on Production Performance and Health" fleshes-out the nuance here and, more specifically to this note, teases apart the differences between fish and flax:
https://image.nostr.build/4ec6eb46526c94013e6a7f35b3b5e5b257ce6a8f6e6f5165033a51b97d53c8f9.
This image was taked from their Table 1 which is a good TLDR on supplements and results.
Here is the article:
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC6721126/
This egg program features dehydrated pilchards. Why? They are high quality and cheap. Lots of fish meal you might find for poultry has had the oil extracted from it at at least 100°C/212°F, so it is really only useful for protein—not so much for less stable micronutrients and certainly not for omega 3s.
I get the pilchards in frozen block form. These are bait for fishing and the fish look healthy: it seems like they have been frozen on the boat that they were caught from.
Dehydrating the pilchards is a smelly affair: the whole homestead will smell like 1000 piers. But, it will be worth it.
It is exciting to see bones, scales, offal, and oily flesh, making their way into the mix.
It is lovely rich stuff.
I keep the dehydrated pilchard meal in the fridge: there are lots of goodies in there that we want to preserve.
Fish hey . . .
Consider sending some at your birds.
#bird #egg #food #nutrition #science #fish
#health #longevity #farm
#homesteading #eggprogramming thread:
#nevent1q…288c

2025-03-03 05:15:28

This is a great article about phytochemicals like phytooestrogens, oxalates, phytates, and tannins.
Some of these you might know as anti-nutrients.
The authors detail pros and cons and summarise each compound.
I found it particularly interesting to encounter phytates as being useful in the regulation of iron and what the positive externalities of that can be—like protecting the colon from iron-induced lipid peroxidation and decreasing the production of advanced glycation end products.
It was also cool to read about the nuance in the phytooestrogen literature.
The article is called "Is There Such a Thing as "Anti-Nutrients"? A Narrative Review of Perceived Problematic Plant Compounds".
It is by Petroski & Minich and you can find it here:
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC7600777/#B216-nutrients-12-02929
Here is also a separate note about advanced glycation end products:
#nevent1q…m789
#plants #nutrients #food #nutrition #science

2025-02-28 05:46:46

"This is the best job in the zoo: millet distribution."
But, is it really?
Welcome to this installment of a series of notes regarding programming Japananese quail eggs. Featuring: a live code edit.
We'll do it live!
Millet is typical wild food for Japanese quail. An initial focus for me on this journey was to reproduce something approximating wild food. Getting Japanese millet in there was actually a vibe thing, and the red milllet was deployed because I love red pigments.
Millet is typically about 11% protein and 4.2% fat.
We are in the right range on the fat front for Coturnix japonica: we are shooting for 4–5% of the total mix. However, that protein dosage falls well short of the 16% minimum we desire. But, that is fine, we have other sources of protein and the current protein percentage of 21.1 is more than ample, perhaps even too high . . .
Zooming in on the fat in millet, there is .118g of omega 3 and 2.015g of omega 6 per 100g. This is an omega 3:6 of .0586. This is not great: you will not find me eating millet unless I am starving and have a protein shake on hand with ground flax seeds in it.
Since we have 281.5g of total millet in the mix, we have 1.897g x 2.815 = 5.336g of omega 6 kindly asking to be balanced with omega 3.
We will be doing this with 26.68g of flax seeds.
We are at a total ameliorative dose of 51.2g of flax seeds to cover the yellow peas, red lentils, and millet in this mix.
The current mix has 30g as I sacrificed some of the dose to make way for other fats—the butter and coconut oil.
However, this was before the major update that deployed pilchards and beef liver. It might seem that a fork is neccessary where the full dose of flax seeds is restored, and all of the coconut oil and 66.6% of the butter is removed . . . However, I am disinclined to remove all butter as it seems the flavour of the eggs improved after its inclusion.
Some further testing of this fork, with a fork, is perhaps neccessary.
Live Edit:
An idea for a replacement for millet here is white rice, which is:
6.6% protein and .58% fat, and it has an omega 3:6 of .211.
We would only need to deploy 1.42g of flax seeds to balance the omega 3:6 for 281.5g of rice . . . A total of 25.94g of flax seeds would be needed for the entire mix.
The new protein percent would be 20.22, and the new fat percent: 4.045.
Winner winner quail dinner!
I can even increase the butter and coconut oil dose to raise the fat to 5%.
I am excited about how the eggs will taste.
Once I run out of millet, it seems the new rice fork of the egg program will go live, and it will probably also include 14g of bull kelp.
It is astonishing how many feed formulae can be created in a day . . .
"This is the best job in the zoo: [rice] distribution."
There is a great article by Silva et al. (2023) called "Relationship of Linoleic and Alpha-Linolenic Acids on the Productive Performance and Serum Biochemical Profile of Japanese Quail Breeders" if you are interested in diving deeper into the omega 3:6 stuff in these birds.
You can find it at https://www.scielo.br/j/rbca/a/MP8Ptnm55Vdf66ky36VDMsw/
#eggprogramming #rice #millet #omega3 #omega6 #fat #lipids #birdstr #eggstr #farmstr
#nevent1q…fva9

2025-02-27 06:48:44

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It seems I have made a mistake with the B.V.M. powder and the iodine situation. Having just received a new tub, it seems that there are rather 7.5mg of iodide per kg of powder . . . Back to the drawing board on that front.
I am considering perhaps spritzing an iodine solution on the mix. As well as perhaps growing low oxalic acid plants to feed them that happen to also present with iodine.

2025-02-26 23:40:27

Welcome back to the #eggprogramming note series.
Let us talk about yellow peas and red lentils, and why they feature in this egg program.
Please consider all values presented to be in the proverbial ball-park, rather than guaranteed.
Upon macronutrient inspection, yellow peas and red lentils are similar:
Yellow peas are 22% protein and 2% fat.
Red lentils are 24.5% protein and 2% fat.
Japanese quail need 16–24% protein to be well. Studies will often arrive at 20% for an adult quail, and 24% (or higher) for an adolescent, especially when they are younger than three weeks.
There are pros and cons to either end of the spectrum. From the egg perspective, more protein generally results in more, larger eggs. From the cloacal perspective, more large eggs are generally associated with more prolapses.
If one were to shoot for the lower bound, it would be prudent to utilise more animal protein and/or supplement lysine and methionine. You will see these featured in commercial mixes as deficiency can be an issue, especially when plant protein is predominantly deployed.
I want to minimise supplements, and focus on whole foods, as well as minimise how much fish I need to deploy for financial and proccessing reasons. Although, the current fish method does seem to be going a long way. More to come in another note about that. If you had access to cheaper meat meal of some kind, I could see how it might find its way to being a larger constituent.
We have 5% as the upper bounds for fat for the total mix so it is nice that yellow peas and red lentils are 2%, which is quite low.
The omega 3:6 (the ratio between omega 3 and omega 6 fatty acids) for yellow peas is .205, whilst for lentils it is .271. I consider anything above .1 to be pretty groovy/manageable in the plant realm when programming eggs and humans.
For every 100g of red lentils there is .414g of omega 6 and .112g of omega 3. This leaves .302g of omega 6 per 100g of red lentils to be balanced: and we can do this with 1.51g of flax seeds for every 100g of red lentils.
So, 3.775g of flax seeds would draw our omega 3:6 to 1, just taking into account the 250g of red lentils in the mix.
We need more due to the yellow peas which have .696g of omega 6 and .143g of omega 3 per 100g. So, that is .553g to be balanced per 100g which equates to an additional 20.74g of flax seeds to cover the entire 750g of yellow peas in the mix.
I am fond of flax seeds for this ability and will produce a separare note about it.
You might have noticed that there is processing involved with the yellow peas and red lentils. This is because they have unideal antinutrients in them like tannins, phytates, and trypsin inhibitors. Conveniently the red lentils and yellow peas we get are dehulled/decorticated, which removes a lot of the tannins and phytates, but some still remain and so do the trysin inhibitors.
Cooking thoroughly is a solution. Soaking also helps. You can even ferment. If they were whole seeds, it seems that sprouting them first then cooking them would be the most effective way to destroy these compounds. So, if you have whole seeds, that is an option.
I have played the fermentation game, and my nose just says no to me when I smell their food and it smells like nice kombucha. I prefer it to smell buttery, sweet, and fishy.
To process the yellow peas and red lentils I wash them first and deliver the milky rinse to the garden. I feel like I have more leeway before they smell weird doing this. This is especially useful on hot days. The nose knows, you know. It also gets rid of miscellaneous debris, and perhaps peculiar residues. Six hours is ample on the soak, but I usually do it overnight.
After soaking, I rinse it all again and then put them in a large cast iron pot without the lid in the oven for 90 minutes at 170°C/338°F. It seems that 121°C/249.8°F for 90 minutes is ample. So, you could use a pressure cooker. It is also nice to get to this temp or higher to destroy any bacterial spores. Mayhaps I sleep better dancing above this temperature . . .
I like the ease of the oven. In the antinutrient literature I have read they go up to 180°C/356°F, and I feel better about all of the yellow peas' and red lentils' exposure to heat at this temperature for this time in this way, taking into account that I do not stir them to save time.
Once they are cooked I lay them out on sheets of baking paper in the beloved dehydrator (perhaps the singing heart of the homestead). They get 5 hours at 70°C/158°F. Upon dehydration, the yellow peas and red lentils are ready for inclusion in the mix, although they will need to be ground prior to consumption.
You might be wondering why I have used 25% red lentils and 75% yellow peas. Price is a factor. Yellow peas are 62.5% of the price of red lentils. Red lentils are, however, more performant: they are higher in protein, they exhibit a better omega 3:6. They are also more dense in several micronutrients: calcium, iron, potassium, phosphorus, selenium, ascorbic acid, niacin, pyridoxine, folate, and compounds in the vitamin E group, although there is more vitamin K in peas.
The reason I have used red lentils is becauase they are easily accessible. I have noticed some black lentils present with even higher protein, so that is exciting. However, they are not as easily available for me. Moreover, I like that these are red, becasue I like red pigmentation in yolks.
A lot.
More to follow regarding yolk colouration in later notes.
#protein #peas #lentils #egg #programming #nutrition #health #homestead #homesteading #bird #quail #farm #wellbeing #wellness #chickens #longevity
#nevent1q…uj7x

2025-02-23 19:04:18

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The last several months. Not very long but with a lot of thought. A special interest you might say. There have been a lot of recipes!

2025-02-23 04:30:09

I love programming eggs. Here's is my current quail food recipe. Our legendary egg producers are quail of the Japanese variety.
The followong will make 1.4153kg
@ 21.1% Protein & 4.8% Fat:
-- 750g Hulled Yellow Peas*
-- 250g Hulled Red Lentils*
-- 200g Red Millet
-- 81.5g Japanese Millet
-- 30g Dehydrated Pilchards
-- 30g Linseeds
-- 25g Paprika
-- 7.5g Turmeric
-- 7.1g BVM Powder
-- 10g Dehydrated Grass-Fed Beef Liver
-- 4.2g Iodised Salt
Melted and poured through the mix:
-- 15g Grass-Fed Unsalted Butter
-- 5g Coconut Oil
* = Rinsed then soaked for 12 hours. Then drained, and then roasted for 90 minutes at 170°C/338°F, then dehydrated for ~ 5 hours at 70°C/158°F.
Optional additives that are general health and carcass quality oriented:
-- 5.25g Cloves
-- 5.25g Dry Olive Leaves
-- 1.2g Onion Powder
-- 1.2g Cinnamon Powder
-- .75g Ginger Powder
Calcium carbonate/egg shells/cuttle bone/limestone/oyster shell grit provided separately and consumed at the discretion of the performer. We use their egg shells and cuttle bone as we are near the ocean.
Green leafy lower oxalic acid things are also provided ad libitum/twice daily.
I am quite fond of the BVM powder. It is nice to have a multinutrient additive around. I have been trying for months now to facilitate complete nutrition with whole food only. The final sticking point I encountered was iodine. Iodine is vital for poultry, they need at least .5mg per kg of feed. Some people provide their birds with up to 3mg per kg of feed. Iodised salt in the aforementioned dose provides about .2 mg, and I cannot add more as we want the added salt to be around .3% of the mix.
Seaweed might come to mind as a solution, but the concentration of iodine varies greatly, and depends largely on processing too, so I feel like I would be running the gauntlet with our entire flock if I were to rely on seaweed like this.
If you have seaweed that is tested for iodine and you trust the dose, I would love to know about it. I may need to learn the local seaweeds where I am and process them myself and then I might feel comfortable dropping the BVM powder which ads .35mg per kg, so we are approaching .5mg per kg of feed, providing the miscellaneous greens they are eating also provide iodine . . .
In light of this closeness to the lower bound, I may consider increasing the BVM dosage (perhaps double), but if I do that I will half the beef liver dose and reduce the pilchard dose, as these are very nutritious and the protein percent is already higher than what is necessary. I might then also drop lentils and replace with more peas.
I will detail my rationale for each ingredient in following notes.
#homestead #homesteading #poultry #eggprogramming #quail #health #food #birdstr #eggstr

2025-02-22 04:36:22

I have noticed that there are some who think sugar is a health food . . . However, there are many negative externalities to sugar consumption.
Let us have a look at one you might not know about: advanced glycation end products.
When functional proteins encounter a bombardment of sugar, some of those sugars haphazardly attach to the proteins, and this renders those proteins toxic.
The more sugar that is around, the more it binds to proteins like this. These sugary proteins interfere with an array of cell functions including lipid synthesis, inflammation, antioxidant defences, and mitochondrial metabolism.
Smashing sugar is not a health practice, even though one can get shredded and temporarily feel well and clear out polyunsaturated fatty acids from your cell membranes by pouring it all over your white rice instead of essentially any plant oil.
However, this is an unideal lever/trigger to pull. Advanced glycation end products accumulate, and they facilitate atherosclerosis, neurodegenerative disease, and other chronically inflammatory diseases.
If you throw caution to the wind and abuse sugar because you believe/have discovered that much of what sugar is blamed for is likely downstream of excess polyunsaturated fatty acid consumption (i.e., seed oils) and environmental toxins, etc., it is increasingly likely that you will end-up aging quickly, become progressively more sickly, have difficulty initiating movement, and eventually rapidly forget who you are: providing you manage to avoid heart attack and stroke.
Advanced glycation end products are only one of the myriad of negative externalities of a careless penchant for sugar.
Have a look into them!
#sugar #health #food #nutrition #longevity