BLAKE COURTNEY/FOTOLIA

    SHEREZ/FOTOLIA

In future issues, I would like to see some space dedicated to feeding poultry without using commercial feeds, that include the various mixtures and proportions that people use. I read often that people do it, but no one seems to be willing to share their formulas. Even in your April/May issue, you have an article called, "Feeding the Homestead Flock: It Ain't Rocket Science!" that furthers the view that we need not depend on manufactured feed, but it doesn't give us guidelines for developing our own feed-except to "experiment and observe." I would love to get away from manufactured feed-I grind my own flour to make my own bread, I roll my own oats, I never buy processed foods for our consumption-feeding my chickens manufactured feed goes against everything I believe in, but neither am I going to "experiment" with my birds. Guidelines to follow from someone who has been successful would certainly be a great help.

Looking forward to many wonderful years reading your magazine.

Nan, Wisconsin

On Experimentation

I find it odd that Nan in Wisconsin is so willing to "experiment" with her own diet, but is unwilling to do so with that of her chickens. Against the assurances of most of the "expert" opinion in our country that our national diet of processed convenience foods is the safest, most nutritious, and wholesome in the world, she has learned to distrust that advice enough to go to the considerable trouble of grinding her own flour, making her own bread, and avoiding industrial foods. There is no more worthy "experiment" she could be doing, in my opinion, to further her health and that of her family. I wonder why she is reluctant to take the same approach with the feeding of her flock.

This heavy duty grinder, powered by a 1-1/2 hp electric motor, will grind 25 lbs. of feed in a couple of minutes.

If Nan is appealing for a source of "expert" opinion from homesteaders making their own feeds, I must bow out. I have been making all my own feeds going on 10 years, with results more than satisfactory to me, but cannot pretend to be an expert in the field of poultry nutrition, and indeed consider every one of my formulations a snapshot of a moving target-that is, an ongoing experiment. As a matter of fact, I have to interrupt my writing shortly to run out and make a 100-lb. batch of feed, and I've been thinking, maybe with a dry summer coming on, I should change the ratio of. . .

The truth is, if you are feeding commercial feeds, you are taking part in the most radical feeding experiment of all, one designed to answer the question: Just how unnatural a feed can we get away with?

Reflections On My Grandmother's Flock

The most revolutionary change in my own perspective on feeding my flocks came when I started thinking about my old grandmother's management of her flock of chickens. Contrary to all advice from the ag college crowd, the lab-coated poultry nutritionists, and all other recognized experts in the field, she simply threw a little scratch grains to her birds once a day (more to keep them fixated on the coop as the place to return home than for nutrition, I suspect)-and allowed them to free-range over a 100-acre farm. This apparently haphazard approach allowed the chickens to mostly feed themselves-the way Chicken would have fed herself before Homo sapiens and Gallus gallus first cosied up to each other, striving for a more perfect union.

So what were Granny's chickens eating?

Green plants: We do not think of chickens as grazers, but actually, if they have access to them, a significant portion of their diet will be grasses, clovers, and broadleaved weeds.

Seeds: Wild seeds of all sorts.

Animal foods: Earthworms, insects, slugs, etc.

And what are the defining characteristics of these self-gathered feeds? They are alive. And they are raw. In other words, they are the polar opposite of the scientifically formulated feeds the experts tell us we should be feeding our birds-made from excessively heat-treated ingredients, some of which are already stale (rancid) at the time of processing, to say nothing of when they are sold, perhaps months later, to the hapless homesteader.

While my grandmother's chickens didn't produce as many eggs as a modern egg-factory hen, the eggs had viscous whites and deep yellow-orange yolks that would stand up and salute. While her birds were not ready for slaughter after a 44-day grow-out, her chicken 'n dumplings was not to be believed. Her birds maintained the best of health without benefit of a daily dollop of antibiotics. And they reproduced their kind easily and naturally.

The Modern Homesteader's Dilemma

Do I feed my flocks the way my grandmother fed hers? I do not. I homestead two-and-a-half acres, with close neighbors all around. Letting my flocks totally free-range the way hers did is not an option for me. So I try to get as close as I can to the feeding paradigm in Granny's flock. That is, as much as possible I try to make sure that most of what my birds eat is alive, and that it is raw. I pasture the birds the entire green season, using electronet fencing. [See April/May issue, page 44 for Harvey's article on electronet.-Ed.] I constantly seek ways to give my birds more feeds produced here on the homestead, both to achieve more feed independence, and to afford them an ever-greater proportion of live foods in their diets. In the next issue of Backyard Poultry, I will detail some of my ongoing experiments toward this end.

In the meantime, I will present my approach to making feed mixes designed to substitute for the conventional feeds of commerce.

An added chute keeps the dust down and controls flow of the ground corn and peas into the catch bin, a 15-gallon plastic utility tub.

Note that my prepared feeds are based primarily on whole seeds, untreated in any way. Hence they are indeed alive. (As someone whimsically observed: "A seed is a tiny plant, in a box, with its lunch.") Any one of my feed grains can be planted to grow into vigorous plants-indeed, when I need a cover crop, I most often draw the desired seeds from the feed bin and sow.

Also note that I make feed in small batches. As soon as the seed coat is crushed, oxidation of enzymes, fat-soluble vitamins, and other perishable nutrients begins. I therefore grind in small batches-typically only a few days' worth of feed at a time.

Equipment

Unless you are feeding very few chickens, making your own feeds requires a serious grinder. While it is true that I started out making feeds using a Corona hand mill, that's more a testament to my stubbornness than to my good sense. I now make about four tons of feed a year, which requires a grinder a good deal more macho than I am. My heavy-duty feed/flour mill I bought from Lehmans (www.lehmans.com-Key in the search word "mill.") The model I bought is their Item #2360 powered by a 1-1/2 hp electric motor I purchased locally. It will grind a 25-lb. batch of feed grains in a couple of minutes flat.

Some sort of catch basin beneath the grinder is needed to catch the feed. I like a heavy plastic, 15-gallon utility tub.

I recommend making a chute of some sort to channel the feed from the grinder to the catch basin, in order to minimize dust while grinding.

Storing the quantities of grain I'm using in 50-lb. bags is not practical. I used materials left over from a house addition to build a storage bin, capacity about three-quarters ton. Interior partitions divide it into four separate bins, each with a sliding gate at the bottom for drawing off the grains. By adding new deliveries at the top and drawing from the bottom, I continually rotate the feedstocks. Once or twice a year I schedule a complete draw-down of the bin, and get inside the empty bin with my shop vac to vacuum out accumulated seed meals, weevils, and their eggs. Following that practice, I rarely have a serious infestation.

Ingredients

One of the challenges for homesteaders making their own feeds is finding high-quality primary ingredients close by, at a reasonable price. I encourage like-minded homesteaders to band together, sharing orders and delivery chores. Such co-ops are especially desirable if they expand to include local farmers willing to grow specifically to meet their needs. In such arrangements the greatest obstacle, typically, is that of storage. Go on, try it-you need a challenge to your creativity.

I am lucky to be within the delivery area of Countryside Natural Products in the Shenandoah Valley of central Virginia, and receive monthly deliveries of certified-organic feed grains and legumes, as well as supplements. I buy the greatest diversity of primary feedstocks CNP can supply, which fortunately has steadily expanded over the years. The following are the ingredients I am now using in my feeds, or have used in the past.

Premix:

• Aragonite
• Salt
• Probiotic
• Crab meal
• Flax seed
• Nutri-Balancer
• Kelp
• Fish meal
• Cultured yeast

Grind/Whole Portion:

• Alfalfa pellets
• Peas
• Oats
• Corn
• Wheat
• Barley

Aragonite: Mined from mineral deposits. High in calcium, needed by the hens for good shell quality. "Feeding limestone" can be used interchangeably. Note that hens on pasture have less need for such supplementation, but it can always be added for "insurance."

Nutri-Balancer: Fertrell's (www.fertrell.com) broad-spectrum mineral supplement, now in an organic-certified formulation. Though I've used it for years, more and more I question its necessity. I am feeding the highest quality natural foods I can buy. If in addition the birds are getting plenty of enzymes from green forage and (in summer) insect food-all of which help achieve a more complete absorption of the minerals in the diet-why am I spoon-feeding them basically non-food mineral supplements, however natural? I am experimenting with a gradual reduction of mineral supplementation, other than that of kelp and salt.

Salt: An essential nutrient for chickens, but usually supplied in sufficient quantity in commercial mixes or a supplement like Nutri-Balancer. I am currently using a high quality livestock feeding salt that includes many trace minerals in addition to sodium chloride.

Kelp: Dried seaweed meal from the coast of Iceland or Maine, an excellent natural source of minerals.

Incidentally, I recently met someone online who is feeding her birds raw milk cultured with kefir, as a part of her flock's daily diet. Probably her birds get far more benefit from the cultures in that milk than those receiving a commercial probiotic. If you have access to high quality farm milk or its byproducts (skimmed milk, whey), by all means experiment with culturing it and offering it to your flock.

Fish meal: Dried, ground menhaden, a species taken in quantity by commercial fishers, but not valued as a human food species, so converted to a potent protein supplement (60% protein).

Most people I know who are making their own feeds do use fish meal-it's hard to make feeds that are high enough in protein without it (at least if you want to avoid highly refined/processed alternatives like pure lysine from corn)-especially for growing birds, whose protein needs are higher than for mature fowl. Also, eating fishmeal, like eating insects, boosts the Omega-3 content of egg yolks. However, I am increasingly uneasy over the question: How sustainable is turning countless thousands of tons of fish into feed supplements? Furthermore, though a potent source of protein as said, fishmeal is not a fresh, live food, so will never be as good a food as possible alternatives which the homesteader or small farmer is in a position to supply, especially in the warm season. (I will explore some of those alternatives in the next issue.)

Crab meal: Dried, crushed shells from commercial processing of crab meat, a good source of protein (about 25% or so), and of needed minerals like calcium. Though a good source of selenium as well (an essential trace mineral in which many of the nation's soils tend to be deficient), it should for that very reason be fed in modest amounts: Selenium is one of those vital minerals needed in trace amounts, which actually become toxic at greater concentrations. I limit crab meal to 1-1/2 lb. per hundredweight of feed. (Kelp also boosts selenium, incidentally, both as feed supplement and as addition to soil.)

Feed storage bin made of leftover material from an addition to our house, capacity about three-quarters ton. Three interior partitions provide 4 bins (wheat, corn, peas, and a mix of oats and barley). Sliding gates at the bottom allow continual rotation of stocks (drawing off at the bottom, adding renewal stock up top).

Cultured yeast: Supplements not only protein (18%) but a number of minerals and vitamins, especially the B complex. It is particularly useful for waterfowl, whose needs for B vitamins, and especially niacin, are greater than for chickens. Contains live cell yeast cultures which become active in the gut. Together with digestive enzymes in the dried yeast, the live cultures enhance feed digestion.

Flax seed: Flax has become something of a buzz word because it boosts Omega 3 fatty acids in egg yolks (as does eating live animal foods such as earthworms and insects). In our modern diet we tend to get far too much Omega-6 in proportion to Omega-3, thus any way to get them into better balance is desirable. I only feed flax seed whole. Flax oil is highly perishable (i.e., goes stale/rancid readily when exposed to oxygen), so feeding flax meal is in my judgment not a good idea. It is important that the birds have free access to grit if you feed flax seeds, which are small and hard.

Alfalfa meal: I start with 100% alfalfa pellets (17% protein), the kind fed to rabbits and horses. The chickens resist eating the pellets whole, so I grind, along with the corn and peas. I include alfalfa only in the winter, when green forages are less available.

Corn: A high-energy feedstuff which I store whole and grind as needed.

Peas: I no longer use any soybean in my feeds. I can't get into a long discussion on the subject here, but there are schools of thought I am influenced by (if interested, check out http://www.westonaprice.org/soy/index.html to get you started) that find use of soy highly problematic, starting certainly with humans, emphatically for ruminants, though I am not as sure about avian species. Anyway, I haven't fed any soybean since being able to substitute with what my supplier calls "field peas" (pisum arvense, a relative of the garden pea, pisum sativum). Peas of the Vigna group such as cowpeas can also be used if you can get them in quantity. I store the peas whole until ready to make feed, then grind coarsley along with the corn.

As for soybeans. . . At one time farmers grew many different legumes to feed livestock. Following the "soybean revolution," however, soybeans are typically the only feed legume available in most areas. If you only have access to soybeans for your feeds, remember a few important points. Whole soybeans are the best option if you can get them, but make sure they are roasted. Never feed raw soybeans to any livestock-they contain growth-inhibiting factors which are a disaster for the animals who eat them. From commercial sources, the typical form of soy available is soybean meal as a byproduct of processing soy oil. Not only can such meals contain residues of hexane (a solvent used to extract the oil), but the high heat and pressure of the processing rancidifies whatever fats remain-that is, soybean meal is a stale feed. Finally, most soybeans in the American market today are genetically modified, a fact deeply troubling to many thoughtful homesteaders.

Wheat, oats, and barley: The small grains I never grind-just weigh them out and stir in when I'm grinding and making the mix. If I could get other small grains I would use them as well-probably the greater the diversity of feed ingredients, the better. (Note regarding oats and barley: Do not feed at greater than 15% of the total diet, either individually or in combination.)

During much of the year I hold the small grain portions out and sprout them prior to feeding. (More on sprouting methods in the next issue.)

Oyster shell and grit: Though not listed in my sample formulations, remember your birds' needs for grit in the gizzard to grind their feed, and for oyster shell as an additional boost of calcium and other minerals needed for strong egg shells. When the birds are on pasture they usually get enough grit and mineral on their own. In the winter house, however, it is wise to offer them free choice.

Technique

For efficiency, I make a "premix" of the finer, more powdery ingredients, measuring it out in amounts sufficient for 25-lb. batches and storing it until use. When ready to make feed, I grind (coarsely) the corn and peas, dump in the premix, and add the small grains whole (if I am not sprouting them). I mix thoroughly by hand, then feed immediately or store, for a few days only, in a covered bin.

Sample Formulations

I cannot overemphasize that the following sample mixes are for illustrative purposes only. Feed formulation is a moving target for me, constantly subject to change, to experimentation-I figure that to "get it right," a lifetime should suffice. If you are skilled in the use of electronic spreadsheets, you will find it trivial to do as I do-set up a series of spreadsheets which automatically recalculate protein, fat, and carbohydrate values, cost, etc. as I plug in varying amounts of the base ingredients. My spreadsheets are set up on the basis of 100-lb lots, since it is easier to think of the ingredients as percentages. However, I make up my feed in 25-lb. batches, since that is easier when mixing by hand. Thus the tables reflect both the amount of ingredients per hundredweight, and the amounts per batch.

Table 1 - Starter Mix - Protein 17.5%

Table 2 - Pullet Grower Mix - Protein 16.9%

Table 3 - Summer Layer Mix - Protein 14%

Table 4 - Winter Layer Mix - Protein 14.6%

Table 5 - Experimental Layer Mix (Winter) with Sprouts - Protein 15.5%

The numbers following the ingredients in parentheses indicate the percent protein, and the total protein in each mix is noted. These figures are based on the best information I can find on the subject, and probably in many cases reflect averages in typical market feedstocks. Since I have access to feedstocks produced more organically/sustainably/ecologically than in dominant agricultural practice, my actual percentages are probably higher than the tables indicate.

By emphasizing the percent protein in the tables, I do not mean to imply that the other major and minor nutrients (fats, carbohydrates, minerals, vitamins, enzymes) are not important-certainly they are. I have worked with complex formulae to determine the correct balance of the various nutrients, and discovered that-when making feeds from whole, natural ingredients as I largely do-the balances come out right if I simply peg a given formulation to the percent protein needed. If I were using a lot of processed and byproduct ingredients, of course, the calculation would become a good deal more complicated.

A further point about protein: My feeds would be considered short on protein by designers of poultry feeds. For example, the recommended percent protein for broiler chicks is 22%, I believe, and you will notice that my Starter Mix may be around 17.5%. I am not growing one of the souped-up, fast-growing hybrids such as the Cornish Cross, nor am I growing broilers for a market. Those who are would perhaps do well to increase the percentages of protein in my sample mixes. For traditional homestead breeds, however, I'm not sure it's a good idea to "push" growing birds for maximum rate of growth. It may be that best long term health and reproductive success are achieved through a growth curve which is somewhat slower, but more balanced.

Finally, it may surprise some poultry owners to know that my home-made feeds are actually more expensive than commercial feeds. I buy certified-organic ingredients, and pay a fee to have them delivered from almost two hours away. While I am willing to pay a premium price for superior ingredients, I hope the growing number of small producers, perhaps joining in cooperative markets, will gain access to less costly local feedstocks. Certainly it is wise to remember the old adage: You get what you pay for.

A winter layer mix I have used, based on sprouting all the peas and small grains, and feeding the remaining ingredients as a dry mix. Note that I have no way of knowing how much the protein increased due to sprouting. In lieu of aragonite, I now offer oyster shell free choice.