Cluckn Sea Kelp

So my mom bought my chickens a bag of Cluckn Sea Kelp and I am really excited because I've read about the benefits of feeding kelp/seaweed to chickens.

However... it says to mix 1/4 cup into 11 lbs of food. If I do this, all of the sea kelp goes to the bottom of the bucket. And when I feed my chickens (all THREE of them) I'm certainly not giving them 11 lbs. So, how much kelp do I give them?

I feed them morning and evening. In the morning I give maybe 3 handfuls into each of the two feeding dishes. In the afternoon I give a small handful into each dish. So, I would probably just give the kelp in the morning, but I don't know how much to give! The Cluckn Sea Kelp also says you can give 1/2 tsp in two spoonfuls of yogurt as a treat. But I don't want to give it as a treat, I want it to be daily.

Please help. I want to start giving this to them tomorrow if possible.

I'm not exactly sure on the amount, but it wouldn't be much. My calculations say you would need 0.023 cup of kelp per pound of feed. That probably translates into fractions of a teaspoon but not sure what. Perhaps google can help. You would then want to weigh out the 2-3 handfuls of feed you offer so you know how much you're feeding them.

What do you mean if you mix it in a bucket that it all goes to the bottom of the bucket? I think it would be way easier mixing in bulk occasionally than trying to figure out fractions of a teaspoon.

One thing I do when mixing in supplements is something like this...

You could measure out 11 lbs of feed and the 1/4 cup of kelp. In an empty bucket, pour in about a third of the feed and then a third of the kelp. Mix well with your hands or or long and stiff stick. Repeat this twice more with the remaining thirds. Your kelp then should be fairly evenly distributed by then. Keep the bucket covered to keep pests out. For 3 birds, I guess you'd only need to do this once a month or so.

If it is sinking to the bottom of the feed, that means two things. It has a specific gravity greater than your regular feed so gravity pulls it down. That’s a common problem with mash where the feed is just ground up, the different parts can separate. With pellets and crumbles those different components are bound together so they can’t eat some and ignore other ingredients. But your additive is not bound to the feed. Also, they are not eating it. They are electing to eat the other feed and eat around the kelp. That’s another common problem.

One trick the professionals use to make them eat all of it in the right proportions (other than making pellets or crumbles) is to wet it. If you just put enough water in it and mix it to make a paste, it won’t separate.

I don’t know what form of feed you are using right now, mash, crumbles, or pellets. But if you grind the kelp up in a food processor or blender, and maybe the feed if it is crumbles or pellets, and store it as a powder. Then before you feed it mix it up so the different parts have not separated out and make a paste out of that. Make sure you make just enough for them to clean it up so you don’t have wet feed going moldy.

Another option after making it into a powder is to look up a fermented feed thread and maybe ferment your feed. I don’t ferment so I don’t know how that would work but it should help keep it mixed. Since wetting the crumbles or pellets will cause them to break down, you don’t need to grind them up if you ferment.