Anyone have any good tips and tricks that are Cheap and easy to boost protein and nutrition for chickens?

[KlinoClucks]

Hey everyone!
I’ve been keeping chickens for several years now, usually several flocks at a time, all free range over about 1 acre areas per flock. I’ve moved and started over with a much smaller flock.
The difference between this flock and the previous ones is that they can’t free range. Also, in the area I’m in, there is no access to anything in regards to chicken food other than some sort of powdery chicken food (which I personally don’t like to feed them), although I have been able to find some wheat and whole corn. I have been fermenting the wheat and corn, and their egg production has increased greatly as well as their overall health.
My questions are: are there any cheap ideas out there to increase their protein intake, since they aren’t free ranging, and any ideas for increasing their nutritional intake? I don’t have access to a lot of things out here, but I just thought I’ll ask around and see what others have come up with
Thanks so much!

 

[cmobley]

Dried meal worms or the fly larvae would work. You could make a maggot bucket putting food scraps in and the maggots and larvae crawl out they could eat.

 

[SueT]

Don’t underestimate the value of chicken feed. I feed a 20% all flock feed. I buy Kalmbach feed, which is not powdery at all, and my chickens love it.
When we are getting too many eggs, I feed them extra eggs, scrambled.

 

[DobieLover]

My questions are: are there any cheap ideas out there to increase their protein intake

In my region, there is an organic grain mill that sells Fertrell Poultry nutri-balancer (FPNB) and organic fish meal by the pound. If you can get these two ingredients, I would mix some into each batch of ferment you bring out. Just get an idea of the dry weight of the feed before fermenting then weigh out enough FPNB to meet the recommended ratio. Do the same with the total protein in what you are feeding (which is going to be way too low by feeding corn and wheat) and add enough fish meal to bring the protein up to 20%.

BTW, if you are already fermenting, the birds would be better off if you fed them fermented "powdery stuff" (it's called mash) and you topped that off with fish meal instead. If the mash was properly formulated you may not need to top dress with fish meal all that often. Just enough to increase their meat based protein as it is a far superior protein source than vegetation based protein.

 

[Acre4Me]

Protein:
1. grow some beetles or bugs, even grasshoppers. Caution on mealworms- they are very high fat and can cause issues in the hens (fatty liver disease, for example).
2. Catch fish or grow fish with hydroponics and let them pick at it.
3. Anytime you cook meat -give them some of the extra bits/let them pick the bone clean.
4. Fish flake food
5. Catfish pellets -like you would use to feed catfish in a pond as long as ingredient list shows 16% minimum protein
6. Eggs -feed any extra/old back to them
7. Alfalfa -usually 16% min protein. I’ve rehydrated this and mixed into wet feed. Fresh- just needs to be chopped so they don’t choke it get impacted by long strands.
8. Dry cat food is usually 30% protein, so ok as a supplement occasionally (grind it a bit, or wet it.
9. Friend in a restaurant business? Maybe can access done proteins this way for cheap.

**** SALT NOTE: chickens don’t need a lot of salt -it can be bad for them. So processed foods/restaurant foods can be detrimental.

****Non-Chx Food note: these are not formulated for chickens. So, as they eat less of their formulated feed, then balanced nutrition can be compromised. There are chicken vitamins you can buy- I use NutriDrench in the US, but there are a few brands. You could add poultry vitamins to some of this, but still may be missing certain nutrients. I think there are vitamin packs (dry powdered form) that is meant to add to feed for those that mix their own feed, so another option for a proper nutritional addition.

 

[Krux5506]

I give mine extra beef since we tend to have a surplus of grass fed in our house. Sometimes I'll feed them back eggs as well, or even scrap chicken if theres some leftover at dinner. Yes my chickens eat chicken, i really do not care like some people seem to.


Are you able to have chicken feed shipped to your house from a place like Chewy? You can get pretty good deals from them and it's easy to get or find promo codes.

 

[kengboss21]

Hey everyone!
I’ve been keeping chickens for several years now, usually several flocks at a time, all free range over about 1 acre areas per flock. I’ve moved and started over with a much smaller flock.
The difference between this flock and the previous ones is that they can’t free range. Also, in the area I’m in, there is no access to anything in regards to chicken food other than some sort of powdery chicken food (which I personally don’t like to feed them), although I have been able to find some wheat and whole corn. I have been fermenting the wheat and corn, and their egg production has increased greatly as well as their overall health.
My questions are: are there any cheap ideas out there to increase their protein intake, since they aren’t free ranging, and any ideas for increasing their nutritional intake? I don’t have access to a lot of things out here, but I just thought I’ll ask around and see what others have come up with
Thanks so much!

Worm Bin
Larvae Farm
Maggot Bin

Also compost which doesn’t take much space and they can pick through and eat bugs and food scraps as well as help the compost be aerated.

 

[gsschulte]

rainbowmealworms dot com and start a mealworm farm in a bucket or a old aquarium. you can dry them and add them to a homemade flock block. i was about to do black soldier fly/phoenix worms from that same place but i do not have a compost pile going yet. you can also give them field peas or sweet peas they are usually a good protein source as are beans get no slat added and let them peck at them and it can boost them. and of course meat. the only time my birds get i to any scuffle is when meat is involved.

 

[KlinoClucks]

Thanks for all the feedback and ideas everyone! I’ve kept mealworms in the past and hope to start keeping them again here very soon the chickens are also getting all our chicken-safe kitchen/table scraps as well as all the green waste from our vegetable and herb gardens. Yeah I’m really isolated from any form of poultry and animal feed store, and the ones in my area really don’t have much variety at all. But I’ll ask around and see what I can find I’m not living in America so I’m not exactly sure what all that stuff is, but I’m sure there has to be some sort of equivalent here where I am. Americans seem to have lots and lots of options when it comes to chicken keeping related stuff. I’ll keep my eyes peeled!
Was awesome to hear about other peoples ideas and experiences - thanks again!

 

[saysfaa]

Does your soil have earthworms? I would not introduce them if it doesn't but if there are some in your area, you could "farm" them - basically, keep a space watered/drained to their liking, sheltered from predators of earthworms, mulched, and with food for the worms.

Milk can be a good, inexpensive option - like for people with a cow or goat who can't otherwise use all the milk.

If I didn't have access to good commercial chicken feed, I would look into raising meat for the chickens. Rabbits or quail probably, if it was for the chickens only.