Feeding chickens *WITHOUT* chicken pellets ??

[ChasesChickens]

There are a number of YouTube videos on this topic, but from what I watched, feeding grains to your chickens is not a great option for most people with small backyard flocks. Commercial feeds are mixed to achieve a desired outcome, protein, vitamins, minerals, etc... Do you have the background knowledge to do that? Most of us don't.

Also, you would have to buy bags of each grain in order to make your mix. How long would it take for your chickens to eat that down? Instead of buying a fresh 50 pound bag of commercial feed off the shelf, you might have to store 300 pounds of grain for months as your small backyard flock works down your grain inventory.

I watched one YouTube video where a lady calculated all her costs to mix her own grains at home. In the end, she did not save any money by trying to make her own mix. Worse yet, like I mentioned, she had to buy so much grain that it sat in storage for months before it was all eaten. She concluded that she was better off buying a fresh bag of commercial feed when she needed it rather than storing grains for months and feeding old food to her chickens.

I did watch one YouTube guy who did mix his own grains, and he was quite happy with his situation. But he was getting some spilled grains for free from someone, and he was also bartering for grain from another person. So, yeah, if you get grain for free, then making your own mix is worth the time and effort. But even he stated that most people would not save any money mixing their own feed if they had to buy everything.

My conclusion, for me, was that I would not save any money by trying to mix my own feed, it would probably not be as nutritious as the commercial feed, and my 10 chickens would be eating that home mix for many months and it would not be very fresh at the end. So I just buy a 50 pound bag of fresh feed as needed, and if the local farm store has a good sale on chicken feed, I'll buy a couple extra bags and save some money that way.

HI @gtaus,

I have very limited knowledge on what is the best mix.

I've just been watching the you mentioned . And you m and a really fair point about storage.. sinethung i having considered.

When yiubsau you buy a bag of fresh feed ...Do you mean grains or pellets.. or should I be indifferent?

 

[Shadrach]

Hi Everyone,
I'm not sure if I'm biting off more than I can chew - but I am looking to feed my laying and/or meat flock food more organic foods that DOESN'T include layer pellets.
I have been doing research online for the optimal protein/energy/vitamin combination and what type of foods would be required to achieve this balance.

I'm not necessarily looking to go 100% on pellet but want to avoid it where possible. My train of thought is that processed foods are bad for humans, surely they are not great for animals too. And since we are eating their eggs/meat, I should consider feeding the best diet where possible.

Also, Im weary that this could be a very expensive exercise. Ideally I would like to offset costs, but understand if costs are a little more expensive - the price we have to pay for something we believe in I guess.

Does anyone have any thoughts or suggestions where i can start looking. Better still if anyone has knowledge in this area I would love your thoughts.

You can buy organic commercial chicken feed. I would expect it to be available in Australia.
You may have to travel for it or get it delivered.
If you want to improve their diet rather than transfer your beleifs onto the chickens, feed them some cooked meat and/or fish.

 

[ChasesChickens]

In theory, I would like to only feed my chickens organic feed. In reality, a 50 pound bag of organic feed is about $30 whereas I can get (non-organic) commercial feed for about $12 a bag. I have no idea if the organic feed is any better, but I do know that I cannot afford it. So what I do is cut grass in the growing seasons and feed the fresh clippings to the chickens. In the winter, I have been growing fresh barley fodder. The commercial layer feed is available 24/7, but the grass and fodder is my "organic" feed supplement. I also feed kitchen scraps to my chickens. My goals are to provide my chickens with a variety of foods to choose from, to reduce the waste we send to the landfill, and still get some eggs as a bonus.

Hi @gtaus

I think this is also going to be my option ..

I also noticed a heap of wastage from foot shops.. so I got the courage to speak to them and ask if I could have any of their older stock etc for my hens. When I pop by , they give me a huge bag of older stock, such as outs for cabbage and lettuce, aging carrots etc etc. On occasion I give them a dozen eggs to spread the love. Its ironic because sometimes they give mne so much outers of lettuce leaves that could feed chicken for weeks on end and quality that is even eat . Lol

Basically I want to try reduce landfill and waste, and feed my chickens organically as possible while optimising their egg production.. and possibly for meat

 

[ChasesChickens]

You can buy organic commercial chicken feed. I would expect it to be available in Australia.
You may have to travel for it or get it delivered.
If you want to improve their diet rather than transfer your beleifs onto the chickens, feed them some cooked meat and/or fish.

Hi @Shadrach

I have no problem feeding the chickens meat or fish too.. scraps or leftovers . I guess when I say organic I want to reduce the industrial processing .. if that makes sense

 

[BloomBunny]

I've also been doing some research on chicken nutrition.

Chicken feed is formulated to provide the most optimal nutrition for the cost.

While feed is carefully formulated, it's goal isn't healthy, happy, long-lived chickens, but 1-2 years of maximum production per 1000 birds. Losses and declining health are acceptable.
From following the ER forum, additional b vitamins ( sproutted fodder system and fermented feed) makes sense.
Chicken crop and gizzard health might be improved with fodder system and whole grain feed.
Vitamin e and protein levels are enhanced by adding bugs.
There's been research into black fly larvae as a healthy protein source. YouTube has some great ideas for growing them - not sure if they are in Australia.
I'm still just looking into it.

 

[Fluffyflufffluff]

Hi Everyone,
I'm not sure if I'm biting off more than I can chew - but I am looking to feed my laying and/or meat flock food more organic foods that DOESN'T include layer pellets.
I have been doing research online for the optimal protein/energy/vitamin combination and what type of foods would be required to achieve this balance.

I'm not necessarily looking to go 100% on pellet but want to avoid it where possible. My train of thought is that processed foods are bad for humans, surely they are not great for animals too. And since we are eating their eggs/meat, I should consider feeding the best diet where possible.

Also, Im weary that this could be a very expensive exercise. Ideally I would like to offset costs, but understand if costs are a little more expensive - the price we have to pay for something we believe in I guess.

Does anyone have any thoughts or suggestions where i can start looking. Better still if anyone has knowledge in this area I would love your thoughts.

I can't imagine what to feed the chicks of not pellets... rice beads maybe is an option? I dont know. Its a possibility.. you can try.

 

[PioneerChicks]

BTW .. what is SS? Yes, woudl love to join for a more organic life

Sorry, sometimes I get caught up in abbreviations. SS stands for SufficientSelf and is a sister site to BYC. Here's the link: https://www.sufficientself.com
If you make an intro thread I'll find you!

 

[Perris]

@Perris ..they are technically penned with a big run.. but we let them out to free range (just a little under an acre for 14 hens) pretty much most days forvat least 8 hours except if it rains. I often get vegetables from our local fruit market and they aren't lacking of greens a nnd also give household scraps, as well as offer them grains too.

sounds good to me ; good luck, whichever route you go!

 

[gtaus]

I also noticed a heap of wastage from foot shops.. so I got the courage to speak to them and ask if I could have any of their older stock etc for my hens. When I pop by , they give me a huge bag of older stock, such as outs for cabbage and lettuce, aging carrots etc etc. On occasion I give them a dozen eggs to spread the love. Its ironic because sometimes they give mne so much outers of lettuce leaves that could feed chicken for weeks on end and quality that is even eat . Lol

I think that it is great you can get waste food from local shops. And if you can barter feed for some eggs, and that makes sense for everybody, then that is great for you.

However, don't confuse quantity with quality. Lettuce, for example, is mostly water and has very little nutritional value by itself. You don't want your birds filling up on lettuce and then see your egg production decline because the hens are not getting enough of the other vitamins and minerals they need. Waste food from shops can be a good source for feed, but make sure there is always a variety of foods to give to your hens. I feed my 10 hens kitchen scraps, when available, but with just Dear Wife and me, there is not too much kitchen waste for the hens.

There are a number of YouTube videos of people feeding only food waste to their chickens, in replacement of commercial feed. But they always mention that you want to have as much of a variety of waste food as possible. Also, they are not usually too concerned about egg production statistics. So, yes, you can have happy healthy chickens living off of waste food. That's old school great grandparents on the farm style, and it's OK if you are happy with maybe less productive egg laying chickens.

I'm OK with saving money on feed and maybe getting less eggs. I can't free range my chickens where I live, but I do feed them as much grass clippings as they can eat during the mowing seasons, and I grow barley fodder in the winter. I have 10 chickens, and this winter I am averaging about 5-6 eggs per day - which is far more than Dear Wife and I can eat. My chickens will eat just about anything else before they eat their commercial feed, and I'm OK with that. But I do have commercial layer feed available to them in their coop 24/7.

Oh, and if you get more waste food then your chickens can eat, I would suggest just throwing it in the chicken run along with other compost material and just let it compost in place. The chickens will continue to scratch and turn over the compost looking for bugs and such that feed on the decaying food materials. Some people have chickens primarily to make compost for the garden, and eggs are just a bonus. I built a pallet compost bin in my chicken run with the front panel cut down to half height. I took that half height front cut off piece and put it on top of the pallet compost bin. So, my chickens have an easy time jumping into the compost bin to scratch around for food, and they also enjoy jumping on the top boards and sitting in the sun (summer time of course).

 

[gtaus]

Sorry, sometimes I get caught up in abbreviations. SS stands for SufficientSelf and is a sister site to BYC. Here's the link: https://www.sufficientself.com
If you make an intro thread I'll find you!

Very nice. There is an Australian guy on YouTube that, IIRC, calls his channel Self Sufficient Me.... or something like that. He has many good YouTube videos for the homesteader types. I find them interesting, even though, some of his topics just don't apply to where I live in northern Minnesota. But, hey, knowledge is knowledge and he has lots of good things to talk about.