Growing chicken food to replace feed.

[Jada22]

If you have a lot of land and decent diversity of plants they can forage, and you are not aiming for the most efficient / cheapest mass production possible, a flock of free ranging chickens can find a lot of what they need for themselves. They have done it for thousands of years, and their not-too-distant cousins the jungle fowl still do. And if you want to improve the forage, let nature take over an area for the chickens to forage in. All the technical stuff about balancing diets is based on transferring commercial practices to domestic backyards, which isn't what everybody has in mind when they keep a few chickens in a backyard. Grass is good, and in Ireland like UK it will be available all year round so long as you don't overstock.

But if you are going to confine them to a coop and run, then purchased feeds are probably in the birds' best interests, and if they become unavailable, then I guess we'll have a lot of other things to worry about.

Mealworms are easy to farm in a small plastic drawer set, and I have yet to meet a chicken that doesn't relish them.

Thank you. Ideally what I am aiming for is to allow the chickens to pick most of what they want themselves. They have a small free ranging area at the moment, is it pretty much just natures garden lots of grass lots of weeds.
Our current chickens don’t even eat a lot of feed. But I am increasing the numbers, wanted to provide more of what’s good for them, worrying a little about feed becoming unavailable and while reading about nutrition I also began to wonder if ours were getting enough in their diet since they don’t tend to eat much pellets.
My chickens are just for me I’m adding to the flock only because I wanted some different looking birds, we don’t need more eggs and we don’t eat them. But I still want to make sure they are getting everything they need.

 

[Jada22]

^^^ also have goats. I feel you. Even when they don't simply eat the tree, they peel the bark off of saplings while scratching their back - they also use the metal fencing for that - but they seem to prefer smelling of bark.

I don’t have them anymore, luckily we found a great home for them eventually but they had destroyed everything by then. They definitely loved the fruit trees

 

[Happily Retired]

What foods can be grown to replace feed?
I’ve read a few threads on this already but the amount of information has me a little overwhelmed and confused.
If you were to go 100% grown food what would balance it out?
Would you need to measure everything out and mix it or would the chickens eat what they need?
We are currently back to starting to grow our own food due to price increases and food shortages.

We are working on fixing up a big area to grow some more foods but I’m thinking there’s more than enough area here to have a chicken feed plot.
From what I’ve read wheat,oats and corn are probably where I’d need to start.
I’m already planting sunflowers for the seeds.
They would probably get enough veggies from what we are growing ourselves but is there anything in particular that’s quite beneficial to them?

I’m thinking of breeding red wrigglers or mealworms to add to their diet. Is either better than the other? Or any other bugs good to breed for chickens?

I’m not sure I’d ever go 100% without feed but I’d like to get my knowledge and food sources to the point that it could be done- in case it’s ever needed.

All advice/ideas/opinions welcome.

You bring up a very valid issue, one of which I have been very concerned about. In addition to a varied diet, alternatively, what happens if tomorrow there is no more poultry feed available? What would I do to sustain my flock?

This is a real possibility given, at least here in the USA, fertilizer is expensive and farmers may not plant like they have in the past, the cost of diesel is thru the roof and still climbing, the availability of diesel in in question particularly in the NE which not only affects the ability to farm but also the ability to deliver and couple all of that with severe drought in parts of the country all are the ingredients for the perfect storm of no poultry feed. Under the current conditions this may be a real issue shortly. An example of this is the baby formula albeit for different reasons. Point being it can happen to any commodity. If the government responds this slowly for baby formula what kind of priority would poultry feed have?

I for one think that everyone should have a contingency plan in the event of real shortage or complete lack of feed. I am working my plan to be safe. Rather than bloviate about my plan in this reply, I will be happy to share my thoughts to anyone responding to my reply.

Best Regards to All!

 

[raingarden]

Remember, when Armaggedon comes eat your chickens before they can eat you.

 

[Happily Retired]

Remember, when Armaggedon comes eat your chickens before they can eat you.

LOL!!

 

[Jada22]

You bring up a very valid issue, one of which I have been very concerned about. In addition to a varied diet, alternatively, what happens if tomorrow there is no more poultry feed available? What would I do to sustain my flock?

This is a real possibility given, at least here in the USA, fertilizer is expensive and farmers may not plant like they have in the past, the cost of diesel is thru the roof and still climbing, the availability of diesel in in question particularly in the NE which not only affects the ability to farm but also the ability to deliver and couple all of that with severe drought in parts of the country all are the ingredients for the perfect storm of no poultry feed. Under the current conditions this may be a real issue shortly. An example of this is the baby formula albeit for different reasons. Point being it can happen to any commodity. If the government responds this slowly for baby formula what kind of priority would poultry feed have?

I for one think that everyone should have a contingency plan in the event of real shortage or complete lack of feed. I am working my plan to be safe. Rather than bloviate about my plan in this reply, I will be happy to share my thoughts to anyone responding to my reply.

Best Regards to All!

I’d be more than happy to hear your plans for if there are shortages. I have small amounts of different grains etc growing at the moment to see what grows best. Trying to gather as much info as possible and see what everyone else is doing to see which parts I can use myself

 

[addctd2plnts]

What foods can be grown to replace feed?
I’ve read a few threads on this already but the amount of information has me a little overwhelmed and confused.
If you were to go 100% grown food what would balance it out?
Would you need to measure everything out and mix it or would the chickens eat what they need?
We are currently back to starting to grow our own food due to price increases and food shortages.

We are working on fixing up a big area to grow some more foods but I’m thinking there’s more than enough area here to have a chicken feed plot.
From what I’ve read wheat,oats and corn are probably where I’d need to start.
I’m already planting sunflowers for the seeds.
They would probably get enough veggies from what we are growing ourselves but is there anything in particular that’s quite beneficial to them?

I’m thinking of breeding red wrigglers or mealworms to add to their diet. Is either better than the other? Or any other bugs good to breed for chickens?

I’m not sure I’d ever go 100% without feed but I’d like to get my knowledge and food sources to the point that it could be done- in case it’s ever needed.

All advice/ideas/opinions welcome.

I think it's very smart to plant fodder for chickens! If you want to be most effective, you could do like we do for horses. Plant several areas, and rotate which areas the chickens are in, so they don't over graze any one area. It will allow each area time to regrow, before the chickens are on it again. You can buy fodder mixes that are specifically made for chickens. I see them sometimes because I've been looking at seed for horse pastures. Here's a few places I found. I can't speak to most of these sources. I have bought sunflowers from Harris Seed and I know they have a type that is specifically grown for bird seed, not ornamental use:

1. https://www.ufseeds.com/product/chicken-forage-blend-blends/CCCF.html

2. This one has Chicken seed mixtures for different areas of the country: https://www.naturesseed.com/pasture-seed/poultry-pastures/

3. I have ordered from Hancock Seed and like them, but it was horse pasture seed! https://hancockseed.com/collections...n/products/hancocks-happy-hen-forage-seed-mix

If you find earthworms to feed your chickens, make sure to deworm them in spring and fall with real dewormer. As I recall, earthworms are a vector for parasites. Here's some videos on how to grow your own mealworms: https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=how+to+grow+mealworms . If you live somewhere that stays hot most of the year, Black Soldier Fly Larva is more nutricious, but requires hotter temps to grow.

There's people on here that ferment feed for their chickens. That's another option for you. I don't know anything about it, though. Most sources say as far as fodder and treats, that it should be no more than 10% of their total feed. This is so they derive a balanced diet from the pelleted feed first. I suspect in the summer most animals do eat more than 10% fresh if out on pasture, but some types are much better foragers. You need to look for the types of chickens that are better at filling the niche you want. I know with my ducks, all will forage a little, but my Indian Runners LOVE to be looking for bugs and food all the time.

Hope this helps!

 

[Alagirl]

I think animals have an instinct as to what they need. If they eat less feed while foraging, they should be covered. Although one also needs to keep track of critters when the new growth comes in and is richer than the winter rations.
(and for a moment I wondered how one deworms earthworms....)

Consider that chickenfeed is a new invention and much of what we know is for high production, short term results - and to sell chicken feed.
Maybe scower the depth of kindle books for some old volumes on chicken keeping? I mean, we
have run full circle (at least once) with commercial animal food: Better than homemade,
omg, just the cheapest stuff thrown in, to OMG I need to mortgage the house to pay for it (and not necessarily better than cookie crisps either)
and let's not forget birds are generally not vegetarians, even Hummers eat bugs!

 

[U_Stormcrow]

I think it's very smart to plant fodder for chickens! If you want to be most effective, you could do like we do for horses. Plant several areas, and rotate which areas the chickens are in, so they don't over graze any one area. It will allow each area time to regrow, before the chickens are on it again. You can buy fodder mixes that are specifically made for chickens. I see them sometimes because I've been looking at seed for horse pastures. Here's a few places I found. I can't speak to most of these sources. I have bought sunflowers from Harris Seed and I know they have a type that is specifically grown for bird seed, not ornamental use:

1. https://www.ufseeds.com/product/chicken-forage-blend-blends/CCCF.html

2. This one has Chicken seed mixtures for different areas of the country: https://www.naturesseed.com/pasture-seed/poultry-pastures/

3. I have ordered from Hancock Seed and like them, but it was horse pasture seed! https://hancockseed.com/collections...n/products/hancocks-happy-hen-forage-seed-mix

If you find earthworms to feed your chickens, make sure to deworm them in spring and fall with real dewormer. As I recall, earthworms are a vector for parasites. Here's some videos on how to grow your own mealworms: https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=how+to+grow+mealworms . If you live somewhere that stays hot most of the year, Black Soldier Fly Larva is more nutricious, but requires hotter temps to grow.

There's people on here that ferment feed for their chickens. That's another option for you. I don't know anything about it, though. Most sources say as far as fodder and treats, that it should be no more than 10% of their total feed. This is so they derive a balanced diet from the pelleted feed first. I suspect in the summer most animals do eat more than 10% fresh if out on pasture, but some types are much better foragers. You need to look for the types of chickens that are better at filling the niche you want. I know with my ducks, all will forage a little, but my Indian Runners LOVE to be looking for bugs and food all the time.

Hope this helps!

I can speak to Nature's Seed - I used their stuff when establishing my pasture almost three years ago. We immediately went into drought, I thought I had lost all of it (we had neither power nor well at that time), but a good bit of it came up the next spring! That said, the components of the mix themselves aren't all that spectacular - but I can't fault the quality.

 

[raingarden]

It ain't going to happen. Our price for chicken feed and Pepsi Cola (made with high fructose corn syrup) will keep going up, but the products will not disappear. There is a lot of flexability in how corn is used. The limited supplies will be bought up by those with the most lucrative markets and a customer base with the least price sensitivity. People will not stop drinking Pepsi Cola or feeding backyard chickens because of price and the producers know it.