Mixing some of my own feed.

[Carlos F]

Hi All

I am getting ready to start mixing my own feed. I have whole oats, whole wheat, and whole corn. I've seen people that do equal amounts of all three. I also hear from some chicken owners that too much corn is no good. Does anyone know the ratio of corn that I should be using?

Thanks in Advance
Carlos

 

[chickenlittle21]

Corn has little nutrition value and on hot days, it is harder for chickens to eat. Use less corn than wheat and oats. Also the chickens will need more protein and more nutrients than from just oats, wheat, and corn.

 

[Doc7]

Does not sound like a balanced and nutritious feed for chickens. What is the goal of your feed? Save money? It is hard to beat the nutritional profile of commercially available feeds.

 

[humblehillsfarm]

Please don't mix your own feed. I'm running out of time to type an extended response regarding this. Feed is extremely complicated, but basically chickens are living the longs they have ever lived and laying the most eggs because we have their nutrition down to a science. If you were to mix five pounds of each, not only would they be totally devoid of several key nutrients, especially lysine an essential amino acid, but the total protein yield would only be 10%. Laying hens need 16-18% protein in their feed.

 

[bradymars]

Yeah corn is good but less in summer more in winter it will put the weight on. I love whole oats and wheat just make sure there whole as they are better. You should mix the grain with a good all flock pellet for all the nutrients they need. you can adjust protien% by adding more or less pellets. The one I use is 20% protien. For maintenance I keep it around 16% and in the molt I increase it.

 

[Carlos F]

Please don't mix your own feed. I'm running out of time to type an extended response regarding this. Feed is extremely complicated, but basically chickens are living the longs they have ever lived and laying the most eggs because we have their nutrition down to a science. If you were to mix five pounds of each, not only would they be totally devoid of several key nutrients, especially lysine an essential amino acid, but the total protein yield would only be 10%. Laying hens need 16-18% protein in their feed.

Please don't mix your own feed. I'm running out of time to type an extended response regarding this. Feed is extremely complicated, but basically chickens are living the longs they have ever lived and laying the most eggs because we have their nutrition down to a science. If you were to mix five pounds of each, not only would they be totally devoid of several key nutrients, especially lysine an essential amino acid, but the total protein yield would only be 10%. Laying hens need 16-18% protein in their feed.

I was trying to make a feed that can replace the scratch and peck mixed grain feed that I used to throw on the ground for them. That feed is $60 for 40lbs. I can mix some feed for a fraction of that. I always have layer pellets in their feeders to make sure they get what they need. Just looking for some organic alternatives.

 

[rosemarythyme]

What you're missing the the vitamins and protein they add to their feed to make it a balanced feed.

if organic is too expensive (and 40 lb bag of Scratch & Peck runs me around $30-33, so you're paying double that!) why not switch to conventional? The chickens will do fine on it, the eggs just aren't going to be organic.

 

[humblehillsfarm]

What you're missing the the vitamins and protein they add to their feed to make it a balanced feed.

if organic is too expensive (and 40 lb bag of Scratch & Peck runs me around $30-33, so you're paying double that!) why not switch to conventional? The chickens will do fine on it, the eggs just aren't going to be organic.

I agree. Switch to conventional. The cost savings isn’t worth the decreased egg production and livelihood of your flock. Besides, almost all organic feed grains are grown overseas so the environmental impact on organic feeds is actually quite high. If you really want to insist on mixing your own grain, message me next Thursday and I’ll whip up a safer and healthier recipe. I buy my organic feed from TSC and found that mixing my own organic feed, even buying grains in 50 lb quantities at a time cost much more than just buying pre made feed. I think you’re getting ripped off by whatever it is you're buying OP