The most expensive foods I've ever purchased were the ones my chickens didn't eat.
I like not worrying about their "complete" nutrition but I have been intrigued by the thought of mixing my own. So far I've thought of doing a half mixed/half pellet thing....I've also thought about doing a fermented feed, but it smells like pig slop.
We put oyster shell in a rabbit feeder but my chickens are not that interested in it. I guess they don't have a need for much extra calcium. Someone mentioned feeding egg shells and I do that too in the Spring when we have an egg surplus, only I boil and chop the entire egg and feed it back to them.
We have 34 chickens and have owned chickens for about 15 years There have been very few health issues come up. Very few. Twelve of my chickens are five years old and although I had a scare today with my Marans roo, all are very healthy...the roo was fine.
Welcome the couple of Newbies I saw post!!
I ferment corn in my utility room. It smells fermented, but it doesn't smell bad; I only let it go 2-3 days. I feed it to them when the water looks cloudy; I don't let it get to looking like there's cottage cheese floating in there. That happened once. =o[
I have yet to have an egg surplus. I haven't been averaging an egg a day and I have nine hens who should ALL be laying!!!
I've only been keeping chickens since this spring. Any tips/advice/etc would be welcome!!! Feel free to PM me, if that's better; I don't want to hi-jack this post. =)