whole grains?

[vsmenagerie]

Question about feeding whole grains to meat chicks.

I have a mixture of oats, wheat, barley and alfalfa seed. I have been feeding it to my hogs and plan on getting more Cx soon, since my freezer is getting low on chicken! The last batch, I was getting feed from a mill, so it was a meat bird feed, all ground up.

I was thinking I would soak it, and I was thinking I would need to get a mineral supplement for them? If I can figure out an easy way to sprout some of it, I will do that as well. Just curious if anyone has done the whole grain thing with them with good success?

Thanks!

 

[cameronfarm]

I suspect you will end up with fatty small chickens. Thats all carbs, excess carbs (well any cals really) make fat. You don't have anything in that diet mix that has decent amount of protein if any. Protein build muscles, and we like to eat muscles

 

[cameronfarm]

You could add something like this:

http://www.ofbug.com/

 

[vsmenagerie]

I can easily add to it, this is just whats available to me, and I can get a lot of it. I wont be ordering any chicks until may, since I am too busy right now, so I have time to figure out if its something I can use for them, or not. The last batch were tractored, and fed lots of veggie scraps and foraged really well, and I am hoping the next batch will do the same. Just needing to find out what to do with this feed to make it useful for them The pigs do not get only this either, I mix it

So a suggestion on some good proteins would be nice

 

[vsmenagerie]

I will contact them. Thank you!

 

[cameronfarm]

No problem, there are tons of home brew feed mixing recipes on the net. Check mother earth news too.

 

[pastryman]

There is quite a bit of protein in wheat. And if you have them on grass eating bugs you are allmost there. Sproutet grains are very good. And if they are not on grass even more so. Then you dont need minerals. Just a little olive oil or something like that and perhaps some carrot. If you have some meat leftovers from the kitchen you can use it, but not to much with salt. Mine eat what is left on whole roasted chickens - no problem.

My chickens eat a lot of whole grains. You can soak them if you want to. In some parts of Europe, they give broilers barley soaked in milk the last two weeks to make tender meat. But your chickens must get used to whole grains. Dont use whole grains the first 2-3 weeks. And they need small stones/grit when you start.

 

[AgroUrica]

There is quite a bit of protein in wheat. And if you have them on grass eating bugs you are allmost there. Sproutet grains are very good. And if they are not on grass even more so. Then you dont need minerals. Just a little olive oil or something like that and perhaps some carrot. If you have some meat leftovers from the kitchen you can use it, but not to much with salt. Mine eat what is left on whole roasted chickens - no problem.

My chickens eat a lot of whole grains. You can soak them if you want to. In some parts of Europe, they give broilers barley soaked in milk the last two weeks to make tender meat. But your chickens must get used to whole grains. Dont use whole grains the first 2-3 weeks. And they need small stones/grit when you start.

Wheat runs between 12 - 13 percent protein, higher than corn and milo at about 8 -9 , but still well below the 19 - 20% needed by meat birds to build muscle. As stated above by cameronfarms, grains are mostly carbs and produce mostly fat. This I see when I take my birds off commercial feed at 40 days and switch them to fermented and dry corn meal. They don't gain much muscle mass, but they do get fat.

 

[pastryman]

Yes. I agree AgroUrica. But the protein in wheat means, that you dont need a lot of protein to go along with it. But you do need some, I agree. But some leftover fish, meat and poultry from your household can be enogh. You can also use some dried peas or soybean. Sunflower seed also have a lot of protein (and fat).
I would never feed my chickens mostly corn. But something like this could work nicely :

wheat 20 %
Barley 15 %
Oat 10 %
Corn 10 %
Sunflower seed 5 %
Dried peas 5 %

Sprouted wheat 10 %

Pellets 20 %

Leftover meat/fish/poultry 5 %

Plus free-ranging, oister shells and a little olive oil or cod oil now and then.

(This is very close to what I give my chickens and ducks, but ducks get eggs, not meat).

 

[SJ]

Your close with what you have you just need a little more protien for meaties. Have you looked into hard boiled eggs, distillers grains, algae pellets, duck weed, powdered milk, whey, any freezer burnt meat you have you could cook up, maggots, or just digging some earthworms?