Wholesome home-made chicken feed, without sweat, tears, a calculator, or deep pockets.

Introduction

This article is written in response to several requests to write up how I make my own chicken feed for my flock of heritage and rare breed chickens. I started keeping chickens in 2017, and initially fed them entirely on commercial feed. My aim is to have happy, healthy birds; it is not to get maximum eggs or meat from them, and I am a retired academic, so I research deeply into almost everything I do. This article records the fruit of some 5 years of reading, sourcing foodstuffs, experimenting, and other nerdy activities that most people have neither the time nor the inclination to undertake. Last year, birds raised from hatch without any commercial feed at all survived better to maturity than any I have raised before, and the pullets commenced laying and are laying better than any I have raised before. It is rightly said that ‘if it’s not in the egg, it’s not in the chick’, and on this feeding regime I have had zero home-bred chicks born with or develop defects that arise from deficiencies in the diet. So my flock gives me confidence that this feeding regime not only works, but works better for my backyard flock than does commercial feed.

The principles on which this approach rests are 1. Birds have foraged for their own food for millions of years 2. Most bird species still do forage for their own food, and 3. Wild birds don’t get obese or suffer from the other diet-related problems frequently seen in commercial chickens or backyard chickens fed like commercial ones. There are plenty of recorded cases of wild birds like starlings, terns and eagles living for decades, doing it for themselves, in the wild, up to the extreme case of a wild albatross that made it to at least 61 years old. In the wild, birds successfully select for themselves what to eat, when to eat and how much to eat, to satisfy all their dietary needs from the real, recognizable foods available to them.

Developing the recipe

I started experimenting with feed in 2018. My guides were old poultry manuals that were written in a time before commercial feed existed or was just getting started (and was then called ‘chemical feed’). They disagreed what was best, to greater or lesser extent, but a common core appeared:

• The feed should be mostly whole wheat grains. Other grains could substitute for some proportion of it, but wheat was best and more than 5 different grains were considered excessive and of little or no benefit for much cost in time and money.
• Meat or fish should be included at least twice a week, usually in a form described as table scraps, or fish or meat trimmings. The advice was to use whatever meat or fish was available locally and cheaply.
• Dairy products of all sorts and eggs were on almost all lists of recommended foodstuffs.
• Most guidance assumed that the birds had access to grass or pasture, usually from hatch, and many stressed the importance of providing it for the health as well as the feeding of chickens.
• Everyone agreed that clean water was a fundamental requirement for good health, whatever the keeping conditions and feeding regime.

The current laws of the land need then to be factored in. In the UK now it is prohibited to feed table scraps to pigs and poultry, because of the hypothetical risk of transmission of a rare disease, though in times past people were encouraged to do exactly this, as they were in these old handbooks, and they may be again sooner or later. You should find out what the current laws on feeding scraps are where you live.

Meat provides protein in a form that chickens can digest fully (some forms of protein are more digestible than others), but for social, economic or political reasons, meat may not be an option and then an alternative is needed. ‘Protein’ is a label for a variety of different compounds. They are large and complex and folded into different shapes, and they join with other molecules and come apart. They provide essential amino acids that chickens must eat in order to survive, because they cannot synthesize them within their own body (or at least, not fast enough for their needs). Essential amino acids need not only to be present, but to be present in a form that is digestible by poultry (aka bioavailable), and their needs vary; one size does not fit all. “Amino acid requirements vary considerably according to the productive state of the bird, that is, the rate of growth or egg production… Amino acid requirements also differ among types, breeds, and strains of poultry… Genetic differences in amino acid requirements may occur because of differences in efficiency of digestion, nutrient absorption, and metabolism of absorbed nutrients… Errors in amino acid use may lead to toxicities, however. Methionine is toxic when excessive.” (Nutrient Requirements of Poultry 1994). There is no risk of overdosing on amino acids (or on vitamins, or minerals) if chickens are offered real foods (not concentrates) and are allowed to choose what to eat.

Soy is the commonly used source of plant protein in most modern western feeds. It is a multibillion-dollar market; about 70% of US grown soy is used as animal feed. It is a nutrient-dense source of plant protein, and almost all of it grown today is genetically modified to not die when sprayed liberally with a particular weedkiller. Many prefer not to use it for this reason. It is not grown locally here (the British climate does not suit it; trials have been underway for about a decade) and I do not use it for that reason. There are plenty of alternatives, and what grows locally to you is likely to be fresher and better quality than something shipped from afar who knows when or how. What matters is what the chicken can extract and digest from a given food when in its gut; something that is present but indigestible may as well not be there. Where it exists, the Digestible Indispensable Amino Acid Score [DIAAS] is a better guide to the protein value of foods than is the Protein Digestibility-corrected Amino Acid Score [PDCAAS] (FAO 2023).

Feed for adult birds

Wild birds eat natural foods, most of which are seasonal. Their diet consists of insects (in all stages of their lifecycles, eggs, larvae, pupae, adults), vegetation (of all types, leaves, fruits, flowers, seeds, roots), and dirt (for minerals). By allowing the flock to free range across the garden, and by not using chemicals to control which species of flora and fauna live there, I provide many and varied natural seasonal foods, at zero cost.

I have made some efforts to identify what wild plants are available for them to forage here and have sown or planted some natives to increase the range and diversity (thereafter I don’t tend the wild plants; those that like the conditions thrive, those that don’t, disappear). The garden has deliberately broad and untidy margins where I intervene only to remove (as they appear or start to dominate) particularly troublesome plants such as bracken, brambles, giant hogweed, and excessive ivy (it forms woven mats on the soil surface that prevent the chickens scratching).

So far identified are perennial ryegrass (the backbone of any lawn, usually), other as yet unidentified lawn grasses, burnet, campions, celandines, chamomile, cleavers aka goosegrass, clovers, cocksfoot, cowslips, cranesbill, crocuses, daisies (the chickens love little lawn daisy flowers), dandelions, docks, fescues, hawkweed, hemp agrimony, knapweed, lucerne/ alfalfa, mallow, meadowsweet, medicks, mullein, plantains, primrose, self-heal, timothy, trefoils, violets, wild garlic, yarrow, and lots of ferns, mosses, liverworts and lichens. And fungi, all sorts; mycorrhizae are under the surface everywhere.

Some of these get nibbled as greens, some as flowers, some as seeds, some as fruiting bodies (mushrooms, berries), some as roots. Some are said to have medicinal properties in old herbals, for example mallow was a medieval ‘cure-all’ and dogwood berries are used in Chinese herbal medicine as an anti-inflammatory, liver-cleanser and energy boost. I have been able to find some info on the nutritional values for only a handful, for example, dandelion leaves contain twice as much calcium, three times as much vitamin A, and five times as much vitamin K and vitamin E as does spinach, plus vitamins B1, B2, B9 (folate), C, beta carotene, iron, manganese and potassium. And all these wild plants attract insects and other wildlife, which the chickens eat too.

The chickens have decided what they like of this buffet through sampling and monitoring the consequences on their digestive system, and from watching each other. Deadly nightshade, foxgloves and a few other toxic plants also grow here, and the chickens knew to leave them alone without my intervention. Of the herbaceous perennials, they are particularly fond of the new growth of cephalarea gigantea, aka giant scabious, which is sufficiently robust to withstand their depredations and grow beyond their reach. They also like day-lily flowers, which also cope with it, and zonal geranium leaves, which need a bit of protection if they are to survive. The chickens ignore peonies, bluebells, clematis and much else besides.

The core of my supplementary feeding regime is a wholegrains-peas-sunflower mix that is lightly fermented in medium-large kilner-jars, 3 in summer and 4 in winter. The main element is grains, usually bought as a 20kg sack of ‘mixed poultry grains’ consisting of 80% wheat, 20% cut maize. Sometimes I get a sack that has 10-20% barley in place of some wheat, and occasionally another variation on the same theme.

To a scoop of these grains in the jar I add mixed dried peas, in a ratio of about 1-2 parts peas to 10 parts grain. The dried peas I have settled on, after much experimentation, is a mix sold in 20kg sacks as feed for pigeons. It consists of blue peas, white peas, maple peas, vetches, and whole French maize. Note that the names for varieties of peas vary widely and are not consistent; any kind with the word ‘sativa/sativum’ in its Latin name will do, and there is likely to be at least one local version almost everywhere. To these I add a sprinkling of black or striped sunflower seeds; black contain more oil; striped more protein, and I buy 1kg bags of whichever seems most appropriate at the time (striped when moulting, black in winter, for example).

The whole wheat provides a lot of complex carbohydrates and fibre, a little protein, a smattering of minerals (varying with the soils in which it was grown), some vitamins (E, Bs) and a lot of Choline. The peas provide quite a lot of protein and in particular supply amino acids that are missing from or in inadequate quantities in the grain. They also supply carbohydrates, fibre, some minerals and some vitamins. And the sunflower seeds supply some fats, protein, fibre, minerals and vitamins – again, the precise amount of any of these nutrients will vary with the variety of crop, the growing conditions, the storage conditions, how long since it was harvested etc..

These three different elements are placed in a kilner jar with tap water (which here is safe and clean and tastes good; adjust as necessary where you are if you want to try this) to cover, and a spoonful of plain natural live yogurt mixed in to initiate a (friendly) bacterial ferment, which produces a mild lactic acid (not alcohol). The jar is stood in a warm place (I stand it on the central heating boiler) and fermentation has begun as soon as bubbles can be seen rising through the grain to the top of the liquor, which becomes slightly cloudy as starch and so-called ‘anti-nutritional compounds’ in the grain are drawn out of them by the soaking and fermentation process. The so-called 'anti-nutritional compounds', mostly phytates, are inherent within the grain, put there by the plant to try to preserve and protect their seeds from being digested; we want to remove them so it can be fully digested. You can see some such bubbles in the photo.

Fermenting cereals in combination with legumes improves the overall quality of the fermented product in several ways. Cereals like wheat are usually deficient in lysine but are rich in cystine and methionine, while legumes like peas are usually rich in lysine but deficient in sulphur-containing amino acids. By combining cereals with legumes, the overall protein quality is improved. In addition, “the benefits of fermentation may include improvement in palatability and acceptability by developing improved flavours and textures; preservation through formation of acidulants…and antibacterial compounds; enrichment of nutritive content by microbial synthesis of essential nutrients and improving digestibility of protein and carbohydrates; removal of antinutrients, natural toxicants and mycotoxins… Changes in the vitamin content of cereals with fermentation vary according to the fermentation process, and the raw material used in the fermentation. B group vitamins generally show an increase on fermentation … (for example) During the fermentation of maize or kaffircorn in the preparation of kaffir beer, thiamine levels are virtually unchanged, but riboflavin and niacin contents almost double (Steinkraus 1994)” (Haard et.al, chapter 1).

I feed the flock at the start and then again at the end of their day; in between they are free to forage where they will and on what they will in the garden and environs. The lightly fermented contents of the kilner jar are poured into a sieve and divided between 5 bowls. Then, still at the sink, fresh water is swilled around the just-emptied jar until it is half full, and the grains and liquor remaining in it serve as the starter culture for the next batch; it is refilled with grains, peas and sunflower seeds, and goes back on the boiler till tomorrow.

To the bowls containing the fermented feed I then add different things on different days, according to no particular schedule but trying to keep it fresh and varied. On most days the supplement at breakfast is live mealworms. In the same way that the precise nutrient profile of cereals and vegetables depends on the soils and weather in which they grew and the chemicals, if any, applied to them in the field plus the time and conditions in storage, so the nutritional quality of mealworms depends on what substrate they live in and what they eat. My mealworms live in wheat bran, get the trimmings of assorted local seasonal organic vegetables for moisture and food, and occasional dry dog or cat food kibble for micronutrients that might otherwise be absent from their diet. There is more information on and photos of my mealworm farm on a separate thread, link in the references at the end.

In nature, most foods are seasonal: new shoots, flowers, fruits, seeds, beetles, caterpillars or flies and so on are there for one short window in time, and gone for the rest of the year. So change in the diet is also fine, and in my experience chickens are not instinctively averse to new foods. The following are the additional foods I give my flock variously and occasionally besides the core grains-peas-mealworm mix. I aim to rotate through these over time, or as suggested by circumstance, e.g., extra protein when birds are moulting, warm food on cold days, or cold food on hot days. As I have been experimenting to build this list, it became apparent that any foodstuff left behind in the bowls after 30 minutes was undesirable to them for some reason; that particular food has an issue for the chickens and warrants further research before trying it again. In all cases they use their instincts and take small trial portions of a new foodstuff, before deciding, sometimes almost immediately and sometimes after a few exposures, whether this is good eating or not. Further, they have unique microbiomes and individual preferences, and their preferences change over time and circumstance. Keep it varied to increase the likelihood of satisfying every bird’s individual needs.

• Banana supplies carbohydrates, fibre, some minerals and vitamins, especially B6.
• Beans of all kinds contain good quality protein, but may also contain some toxins, so should be cooked or well fermented before being given as feed.
• Bread is hugely variable, but normally contains small quantities of all the essential amino acids, together with carbohydrates and a little salt and fat. If you make your own you can include whatever you want, e.g. some gram (chickpea) flour to boost protein.
• Fish provides complete protein in a form more easily and completely digested by chickens than is protein derived from plants. Small fish species caught in the open sea are more nutritious than large or farmed fish, and are less likely to have accumulated microplastics or heavy metals. Tinned sardines are relatively cheap and supply a lot of calcium, sodium, and useful quantities of potassium and phosphorus, in addition to protein and B vitamins. I usually use the one in sunflower oil because I do not add oil separately and the chickens need some. (Fish meal is an unknown quantity; as with any homogenized feed or meal, it is impossible to tell by sight or smell or touch or taste what went into it, and I avoid it.)
• Lentils contain a lot of protein and B vitamins, but also a relatively large amount of copper, manganese and iron, so I give them rarely.
• Milk evolved to feed the young of all animals that produce it, and contains all the essential minerals and vitamins needed for that baby’s early (and usually rapid) growth. Cow’s milk contains most of the major vitamins and amino acids needed by chickens, and some saturated fat, as long as it has not been processed into skimmed milk. That processing removes, along with the fats, a lot of the nutrients and notably all of the fat-soluble vitamins (A, D, E, K), plus healthy fatty acids like omega-3. If milk ‘goes off’ naturally, it turns into curds (the solid part) and whey. Both parts are enjoyed by chickens, the curds eaten and the whey drunk. Live yogurt is a concentrated form of milk, with relatively more of everything plus some microbes. In humans, those microbes appear to improve the health of consumers by increasing the diversity of metabolites in the gut. Something similar probably happens in chickens but I have yet to find a proper study on it.
• Mushrooms of various sorts grow in the garden and the chickens eat some of them. They are also something one can add to supply vitamins B and D, and selenium, plus a newly discovered amino acid called ergothioneine which appears to have anti-inflammatory properties. They are also a good prebiotic for the microbiota in the chickens’ guts. However, since some mushrooms are toxic, chickens must be allowed fully to exercise their instincts and discretion on this foodstuff.
• Oats, like other grains, contain some quantity of all the amino acids, and useful amounts of minerals and vitamins (especially the B group). Cooked as porridge, with enough milk or milk and water to make a non-sticky meal, oats are an easy and welcome warm food for a cold morning.
• Peanut butter is a high protein food. Peanuts (aka groundnuts) are legumes like peas that complement grains, and in the pureed form of a butter can be spread thin on a slice of bread to make a nutritious and easily digested sandwich which is also suitable for handfeeding, if desired. I have found it very useful for invalids.
• Potatoes have a little of all the essential amino acids, plus a lot of carbohydrates and some minerals and vitamins – more potassium than a banana and the same fibre as an apple, for example. But they need to be cooked; do not feed raw or green. My flock love them mashed with a little butter and milk.
• Wheat bran is in stock here because it is needed for the mealworm farm. It is the most nutritious part of the whole grain, and besides some useful protein, carbs and fats, has good quantities of magnesium, phosphorus, iron, zinc, manganese, vitamin E and the B complex. The anti-nutritional factors in it are substantially reduced if it is mixed and/or fermented with a little milk (to make a crumb) for about 4 hours prior to feeding.

All natural foodstuffs, even of ‘the same’ variety of something, vary in their detailed composition, depending on the habitat they grew in, the weather when they were growing, their state at harvest and assorted other variables. Robinson 2013 is essential reading on the most nutritious varieties of common foods like potatoes in the supermarket or grocers, and how to prepare them to maximise their potential nutritive value.

Serious chronic deficiencies will produce symptoms that can be identified and rectified as appropriate. Birds can hide illnesses but they can’t hide poor feathering, curled toes or other such symptoms of deficiencies, which are particularly obvious in home-bred chicks.

Feed for chicks

In formulating chick-feed, the old poultry manuals that I found most useful were by Lewis Wright, Lady Arbuthnott, and John Robinson (who also reports the ideas of Hunter, Boyer, Rudd, Felch, Lambert and Mrs Thomas).

Here chicks are on grass as soon as they are brought off the nest by the broody, and she takes them straightaway to lawn edges, where she hunts for food for them and teaches them how to forage, and what is edible, with the cover of the shrub border close by in case a predator appears. So the food I supply is supplementary, even when it constitutes the majority of what they consume; how much of it they actually consume on any given day varies with how much or little their broody and then they have found for themselves, and how much they feel the need to supplement their diet with what I offer them.

Chicks eat little and often, befitting the tiny size of all constituent parts of their anatomy. Supplied food needs to be in small-tiny particle size or of soft consistency (though I know from experience that a two-day old chick is capable of eating an unfeasibly large live mealworm). It is easiest to eat in a crumbly consistency, not a powder, and not so wet that it sticks to the beak. If they are out on the ground, their broody will find and direct them to eat soil or grit of an appropriate size for their developing gizzard.

Inclusion of some fermented feed liquor (the liquid drained off when serving to adults) in the first feed (e.g. soak some breadcrumbs in it) will inoculate the chicks’ gut with lactobacilli, which will help them deal with the coccidia that they are bound to encounter outside. The broody may direct them to consume some dried chicken poop for the same reason (a faecal transplant to get good bacteria into the chicks’ gastrointestinal tracts).

For the first week, chicks are offered chopped boiled egg, milk- or fermented-feed-liquor- soaked breadcrumbs, live mealworms (small ones), and a varying combination of cooked potato, polenta, semolina, gram flour, wheat flour, or oatmeal, mixed into a crumble with a little milk. Thereafter I add, increasing in quantity and variety as the weeks progress, fresh curd or plain natural yogurt, mashed tinned sardines, peanut butter, currants, smashed Weetabix or Shredded wheat (breakfast cereals*), and smashed dry high protein dog or cat food.

The broody will direct them to eat the adults’ feed as well, but the chicks largely ignore it in my experience (perhaps intuiting that the whole grains are too big for their system and will give them tummy-ache) and prefer their chick feed. The rest of the flock will eat the chick-feed too given half a chance, so it is better to offer it when the main flock is elsewhere. The broody initially keeps the chicks much closer to the coop than the main flock roams, so this is not normally difficult, if the keeper has the time and inclination to hang about watching the young brood for the right opportunity to feed them.

* These breakfast cereals offer whole wheat in an easy-to-eat form and without added sugar. Breakfast cereals, like mass produced bread in the UK, are typically fortified at least with B vitamins and iron to replace the nutrients lost from the whole wheat during the production of flour.

Feed for invalids

When a bird is not well and hangs around the back door (or even gate-crashes it, having been in before and knowing what to expect) I offer them some live mealworms. That is usually what they want, for a protein or fat boost, and once they have consumed as many as they want or I can spare, I put them outside again; usually they then either return to the flock or go to stand somewhere else nearby while they rest and digest. Mealworms are often labelled as ‘treats’ on BYC and some influential people here assert, without citing any supporting evidence, that such treats should not constitute more than 10% of the diet. (As far as I can ascertain, this so-called ‘10% rule’ is just hearsay.) In fact, giving sick birds a relatively large portion of live mealworms is supported by published academic research: “High fat/low moisture content insect larvae may, however, be appropriate as part of a mixed diet or as the main component of a diet for an unhealthy animal where the primary nutritional goal is to increase energy intake” Finke 2015, emphasis added.

In my experience, a bird that refuses live mealworms is feeling very ill indeed and its prospects for recovery are poor, but I will offer them a variety of other things that are relatively easy to eat and digest, such as a little banana (sugars, fibre, potassium, vit C), milk-soaked bread (protein, fat, carbs, calcium, vit D), currants (sugars, fibre, variety of minerals), or peanut butter (fat, protein, fibre, salt) – it is sometimes necessary to wipe an ill bird’s beak clean after eating any of these, especially the last, unless it has been left to dry to a crumble before feeding or is given in the form of a thin sandwich. Sometimes one or other of these is what they were looking for, and once they have eaten until they want no more, they go back out. A bird that refuses all these is popped into an old towel-lined washing up bowl (which I’ve found is the right size for most large fowl to sit with head and tail resting on opposite corners, keeping head in fresh air and tail out of the way of poop) on the floor of the warm quiet utility room, and left in peace for several hours before I try again. Water is offered by syringe to the outside of the beak in extreme cases.

Finding supplies

The next issue is sourcing whatever feedstuffs it is intended to offer.

20 kg (about 45 lb) sacks of grain or peas may take some effort to locate locally. If possible, it is better to source locally for several reasons, not least freshness. Nutrients are lost in storage, and humidity etc. fluctuates in transit. An agricultural supplies store should stock or be able to supply sacks of ‘straights’ e.g., one local to me offers wheat, wheatfeed, barley, maize (called ’corn’ in the USA), distillers’ grains, sunflower, soya bean meal and soya oil as straights. Whole grains have evolved over millennia as nature’s way of preserving nutrients, and a sack of whole grain should be good for at least a year if it is stored indoors and kept dry. This is not the case if the grain has been broken, milled or otherwise processed e.g. into something described as a ‘meal’.

Many pet shops stock or can get what in the UK is called ‘Mixed poultry corn’, which here consists usually of 60-80% whole wheat, 10-40% whole or cut maize, and sometimes 10% or thereabouts of barley or other grain. Sometimes it also contains a handful of ingredients that sound nice and greatly inflate the price (such as a sprinkling of sunflower seeds, marigold petals, assorted herbs, probiotics, prebiotics and other trendy items) while adding little nutritional value.

What is sold in the USA as ‘scratch’ typically contains a lot of corn/maize (Zea mays), and the use of the same word – corn – for two different things leads to lots of misunderstandings on threads about feed on BYC. What Americans call ‘corn’ is known as maize elsewhere. Meanwhile outside the USA ‘corn’ is the traditional word for cereal crops such as wheat, oats or barley. Since the plant Zea mays (maize) was unknown to Europeans before the discovery of the Americas, the new settlers applied the generic English term for grains, ‘corn’, to maize, and it stuck as the name of that one plant there.

Sourcing sacks of dried peas was the biggest challenge here. I have only found one feed store locally that carries peas, and it does so because it stocks an extensive range of feed for racing pigeons. They do not sell straight dried blue/green peas, which would be my first choice, but they do have a mix of different peas with maize and vetch that is enjoyed by the flock; the chickens did not initially like the maple peas (which are field peas left to dry in the field) and used to skin them and leave the skins aside. Chickens are quite capable of processing their own food if allowed to.

Foods intended for human consumption like tinned sardines, potatoes, bread and milk are available in the average grocers or supermarket of course, and in small quantities befitting their supplementary status in this diet.

Quantities and Costs

On average, my flock find about half their daily feed foraging. On average a 20 kg sack of mixed grain lasts about 3 weeks, while a 20kg sack of mixed peas lasts about 5 months, and with about 20 birds, that means they are each eating about 55g of combined grains and peas per day. The supplements I supply, like mealworms, milk products or sardines, add a couple more grams per bird per day. A large fowl is said to need about 110g (1/4lb) feed per bird per day, therefore, averaged through the year, they must each be finding about 50-60g per day by foraging. And if the flock were confined, I would need to buy about twice as much as (and therefore spend significantly more than) I currently do.

It is sometimes claimed that making your own feed is expensive, a claim based on several assumptions, not least of which is that you’ll be trying to do what feed companies do but without the economies of scale that come from making it by the lorry load. This assumption is not applicable if, as in my case, you don’t want to copy what big ag does to maximize egg output from the chickens at minimal expense between the ages of 16 and 72 weeks old, and then discard the chicken and start afresh. Since I’m not making a living from my flock, I am not subject to the same economic imperatives as a commercial egg farm. I am happy to enjoy as many or more eggs over a longer period from hens who don’t suffer reproductive tract disorders brought on by such intensive exploitation, and I aim simply to cover my costs.

At May 2023 prices in my area, 20kg quality mixed grain (c. 80% wheat) costs £11.49 and 20kg mixed peas £14. A sack of bran for the mealworms costs £14 and lasts about 6 months. The veg trimmings supplied to the mealworms, and the occasional tin of sardines, dairy product or banana supplied to the chickens, are of negligible additional cost to the family grocery bill. A tin of sardines in sunflower oil, for example, is about 55p for 120g/4ozs (was 40p before recent price hikes). If it is legal to feed meat where you are, note that wild animals usually eat the organ meats of their prey first because they know they are the most nutritious bit of the carcass, and since humans prefer the muscle, offal is usually cheap, so that’s a win-win.

I sell surplus eggs at £2 per carton of 6. Over the course of the calendar year, income from surplus eggs laid by my flock of heritage and rare breed birds – who lay fewer than production breeds in their first full year of laying, but who may continue to lay well until they are at least 6 years old (as with my eldest) – covers my expenditure on the flock. And selling is trivial; I have enthusiastic regular customers, and a waiting list of would-be customers. My flock’s eggs are not like shop eggs in appearance, in flavour, or in nutritional value, and my customers can tell the difference without a lab report (but see Hammershøja and Johansen 2016 if you want one).

That apart, most chicken keepers on BYC seem happy enough to spend a great deal of money on their coop. So why penny pinch on the feed? Such a spending pattern seems to me to put the cart before the horse.

And finally, Quality

I make my own feed because I want to know what my chickens are eating, and that is impossible with a homogenized feed whose ingredients are unrecognizable, includes additives required by the production process not nutritional needs, and preservatives to extend the shelf life of highly processed feed.

I believe my birds are healthier for being offered, twice a day near dawn and dusk, real recognizable foods that they eat as they each individually wish, consisting mainly of grains and legumes lightly fermented at home, and they forage as they will the rest of the day. I know their eggs are healthier for it, their chicks are healthier for it, and they are healthier for it.



References These are supplied to support or justify what is said above, and to provide the necessary bibliographic information for those who want to read more on topics of interest. All of the old poultry manuals, and many more books besides, are available freely online from a variety of digital repositories, such as https://www.hathitrust.org/ , https://archive.org/ or https://library.si.edu/departments/biodiversity-heritage-library

The Hon. Mrs Arbuthnott The Henwife 1868.

FAO. 2023. Contribution of terrestrial animal source food to healthy diets for improved nutrition and health outcomes – An evidence and policy overview on the state of knowledge and gaps. Rome, FAO. https://doi.org/10.4060/cc3912en especially chapter 2.

M D Finke ‘Complete Nutrient Content of Four Species of Commercially Available Feeder Insects Fed Enhanced Diets During Growth’ Zoo Biology 34 (2015) 554-564.

E M Funk ‘Can the chick balance its ration?’ Poultry Science 11 (1932) 94-97.

N F Haard et.al. Fermented cereals. FAO Agricultural Services Bulletin No. 138, 1999.

M Hammershøja, N F Johansen ‘The effect of grass and herbs in organic egg production on egg fatty acid composition, egg yolk colour and sensory properties’ Livestock Science 194 (2016) 37–43.

Y L Henuk, J G Dingle ‘Choice feeding systems for laying poultry’ World’s Poultry Science 58 (2002) 199-208.

National Research Council 1994. Nutrient Requirements of Poultry: Ninth Revised Edition, 1994. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. https://doi.org/10.17226/2114

J Robinson Eating on the wild side 2013 (not online)

J H Robinson Poultrycraft 1904.

T Spector Food for life 2022 (not online).

H Ussery The small scale poultry flock 2011 (not online).

L Wright The Illustrated book of poultry 1873.

L Wright The new book of poultry 1902.

Feed tables: https://www.feedtables.com/

Fermented cereals: https://www.fao.org/3/x2184e/x2184e06.htm

Mealworm farm: https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/first-attempt-at-mealworm-farming.1350136/

Mineral deficiency signs and symptoms: https://www.msdvetmanual.com/poultr...ement-poultry/mineral-deficiencies-in-poultry

Pastured poultry nutrition and forage: https://attra.ncat.org/publication/pastured-poultry-nutrition-forages/

Protein and energy deficiency signs and symptoms: https://www.msdvetmanual.com/poultr...mino-acid,-and-energy-deficiencies-in-poultry

Vitamin deficiency signs and symptoms: https://www.msdvetmanual.com/poultr...ement-poultry/vitamin-deficiencies-in-poultry

Wild bird longevity: https://ornithology.com/how-long-do-birds-live/