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

Very informative, comprehensively researched and a great read. May take several read throughs for it to really sink in as there’s so much interesting information in there.
Perris
Perris
thank you for your feedback; I'm glad you found it interesting.
Very comprehensive, but not overwhelming. There's just enough science here to help the layman understand without getting too boggled in the technical details. I've been trying to find a locally mixed poultry feed for some time, with no real success. Armed with this information, I think I'm ready to try it myself, now. THANK YOU!
Perris
Perris
you're welcome! I'm glad you found it useful and encouraging.
Thank you for taking the time to write this. Excellent and well written article, Thank you for sharing your knowledge and and explaining your methods and sources in a simple and educational way so that I could really take it in and understand how the process works. I’m really looking forward to following this step by step. Cheers
Perris
Perris
thank you for the feedback; don't hesitate to contact me if you have queries about any of it in due course.
This is invaluable information! I want to give our chickens the best to encourage a long healthy lives. Thank you @Perris for all the hard work and thought that went into sharing this with us!
Perris
Perris
thank you for the feedback; I'm glad you found it useful.
Very good resource for making feed at home.
The vast amount of nutritional information in this article is incredible! I really appreciated the nutritional info you added for each of the various foods you feed your flock. I also liked that you commented on an often-repeated refrain on BYC "to only give treats once per week; otherwise stick to commercial feed only." Every single item you feed your birds could be considered "treats", but they add up to a balanced diet. Plus, we all know how much chickens love treats! I have no doubt you have a very healthy and very happy flock. Since I couldn't memorize the entire article, I will be referring back to it often, and recommending it to others too.
Perris
Perris
thank you for your feedback; I'm glad you found the article useful.
Outstanding information!
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This article is impeccably researched, very well referenced, and gives the reader a glimpse into knowledge and techniques that were successful long before commercial feeds were available. Though somewhat scientific in it's writing, it is a good read for anyone interested in making their own feed.
Perris
Perris
thank you for your succinct review; I'm glad you found it useful.
I can't wait to dig into your article; thank you so much! Where has this been all my years? (lol - I have somewhat studiously been _not_ reading on a quite passive-aggressive kick about the age-old survival of chickens without excessive obsession).

You are absolutely inspiring about kicking the habit of commercial feed. Not that we're in rural Ecuador, but still it should be not difficult to do this from actual "scratch".

I purchase expensive, organic "Scratch n Peck" which the chickens proceed to leave behind the fines of - then I lightly ferment that along with some more "scratch" (no fines remaining) and feed it back, thereby preventing waste at least.

Trouble is, they're presumably overweight (my vet friend would remove the "presumably" qualification). They're only happy with this when they get to forage constantly, meaning - it's really not enough -- either in variation or possibly even nutrition. They get a protein boost every night and I can believe it's not recommended by the mavens here, but we've always done it because of the harmony it furnishes all around from human to avian.

So I really appreciate a knowledgeable, resourced reference for getting started. Thank you very, very much.
Perris
Perris
you're welcome! Thank you for your feedback; it is appreciated.
Thanks for researching and writing this article, and including the references which I am reading with interest. It's very timely for me and I plan to put it in to practice starting now. I have a few questions below, but first, here is why I'm making the transition.

I've been thinking for a long time about making a homemade feed mix for my chickens. The biggest obstacle that's been stopping me is finding the time to research the different foods readily available here, their nutritional contents, and devising a formula – or formulas – based on my findings. It's just so darn easy to buy the bag of layer or chick crumble. And cheap – 40 cents per pound. We don't have enough help as it is running our farm and various projects as it is, and money is always an issue. But… I've received multiple signs that I need to find the time somewhere and stop buying this stuff.

The signs? Nothing from the ether, just the crappy fact that two out of the last three sacks of crumble I bought went moldy and I had to toss it. I only buy 20lb sacks, I keep the crumble in an airtight container, I and always use it within a month. So that means it's coming from the feed store already almost spoiled. I'd rather spend time than waste money on spoiled feed.

Where we live (rural Ecuador, rainforest climate) it's not like I have choices of feed brands, designer this or organic that. There's one or two big companies distributing animal feeds, one kind of feed for layers, one for chicks, and that's it. The layer and chick feed comes in unmarked plain sacks, no date, and the only way to find out what's in it is to ask the store proprietor if you can please look at the label on the enormous sack from the manufacturer in the warehouse. So I know the feed is a pretty typical commercial mix: wheat, soy, maize, sunflower oil, and a bunch of vitamin additives, 18% protein minimum. Maybe it's average as feeds go, but if I can't get it fresh enough to use without potentially poisoning my birds, that's the game changer right there.

Another reason: anytime I have a chicken who is feeling a little off, the first thing they do is reject the commercial feed. I'm not talking about dying birds. I've successfully treated cases of mild respiratory illness, sour crop, and bumblefoot, and when chickens are recovering, all they want is the scrambled egg, sardines, and wholesome carbs like quinoa or sweet potato that I give them. It's a chore to get them to go back to eating commercial feed again, and that tells me it's really not what they want or need.

Furthermore, my chickens free range all day every day in orchards, forest, and grassy areas. There's all sorts of wild berries, cultivated fruits, grasses, and native groundcover plants. They nibble at whatever looks good to them. So I can assume they are supplementing their diet already with foraging.

Besides, I've wanted to make a change for personal reasons. I just don't feel good feeding them that stuff. It feels like a convenient cop out, and that's not congruent with our lifestyle out here at all. Neither wheat nor soy are grown in Ecuador so what's in this feed is either GMO loaded crap from Empire USA or linked to Amazon deforestation in Brazil, or both. Lordy. And here I am talking about the importance of rainforests and food sovereignty and locally produced food and the evils of globalization and yadda yadda, but I've been buying this stuff for my chickens, whom I like better than most people. No wonder I feel like a total turd dishing it out to them.

I tossed the moldy feed today and have no plans to go into town for a few days, but the chickens needed to eat. So I just cooked up a pot of rice, quinoa, sweet potato, amaranth, flax seeds, lentils and added half a cup of yellow split pea flour to boost the protein. I added some fresh grated turmeric and ginger root from the garden. Maybe it's not perfect, but I felt good making it and the chickens loved it.
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I've been giving them a big can of mackerel or sardines once a week, or making a stew with meaty beef bones, cassava and quinoa. And their reaction when I dish out something like that makes it obvious they are clamoring for something else than the crumble.

Ok, rant over. On to your article and my questions for you. I see that your personal studies led you to use wheat as a base ingredient. For reasons already mentioned, I don't want to use wheat. If I'm going to do this, I want to do it right, meaning I use what we grow on the farm and what's readily available from local sources.

I'd appreciate it if you could look at these lists of possible ingredients and advise me which ones would be your top picks for a homemade feed.

If I could devise a mix based on "free" ingredients (what we grow) from List 1 combined with ingredients from the second two lists, I could come up with something for the same cost as commercial feed.

We grow four excellent carbohydrate sources, each with different vitamin, mineral and fiber content.

List 1
Cassava
(manioc). Big starchy tubers (not related to potato). Very low protein. High fiber. Some mineral content. The chickens love it. A lot of folks around here feed their chickens cassava, it grows so easily and is hugely productive. But is so low in protein, I wouldn't use it alone.
Camote. A tropical sweet potato. Less sugar than temperate sweet potatoes. Moderate protein. High fiber, vitamin and mineral content.
Taro. Small starchy roots. Not related to potato. Low protein. Good mineral content. Reportedly anti- inflammatory.
Plantains. Similar to bananas, but bigger with less sugar.* High in B vitamins and potassium. Can be consumed raw when yellow (ripe) or cooked when green.

All of these would require cooking to neutralize oxalates and make them more digestible. But I figure I could make a big batch every three days and by days two and three it would be lightly fermented. That's how Kichwa people get chicha (fermented drinks) started (and by adding their saliva, btw).

*Note: I'm careful with my flock eating bananas. I know they are excellent sources of nutrition, but occasionally they have gotten into an entire bunch that fell in the fruit orchard and ended up with a sour crop from eating dozens of rotting bananas, peels and all. So I'm more comfortable with using cooked green plantains because they are much lower in sugar or moderately ripe plantains raw.

List 2
Ingredients Locally available (at 50 - 60 cents per lb):
Barley
Cracked maize
Rolled oats
Rice*
Lentils
Black eyed peas (cowpeas)
Dried peas
Lupine

*I didn't think rice was very nutritious, but turns out it has a lot of benefits for chickens. My group prefers it cooked.
https://learnpoultry.com/chickens-eat-rice/

List 3
More Ingredients Locally available (at about $1 per lb):

These more costly ingredients I could add in smaller amounts to make the mix more nutritious.
Quinoa* (moderate protein, complete amino acid profile, )
Amaranth* (high protein, minerals)
Flax seed* (high protein, fat, minerals)
Chia seed* (similar to flax in composition)
Yellow split pea flour** (high protein)
Fava bean flour**(high protein)

*Regarding these ingredients, they are extremely high in some minerals. See this breakdown on amaranth for example.
**These flours are easy to use by adding water to make a paste and mixing it in with a grain mix or mash to up the protein.

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Question: I notice that you recommend using lentils sparingly because they have a lot of iron. Are there other minerals that chickens should not get in excess?

Question: How would I formulate the mix? I was thinking perhaps to research the nutritional contents of each food per 100g and try different combinations that would have a minimum protein and fat content and a broad array of vitamins and minerals. What's the easiest way to figure this out? Or is this calculation not even necessary?

Question: Seeing how some of these ingredients (especially the ones we grow) and the hard seeds (like quinoa and amaranth) require cooking, while others only need soaking and fermenting, I figure I could devise two "formulas" –
  1. A cooked mash of cassava, camote, plantain etc with peas or lentils and seeds added. The tubers, quinoa, and amaranth all have equal cooking times so could be easily prepared.
  2. A soaked fermented mix of oats, barley, and maize with peas and seeds added.
Does this sound like a good plan? To provide variety without going overboard?
I would still plan on giving them some sardines and/or meat weekly as a "real treat."

I really appreciate any of your expertise with this. I'm done with this commercially manufactured stuff. My birds deserve better.

Thank you very much!
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Perris
Perris
Wow! Go TropicalChickies! I think you only really need the confidence to fly with this; it's clear you've already done lots of research, and some practice, and there's little to nothing I can add on foods local to you: You already know them better than I do. I would use all of what you have of these list items when you have it fresh and in plenty; diversity is good. And I guess the forage is excellent.

On specifics, "by days two and three it would be lightly fermented. That's how Kichwa people get chicha (fermented drinks) started (and by adding their saliva, btw)" note that fermentation that leads to alcohol involves yeasts, rather than bacteria, and I don't know how good that may or may not be for their microbiomes; I've not researched it as yet.

Minerals to beware: it's copper and manganese as well as iron to be wary of with lentils. The 1994 book on Nutrient Requirements of Poultry chapter 8 is specifically on the toxicity of certain inorganic elements.

I don't have 'a' formula as such, and I don't think one is necessary or desirable because one size does not fit all. I have a base of grains and peas and mealworms/ sardines - and you have local equivalents - that I treat as a guide not a rule, and the key thing about what else I add is that it is fresh and that it changes, because it's seasonal or because they haven't had it recently. Again variety and diversity are my watchwords.

Foods that need cooking and foods that need fermenting do need to be prepared separately even if served together, and that does sound like a good plan. I too sometimes add for example a little fennel seed, brown mustard seed or suchlike to the ferment; they like fennel but most don't like the mustard. Typically I arrange the cooked foods by preparing extra when we are eating it, and put some aside for the next chicken meal.

Thank you so much for your review. What you say at the start will chime with a lot of people, I think. And maybe you would consider keeping notes to write an article in months to come on how the transition goes for you and your flock?
Thanks Perris for this very informative and almost 'scientific' article. I not only read it but also learned from it. : about language, flora, about food and health for humans, pigeons, wild birds, chicks and chickens.

It was a pleasure to read that there is no scientific evidence that commercial feed is better than carefully composed feed from pure ingredients.
And a pleasure to read how and why you prepare your own feed. The only thing I've missed is information about organic food that doesn't contain GMO soy and corn. I believe that the organic mixed grain that they sell in the Netherlands has a good composition that could also appeal to you. It is said that it should be sufficient to feed the chickens if they can free range whole day (except in winter). These organic grains are more expensive than the feed you buy. It’s certainly very different and healthier than the scratch they sell in the US you describe.

Furthermore its my personal choice not to let my bantams free range all day (risks) and I don’t feed my chickens extra meat or fish. They need it no more than humans imho as long as the feed is properly balanced. I do give my chickens organic layer/chick feed as the main part of their diet, because in my situation that is an easy and safe choice. The only animal supplements the chickens eat they find themselves + I give them some dried mealworms a couple of times a week.
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Perris
Perris
Thank you for your feedback BDutch. I'm glad you found it informative and complementary to what you do.

If I gave you the impression 'that there is no scientific evidence that commercial feed is better than carefully composed feed from pure ingredients', it was unintentional. The intention was just to explain why I don't use it.

And I omitted discussion of organic because I don't use it, and the focus was on what I do do. Organic feed is a topic on which I need to do more research, and then surely deserves an article to itself. Perhaps you would like to write such?
Phenomenal WEALTH of information!
Amazing article! I've been looking for something like this for a while.
Perris
Perris
Thank you. I'm glad you found it useful.
Absolutely fabulous article @Perris
Very similar to what I do myself, however I have been too nervous to exit commercial feed entirely and my flock feed consists of about half unmedicated chick starter with half whole grains/peas plus 1 cup per day of meat and bone meal, and table scraps (plus 24/7 free range forage on pasture). I'm lucky to live in a country where people would laugh you right out the door if your suggested you couldn't feed whatever you damn well pleased to your chickens.
Thank you very much for your informative article. 👍
Perris
Perris
you are so lucky to live there! And it's great to hear of someone else doing something similar. I think the scare-mongers put a lot of people off following their instincts to feed their chickens real food by calling it 'treats' and comparing it to sweeties, when the truth is quite the opposite.
I will need to read this again and again. I am going to copy it to access it offline, is that legal?
This information packed article contains not only the ‘what to feed’ it explains the why, with the science behind it.
Learning how words & terms in the UK might have a different meaning in the USA helped me a lot.
There is so much I want to say about the importance of the information in this article, I am at a loss as to where to begin!
Step by step instructions for making feed including pictures. Again, I have to say, understanding why ingredients are used, what the nutritional value is - I think I found the words -
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐Required reading whether you make your own feed or not. ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Perris
Perris
wow! thanks! I'm glad you found it useful.
Well written and very informative. Thankful for people like you that are willing and able to do this research.
Perris
Perris
Thank you. I'm glad you found it useful.
Another first class article. An enlightening mix of research and experience much of which bears out my own experiences of free range chicken keeping.
I've learn't a lot from Perris's contributions to the various feed discussions, particulalry the references to the supporting literature which I am still working my way through.
Perris
Perris
thanks for the feedback; glad you're finding the article useful.
I'm one of the person who asked the author to write this article so I may be slightly biased if I find it wonderful. It is a perfect mix of the theory that led to choosing this way of feeding, and a detailed practical description of how it is done. The method in itself may probably seem not convenient in it's entirety for a number of chicken keepers who work full time or don't have sufficient space for their chickens to forage all day. However, I think it makes a convincing statement that considering real food as a treat potentially harmful for chickens and commercial food as the only safe and healthy way to feed them, is a rather biased point of view. I hope it will encourage chicken keepers in thinking that introducing diversity in types of food and not limiting strictly to commercial food can really be healthy for their flocks.
This matter is sometimes a heated debate on BYC (just like BARF diets for furry people has been when it began gaining popularity) and I think the article form is a useful way to explain things more in depth.
Perris
Perris
Many thanks for this review. I'm sure you're right that time or space constraints would make this difficult or impossible to implement for some, and I hope too that even so it will encourage them to consider some time free ranging and real food a viable option or optional extra for their flock.
Thank you for writing this. It is a very thorough and well researched article (I am so glad you included the references).
I have known for a while that you make your own chicken feed but had little insight on what that involved.
I end up feeling that making my own feed might be more practical than I had originally thought - I may even give it a go as a result of reading this.
I did have questions about fermentation: do you do that to remove the anti-nutrients or for some other reason? And if the liquid contains the antinutrients, why do you sometimes use it to soak bread (did I read that correctly?). Finally, it sounded like you ferment it only over the prior 24 hours until you feed it - did I understand that right?
Anyway, great article. Thanks for sharing what you do.
Perris
Perris
Many thanks for your feedback! I'm glad you found it useful. They're great questions.
I ferment to remove the anti-nutrients and to lightly acidify it (I used litmus paper to check when I started out, and test occasionally as good practice), as that's also beneficial for the chickens' gut health.
Yes you did read it correctly; I think the antinutrients stimulate and provide food for the chickens' microbiome once drawn out of the grain, and the liquor also contains lactobacilli (and potentially other microbes) which are definitely good for the chicks' guts (which are sterile before they hatch).
And yes I'm usually using a batch within 24-36 hours of making it up. It takes a bit longer to get bubbles from a fresh start, but if you've got a bit left over in the jar it gets to work on the new feedstuff straight away. If you want to give it a go and have any questions then, feel free to ask anything.
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