Everyone, post your best homemade chicken feed recipes!

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I like that feed mix mudhen ....thanks!
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It is really hard to create a balanced homemade diet for any livestock. First of all you have to know the dietary requirements of the animal you are making food for. Then you have to figure out what ingredients in what amounts fulfill these needs. Then you have to find good sources for those ingredients. Doing the calculations by hand takes forever and is quite complicated. There is software out there you can purchase that will do the calculations for you. Even then using the software can be quite complicated. In my opinion a safer and less complicated method is to buy a commercially produced product and then supplement the diet with homemade feed and/or fruits and vegetables.

Some people were wondering earlier is this thread why people don't want to use soy as a protein source. Soy can be added in a variety of ways to an animals diet. I don't believe that soy should be used as a significant source of protein in a monogastric animals diet. Monogastric animals such as chickens need vitamin b12 in there diet. Chickens are not vegetarians and to fulfill their vitamin b12 requirements they need an animal protein source in their diets. The only type of food I will purchase soy in is a senior diet for animals that need more fiber because soybean hulls can fill a senior animals daily fiber requirement.
 
Outrun Acres said:
It is really hard to create a balanced homemade diet for any livestock. First of all you have to know the dietary requirements of the animal you are making food for. Then you have to figure out what ingredients in what amounts fulfill these needs. Then you have to find good sources for those ingredients. Doing the calculations by hand takes forever and is quite complicated. There is software out there you can purchase that will do the calculations for you. Even then using the software can be quite complicated. In my opinion a safer and less complicated method is to buy a commercially produced product and then supplement the diet with homemade feed and/or fruits and vegetables.

Some people were wondering earlier is this thread why people don't want to use soy as a protein source. Soy can be added in a variety of ways to an animals diet. I don't believe that soy should be used as a significant source of protein in a monogastric animals diet. Monogastric animals such as chickens need vitamin b12 in there diet. Chickens are not vegetarians and to fulfill their vitamin b12 requirements they need an animal protein source in their diets. The only type of food I will purchase soy in is a senior diet for animals that need more fiber because soybean hulls can fill a senior animals daily fiber requirement.
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Good points. But I, for one, am trying to come up with an alternative (home-made) feed, for several reasons: primarily because I don't know what's in the pelleted feed; if it contains GMO grains, where it's sourced from (I prefer to buy as locally as possible); and a preference to be as self-sustainable as possible - which is why I'm working my way into heritage breeds that will fit into my small farm. Yes, it's a lot of work & a bit of a pain in the you-know-what, but it's important to me, so I've got it to do...
I had some old USDA yearbooks from the '20s, but lost them in a move - I had thoughts of using them as a starting point, and 'updating' with current knowledge, to 'tweak' the ratios & ingredients a bit. So, now I'm hoping to learn what's needed for a balanced diet that's primarily pasture-based, see what I can parts of the ration I can grow, and buy locally what I can't or don't have room to grow myself. Many, many yardbirds were raised without/before pelleted rations came along. It all fits into my personal choices, including using donkeys (instead of a tiller or tractor) to farm with.
 
mudhen said:
Thanks MarkR!
My hens go bonkers with grapes. I'm going to try tomatoes today, since I have half a container of 'just the other side of perfect' grape tomatoes in my fridge.
Gotta try that cricket/tomatoe salad on them some day!
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my rooster loves grapes he eats them hole can not wait till grape season then my roo will get grapes
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I would love to be self sufficient with regard to my animals feed.
This book is an EXCELLENT source for such ideas.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/1603582908/ref=mp_s_a_1?qid=1360062442&sr=8-1&pi=SL75

Based on ideas here and lots of research, I did calculate, mix and feed a 100% grain recipe to my free range flock for well over a year. Unfortunately, about a year into it we ran into wide spread obesity and only realized it when the egg output dropped below 25% of the total of my hens. (Discovered by way of harvesting hens and finding massive amounts of fat build up).
After trouble shooting what might have happened in this forum, the idea that turned everything around was the use of animal protein in their diet. In just a few months of adding this their food, output is more than 50% in the middle of winter (9 hours of daylight). My sources of animal protein were cat food and whey from cheese making.
I wanted to share this because I still am striving toward a self sustained feeding program, but hope that my hurdle will help someone else avoid the same problem.
That book I suggested included fabulous, self sustained ideas for pasture food as well as animal proteins!
 
OrganicsNorth, I am wondering if you know of a replacement for the corn. Where we live we would have a hard time getting corn that wasn't GMO. We are also wondering how you incorporate the alfalfa and kelp into the feed. We currently have alfalfa cubes for our horses, could these be ground up and used or should we have it in another form? Do you just leave these out free choice or do you put a certain amount in your feed recipe?
 
FireballandHali said:
OrganicsNorth, I am wondering if you know of a replacement for the corn. Where we live we would have a hard time getting corn that wasn't GMO. We are also wondering how you incorporate the alfalfa and kelp into the feed. We currently have alfalfa cubes for our horses, could these be ground up and used or should we have it in another form? Do you just leave these out free choice or do you put a certain amount in your feed recipe?
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I'm not ON, but here are some links for you if needed:

http://www.ca.uky.edu/smallflocks/feed_ingredients/grains.html

and

http://www.agf.gov.bc.ca/poultry/publications/documents/wheat.pdf
 

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