Adjustng homemade feed for proper protein ratio?

[HennaRose]

So I've been looking into adjusting my homemade feed mix. I've been following a recipe I found here, but my chickens are picky eaters and are beaking out a few things, which then end up attracting rodents. Not what I want.

When adjusting the recipe to remove what they don't like, I took a closer look at the ingredients and the protein content of each ingredient. If I add one pound of each ingredient, I have 16.25% protein, but only 12 lb of food. If I adjust the ratios so there are more oats and wheat, like all the recipes I've seen, I can get the mix up to 25 lb, but the protein percentage is more than doubles at almost 36%.

Is there any reason I *can't* just put equal amounts of everything, just doubled, and keep it at the correct protein percentage? Is there a reason they would need more wheat and oats than anything else?

Here's the mix I've got down on paper - help? (All protein counts came from calorieking.com)

4 lb red wheat berries - 13.3% per lb - 53.2% in mix
3 lb oat groats - 16.6% per lb - 49.8% in mix
2 lb millet - 11% per lb - 22% in mix
2 lb flax seeds - 21.2% per lb - 42.4% in mix
2 lb sesame seeds - 17.7% per lb - 35.4% in mix
2 lb split peas - 24.5% per lb - 49% in mix
2 lb red lentils - 24.4% per lb - 48.8% in mix
2 lb French lentils - 25% per lb - 50% in mix
2 lb pearled barley - 9.9% per lb - 19.8% in mix
2 lb buckwheat 11.9% per lb - 23.9% in mix
2 lb wheat bran - 15.5% per lb - 31% in mix
1 lb alfalfa sprouts - 4% per lb - 4% in mix

Protein % per pound, if using one pound of each ingredient: 16.25% (195/12)
Protein percent in the entire mix if used as written: 35.8% (429.2/12)

 

[Lazy J Farms Feed & Hay]

So I've been looking into adjusting my homemade feed mix. I've been following a recipe I found here, but my chickens are picky eaters and are beaking out a few things, which then end up attracting rodents. Not what I want.

When adjusting the recipe to remove what they don't like, I took a closer look at the ingredients and the protein content of each ingredient. If I add one pound of each ingredient, I have 16.25% protein, but only 12 lb of food. If I adjust the ratios so there are more oats and wheat, like all the recipes I've seen, I can get the mix up to 25 lb, but the protein percentage is more than doubles at almost 36%.

Is there any reason I *can't* just put equal amounts of everything, just doubled, and keep it at the correct protein percentage? Is there a reason they would need more wheat and oats than anything else?

Here's the mix I've got down on paper - help? (All protein counts came from calorieking.com)

4 lb red wheat berries - 13.3% per lb - 53.2% in mix
3 lb oat groats - 16.6% per lb - 49.8% in mix
2 lb millet - 11% per lb - 22% in mix
2 lb flax seeds - 21.2% per lb - 42.4% in mix
2 lb sesame seeds - 17.7% per lb - 35.4% in mix
2 lb split peas - 24.5% per lb - 49% in mix
2 lb red lentils - 24.4% per lb - 48.8% in mix
2 lb French lentils - 25% per lb - 50% in mix
2 lb pearled barley - 9.9% per lb - 19.8% in mix
2 lb buckwheat 11.9% per lb - 23.9% in mix
2 lb wheat bran - 15.5% per lb - 31% in mix
1 lb alfalfa sprouts - 4% per lb - 4% in mix

Protein % per pound, if using one pound of each ingredient: 16.25% (195/12)
Protein percent in the entire mix if used as written: 35.8% (429.2/12)

The percentage protein in your mix is 16.51% using the amounts you listed. Your mistake was in the calculations, you don't multiply the amount by the Percentage Protein, that inflates the percentage protein. Rather you multiply the protein content of the ingredient by the percentage of the mix made up by that ingredient.

For example:

Wheat Berries are 4# or 15.38% of the mix. 15.38% * 13.3% protein yields 2.046 percentage points of protein. Do that for the other ingredients, sum them and you get 16.508% protein in your mix.

Jim

 

[HennaRose]

Oh, okay. I knew I had to have something wrong, but I couldn't figure out where I was messing up; math isn't my strong suit, which is why I rely on recipes that don't require any figuring from me. But picky chickens meant I had to change things.

Thanks for your help!

 

[pdirt]

Another idea...a feeder designed that they cannot bill and flick out morsels they don't like (they are likely just trying to get to the REALLY tasty ones) can make a huge difference in feed wastage and rodent issues. For example, I inserted a thin board with large holes in it inside our treadle feeder. It pretty much put an end to their billing of feed:




Personally, I wouldn't have a dry feed with oats in it. They are hard to digest and are best fed to chickens either soaked, fermented or sprouted. Wheat is a better choice.

Also, lentils are high in tannins, for which I can't recall exactly how it is not ideal for chickens. I'm not sure how much is too much, but you might want to check into that. I am sprouting some lentils for our chickens as we speak...sprouting reduces the tannins.

I'm curious...how to do add alfalfa sprouts to a dry mix? Do you dry the sprouts first?

 

[HennaRose]

I don't leave their feed out; our climate is too humid and it gets clumped together and rots inside the feeder. I've tried three different kinds of feeder, all no-spill; they worked fine to keep the feed off the ground, but the humidity and rain make them impossible to use safely for longer than about a week. Because of this, I keep their feed mix in the house and I bring out what they'll eat during the day and put it in a plastic chick-feeder tray without the lid on it. I don't mix the alfalfa sprouts into the big bucket; I keep them in the fridge and stir a rationed amount in with the feed when I take it out in the morning. I included it because it is part of their regular diet. I tried kelp granules but that didn't stick easily to the feed and would fall to the bottom of the feeder, and my birds would pick out bits of torn kelp. Apparently they like their green food *fresh*.

They do seem to like soaked/sprouted feed too - sometimes we have really rainy afternoons and the chickens will swarm the feeder that's got rain-soaked feed in it and gobble it down, and some of the seeds they've spilled have sprouted next to the feeder; they'll pull those up and eat them sometimes, too, especially if I'm late with the green stuff. I'll do a little more research into it and see what should be sprouted and what's best left dry; I know that wheat loses half its protein when sprouted, and I haven't been able to find much information of sprouted oats or legumes.