Anyone Mix their own feed?? Internet Link??

[pixie74943]

Does anyone mix their own feed, or know of a website that tells you the best way to do it.

I bought my first round of feed from the farm I got my girls, and it looked yummy (from a chickens POV anyway) and the second round I got at a rundown feed store and it looked like.. ground up cardboard. The girls turned their nose up and only eat it when their is nothing else and their extra starving.

So does anyone know how I can mix my own yummy food for my Hens?? I want to know all the nutritional details and such, so that I can mix something different for chicks, Pullets, Layers etc. As well as varying their feed in winter if need be.

Thanks

 

[Stina]

I am very much interested in this as well!

 

[cw]

i mix my own, I got my recipes from lionsgrip.com, get my grains and such from a local family owned feed/farm store, one unseen advantage to this was my feed is quite a bit cheaper then commercial made/ i see whats in it, the ingredients and such are local grown,(minus the oyster shell) as far as the nutrional values i had to look them up and some things (like sunflower seeds) i couldnt find so feel free to ask here, do you own any property to maybe grow your own? this also will help cut cost ,
free rangin also helps, hope that was some help, I know there are some others here that do the same, feel free to ask any more ? s

 

[Omran]

Quote:
CW, all what I have is 35 chickens, my ? for you, do I have enough birds to save$$ by mixing my own feed?
thank you.

Omran

 

[cw]

i dont know that? I live in a rural area, and i am willing to buy in bulk, and have a place to store it where mice cant get,all in all i would say yes we started with 28 birds raised them on medicated chick starter (guineas too)then when they were old enoughto free range a get off the starter we bought a few bags of the commercial feed, saw the ingrediates and the price, went from there..

i would say yes to savin maney if you can find the right source, if your tryin to get what you ned from tsc there aint no way

 

[Judy]

Here's how:

http://www.lionsgrip.com/pastured.html

 

[pixie74943]

Minimum
requirements Protein % Calcium % Phosphorus %

Broilers
Starter (0-6 weeks) 23 0.9 0.5
Finisher (6 weeks to market) 10 0.8 0.5

Pullets
Starter (0-8 weeks) 20 0.9 0.5
Developer (8 to 20 weeks) 14 0.8 0.5

Laying Hens
Layer 16 3.0 0.5

http://msucares.com/poultry/feeds/poultry_feeds.html

Its a start I guess...​

 

[jdcallahan]

HI! I have 2.5 acres, I'm planning on planting about a quarter to a half acre of barley. I intend to use the barley for beer making and would like to use some of it as chicken feed. Has anyone fed barley to the chickens? I would think it's safe but I'll double check.. also in the spirit of letting nothing go to waste, after I boil the barley to get my beer juice, I'll feed the spent,mushy barley to the chickens.. I've heard they like it

I'm also looking for other stuff I can grow, like milo or wheat to feed them. I would love to have a ZERO dollar feed bill. or as close as I can get.

 

[ozark hen]

I have just started making my own feed. Here is the article I used for a formula to get me started. My chickens seem to adore it. I use what I can get at the feed store as they don't carry everything. I keep my turkey poults on game bird starter and also the chicks but the grown flock is on this.
You can find the formula/spreadsheet under FEED so scroll on down to find it.
http://www.backyardpoultrymag.com/library.html
I personally went by the article...Making your own Feed. I am trying to use common sense here as our ancestors didn't have access to all the "extras". Good luck and trust your flock to let you know now they like it and see for yourself how healthy they are. I also keep oyster shell as free choice, my flock free ranges and has vinegar in the water. They get kitchen left overs, too.