BOSS

[Aunt Angus]

I buy a Cardinal mix. It's Sunflower seeds, Safflower seeds and Sunflower kernels. It's high in fat, 35 percent.
I mix it with Scratch Grains. Low fat 1.5 percent.
I mix a 7# bag of Cardinal mix into 25# of Scratch.
I scatter a heaping 1/4 cup measure in their pen once a day to my three 2 1/2 year olds. I scatter the same amount to my seven 12 week olds. I give as a midmorning treat. I don't feed any other treats or scraps.
If i were to feed just Sunflower seeds to 4 chickens it would be 1/8 cup per day. GC

This is very helpful. I don't give treats often because I don't want to overfeed them, and there are only 4 of them. And they seem to eat plenty when free ranging. I can do this (or something similar to this) with no problem! Thanks!

 

[ronott1]

there is a section here for treats for chickens called table scraps. Follow that for treats

 

[GC-Raptor]

And your mom probably lived in the Good Ole USA.

Yup, her parents came over from Poland in 29, through Ellis island. My Mom was born days later in New York City. GC

 

[analyticalblonde]

there is a section here for treats for chickens called table scraps. Follow that for treats

Perfect guide...thank you!

 

[VictoriaTemple]

Umm... you would not believe how long it took me to figure out that BOSS meant “black oil sunflower seeds”. I give my flock a scoop of those every day. They disappear every day. My birds are wonderfully healthy and deliriously happy. Wish they weren’t so expensive, but I think they’re worth it.

 

[cavemanrich]

Wish they weren’t so expensive

Maybe where you are buying the price is high. I pay from $16 to $18 for a 50 pound bag. I don;t think that is high.
Year ago the price was about $20.
I always stock up when on sale. In 2019 I went thru 5 bags. Squirrels ate the most of it.

 

[VictoriaTemple]

Paid $18.98 for 40#, I think. Might have been 50#. Gonna find out, it’s time to buy feed again.

 

[Mossy Dell]

So I was at my local grocery store the other day, and they were clearing out a bunch of bags of BOSS. I bought several - only $1.50 per 10 lb bag! My pullets love them (of course), but I don't know how many are too many. Want the purdy, shiny feathers, but don't want my girls to get fat! I searched the forums (or fora) for info, but came up wanting. Please forgive me if this is a repeated topic...

Anybody have a good rule of thumb for how much/how often? I have 4 pullets who free range for pay of every day and will hopefully start laying soon. TIA!

5 to 10% of a total ration in BOS is perfectly fine. I have seen old whole grain scratch recipes, I believe for growing birds, where sunflowers were a third or more of the mix. The seeds do have a lot of energy (fat), but fed whole with shells, it takes much of that energy to digest them. That's a natural limiter, whereas I would be much more cautious of the fattening effects of sunflower hearts which are very concentrated energy.