bulk chicken feed. does it save much money?

[chickengeorgeto]

What I don't see here is any discussion on how to handle your chicken feed once you get home with it in the back of your truck. Be sure to invest in a big square pointed shovel known as a grain scope the better to shovel feed from your truck bed into your feed drums or from a full steel feed drum into an empty steel feed drum to aid in unloading.
http://www.bigpaintstore.com/ame-16...=ame-1683300&gclid=CI6L3dyd8rUCFQ7znAodTnYA5Q

Next is a warehouse broom to clean up spilled feed to discourage rats and mice.

Depending on your age and level of fitness add enough to the bulk feed price to pay for your weekly chiropractor visits.

Then depending on how fast you chickens eat, some though also needs to be devoted to how you are going to keep the weevils from multiplying in bulk feed before its all eaten.

 

[sargent spurs]

I am trying out Purina country acres feed, it seems to be much cheaper per bag.

 

[LeslieDJoyce]

I was thinking of trying to buy bulk chicken feed and was curious if it saved much money. I did a couple google searches in my area (pacific northwest) and didn't find a whole lot of information. Does anyone know of any good feed suppliers that sell in bulk around the Portland, Oregon area? Also curious if anyone makes their own feed and how exactly they do it and how much money they save. I am just thinking about chickens as a long term hobby. Thanks.

This group out of Phoenix seems to be saving money by ordering together. Here is their website. It seems pretty self explanatory. The tricky part I think would be organizing the local chicken people. But how hard can it be for us to come together so we all save money...? We're organized enough to have this website in place to answer every conceivable concern about chickens. It seems like we could possibly organize ourselves..... www.phoenixorganicfeed.com .....especially to save money...?

I brought up this topic on the Oregon thread (I'm in the Portland area, but suburban), with a bit of a slant: I wrote about starting to grow some grains on my own property, buy other grains from local farmers, and "importing" what else would be needed to complete the nutrition from sources further away, and having a local feed mill custom mix the stuff (grind it if necessary, pellet it, whatever, but I'm also interested in feeding a choice of feeds ... grains in one feeder, proteins and supplements in another, grit, calcium, etc., and letting the birds pick their own diet depending on their exact personal needs).

A few people said they'd be interested and I should keep them posted, but I haven't gotten around to talking to my farmer friends, consulting with a chicken/turkey/duck/quail nutritionist and have only called one feed mill. So I'm not very far along with this process.

Someone suggested a buying club and getting the feed from this source: http://www.azurestandard.com/ It is an Oregon company, though I think it is based in southern Oregon. Someone else suggested a feed company that is right near Bob's Red Mill and is rumored to do good products (can't even remember the name of the place now).

My concern is that I'm having pretty good luck withe commercial feed and don't really want to mess up my birds by unbalancing their nutrition. But I am very anti GMO and would like to step as far away from corn/soy/canola as possible. A secondary but important concern is the price of commercial feed. So whatever I do I will do carefully. It is hard for me to imagine the days when backyard flocks were literally fed out the back door from kitchen/farmyard waste.

There are a lot of people in the Portland area with a few backyard birds. I would think it wouldn't be too difficult to form a buying group to make bulk buying worth it without requiring any one person to keep feed around for very long ... you really do want that stuff fresh and stored properly.

I keep reading about people making money selling eggs from a flock my size ... I would have to charge a LOT for my eggs with the prices I'm currently paying for feed.

 

[ChickensAreSweet]

Quote:
The one near Bob's Red Mill is Concentrates NW, I am pretty sure. I have not been there but read awhile back that they had moved their retail space.
If you watch craigslist sometimes farmers sell their wheat and oats on there by the 50 or 60 lb bag (haven't tried this either).

 

[roostorf]

I am in the Pacific Northwest and try to buy in bulk when I can, rogue river feed can be found in bulk in Oregon, I got a truckload from one of the grange co-ops last time I was up there not sure it they have them near you but make some calls I know I got a hold of someone who said they would do a tote and or price break at 20+bags

 

[pdirt]

I think Leslie nailed a lot of the issues around trying to do it better/cheaper than buying commercial 50lbs bags of feed. You would need a very good place to store all that feed. If everything was whole grains, not milled in any fashion, you should be able to store it for a year or more, provided you don't get infested with weevils or mealworms. Anything that's milled will last depending on climate. Higher temps and humidity will dramatically reduce storage time, especially with milled grains or legumes. The feed I buy has a milled on date stamped on the package...the oldest date I've seen was about 6 weeks old, usually it's 3-4 weeks. Very fresh.

At what point does the cost savings from bulk purchases not pay off because the nutrition in said feed has degraded so much that the flock suffers in health, reduced production of eggs/meat gain, more susceptible to illness or that they simply eat more to get the same nutrition? I don't know the answer to this, but I bet commercial chicken farms do.

Prior to meeting my wife, I always purchased the "bulk carrots" (without the tops, sold by the pound) because they were cheaper. She insists on the "bunch carrots", those sold in a bunch complete with green carrot tops. They're more expensive. I asked her why they were worth the extra cost...after all carrots store very well. She said that the green tops show that the carrots are fresher, much fresher, and this affects not only flavor but nutrition quality. She finished all but a few credits of a Masters degree in nutrition, so she knows what she is talking about. I can't taste the superior nutrition but I can taste the flavor...bunch carrots do taste much better. They're sweeter, richer, earthier.

 

[LeslieDJoyce]

I've changed a lot about my feed situation since the last post. My birds stopped doing so well on the mass-produced commercial feeds, so I switched brands ... the birds did better on the new brand, but we also wanted more control of the ingredients, so switched again.

In the end, I started buying my feed in bulk from a little local custom mill. I really trust their ability to mix a super nutritious feed super delicious feed from the most local sources possible. Not only can they fill in the blanks of all the stuff I don't know about poultry nutrition, but they can buy the individual ingredients at better prices than I can. And they have the equipment to grind/pellet the feed, which is better for the birds than feeding whole grains (there are different schools of though on this, but this is what the research I've read indicates). And I'm supporting an independent local business, which I prefer.

Our feed is formulated to meet the nutritional needs of all our birds (breeders, layers, ducks) from hatching day forward. Using just one type of feed has simplified things a LOT for us. It comes in bags on a pallet.

Our birds are looking better than ever this spring. The eggs are SO delicious.

This custom feed is less expensive than similar off-the-shelf options, but it certainly is not the cheapest feed available. We store it in the house, which is a little odd, but after considering all the options this is the most convenient and best for the feed.

 

[sabont]

This custom feed is less expensive than similar off-the-shelf options, but it certainly is not the cheapest feed available. We store it in the house, which is a little odd, but after considering all the options this is the most convenient and best for the feed.

I am trying to resurrect this old thread I (and my co-op) are in Newberg, OR and we have been looking to mix up our ladies' food just as you decided to do a few years ago. I was hoping to hear where it was that you ended up getting your feed from, and if you've changed since then, what you're feeding your chickens now!

Thanks!