Bulk seed

[CarlaCo]

So if all these fancy vitamins are needed, what did homesteaders and farmers feed their chickens a hundred years ago?

 

[Brooks_]

I agree with others that a home mix will most likely cost more and be nutrient deficient.

So if all these fancy vitamins are needed, what did homesteaders and farmers feed their chickens a hundred years ago?

Those chickens were not the same as what we have these days. they were also eaten at a young age.

My general advice is to feed commercial feed for best cost and nutrition.

 

[Sammster]

https://www.palousebrand.com/

I use this company for many of their products. Lowes has food-grade buckets and gamma lids. Grains should be pre-frozen for 3 days, thawed for 3 days, frozen again for 3 days - to break bug cycles, before long-term storage. If you live in a cold-winter climate - you could take advantage of nature's freezer. Just protect your supply from scavengers, while doing it.
In your buckets - layering in a few bayleaves also helps.

Whether you feed a commercial feed or not - having a recipe like this written down, is a good idea - in case for some reason, commercial feed becomes unavailable.

 

[springvalley123]

So if all these fancy vitamins are needed, what did homesteaders and farmers feed their chickens a hundred years ago?

Yesteryear's chickens didn't produce a 2 oz egg 300 days a year, from a bird that weighed only 5 pounds. If you take a modern chicken, which has been bred to produce lots of eggs with as little food as possible, and give it yesterday's feed (tossed scraps etc), the chicken won't get the nourishment it needs. For example, calcium is an electrolyte as well as egg-shell maker. Similar for all the other nutrients, especially those in the vitamin pack and the make up of the amino acids . So, you get a malnourished bird who gets sick "trying" to produce at the rate it was bred to.

 

[springvalley123]

https://www.palousebrand.com/

I use this company for many of their products. Lowes has food-grade buckets and gamma lids. Grains should be pre-frozen for 3 days, thawed for 3 days, frozen again for 3 days - to break bug cycles, before long-term storage. If you live in a cold-winter climate - you could take advantage of nature's freezer. Just protect your supply from scavengers, while doing it.
In your buckets - layering in a few bayleaves also helps.

Whether you feed a commercial feed or not - having a recipe like this written down, is a good idea - in case for some reason, commercial feed becomes unavailable.

It didn't link to a recipe--do you have a recipe, or were you just referring to the OP's recipe from the youtuber?

 

[nuthatched]

So if all these fancy vitamins are needed, what did homesteaders and farmers feed their chickens a hundred years ago?

Our great grandparents chickens weren't the same chickens we have now, 100 years ago the best you could get out of a White Leghorn (the most productive breed we have) was 120 eggs a year. Even the worse egg producer breeds we have do better than that. Trying to raise today's fowl like my great grandfather did would be like forcing a pregnant mother on a 500 calorie a day diet, something bad will happen. Today's chickens are 3 and 4 times more productive than 100 years ago.
Chickens 100 years ago were kept on farms and fed offal and picked through the droppings of larger animals, that helped.
VERY few birds lived through their second autumn, they were eaten by the farmers, so long term healthy living wasn't a worry. Any diet will work for awhile but it doesn't take long for things to go sour.

 

[Sammster]

It didn't link to a recipe--do you have a recipe, or were you just referring to the OP's recipe from the youtuber?

The OP asked for a resource for bulk, split peas. That's what this is. I don't have a resource for bulk flax seed

 

[SmiYa0126]

So if all these fancy vitamins are needed, what did homesteaders and farmers feed their chickens a hundred years ago?

Hi! It was easier for them because most had more animals than just chickens, also had pasture. They would barter for grain or grow their own, the rest was chickens having a natural food source and leftovers from the pigs, horses etc.

 

[Alagirl]

So if all these fancy vitamins are needed, what did homesteaders and farmers feed their chickens a hundred years ago?

they let them fend for themselves and ate them frequently.
not practical when you have limited acreage and other danger factors.
the chickens are also no longer the same as they were 100 years ago.

 

[Alagirl]

flax should be available at the feed store. It comes shredded and stabilized in many areas for use as horse feed (if not stabilized ground flax can oxidize into undesirable compounds.