- Oct 15, 2012
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Hey, looking into growing my own chicken feed and was wondering how many bushes per chicken of grain to grow. I've got a wheat plot planned and will probably grow amaranth, millet, and/or quinoa, but I only have 1+/- acre to work with (the rest is garden, pasture, and house+yard). Chickens will be pastured while snow is off the ground and can probably forage most of what they need themselves save a couple handfuls of grains a day, right? We want to keep about 10 or so layers/breeders and raise 30-50 freedom ranger chicks each year on pasture and butcher at 12 weeks.
How many bushels of grain will 10 chickens go through in a year? Roughly how many bushes of grain will pastured chickens require during the spring, summer, and fall? Roughly how many bushels of wheat, amaranth, quinoa, or millet? Is corn a suitable grain source for chickens? Any advice on how much and what grain to grow for chickens with optimal yield per acre for a small homestead to reduce as much as possible reliance on purchased grains?
Sorry for all the questions, we've got the opportunity to get an entire homestead/farm set up by the end of next summer and I just realized we probably don't have enough room to grow all our wheat and reseeding AND grain for chickens. I'm also just ridiculously excited about getting this going.![Smile :) :)](/styles/byc-smilies/smile.png)
How many bushels of grain will 10 chickens go through in a year? Roughly how many bushes of grain will pastured chickens require during the spring, summer, and fall? Roughly how many bushels of wheat, amaranth, quinoa, or millet? Is corn a suitable grain source for chickens? Any advice on how much and what grain to grow for chickens with optimal yield per acre for a small homestead to reduce as much as possible reliance on purchased grains?
Sorry for all the questions, we've got the opportunity to get an entire homestead/farm set up by the end of next summer and I just realized we probably don't have enough room to grow all our wheat and reseeding AND grain for chickens. I'm also just ridiculously excited about getting this going.
![Smile :) :)](/styles/byc-smilies/smile.png)