Can I get feedback on this homemade feed recipe?

[Sammster]

Answer:
( I used Fertrell's Fish Meal for those numbers, its readily available and has a good label in terms of its nutritional breakdown. I also used a lower protein kelp meal, there's significant variation in that, I assume you are including primarily for micronutrients. Finally, I used whole oats (not naked/dehulled - again, lower total protein)

and???

Its good. After correcting for (assumed) water content, you should be just shy 20% protein, around 6.0-6.5% fiber, about 3.5% fat. Met 0.31, Lys 1.1, Thre 0.7, Tryp 0.21. All acceptable. I can't compute the MKe (MJ/Kg) I don't have numbers for some of the ingredients, but I expect it will come in at the right range. If you wanted to save a few dollars, you could drop the flaxseed (I know its expensive) and have virtually no change (a little less fat, a little less MKe overall). DO stick with the hard wheat, it makes almost a 2% difference in final protein, and roughly a 10% difference in most of the AAs - the price difference between the two shouldn't be horrid.

You're awesome

 

[SunnyFeathers]

You're awesome

I agree.

I really appreciate you taking your time to analyze my feed plan, U_StormCrow !

 

[Vata Raven]

Animals are like human, they eat what they like, need, and crave. You can't put everything in front of them and expect them to eat it.

I have given my chicks a few treats: potatoes, bananas, apples, spent brewer grains, popcorn, and frozen strawberries (because we had none fresh)

They love baked potatoes, bananas, and spent brewer grains.

They were meh with the apples and frozen strawberries. Hell, I even mixed them with the stuff they liked, and still didn't want to touch them. If they don't like apples and frozen strawberries, why keep feeding it to them? Waste of time, money, and resources.

And they played with the popcorn before eating it, and it gave them diarrhea. Thus it became a no-no food.

Also, I think you are doing too much work trying to feed them. Instead of blending all these hard grains that they can't eat or don't like plus the processed meals, why not grow cover crops that mix legumes, grains, and sunflowers, and let them eat from that.

Let the chickens do most the work for you.

 

[Ponyiqandhens2]

Pick up a poultry or even intro to animal husbandry book..i have 3 recipesin the onehave easy accessto,but all of mine are either 80s or early 90s and i dont know if there are better recipesnow..thhese are scientifically produced and discuss most commercial hatcheries use their own custom blends based on these recipes but with differences for age,breed,cage,house or pasture, heritage or high production breeds,layers,grow outs,heritage or cornish meat birds and location... anyway, lots of information on making custom blends that are safe and have all of the required nutrients

 

[Mason Farm and Ranch]

Are the birds eating the split peas? Mine wouldn't touch them, but they were not dusted in fish meal either.

My chooks wouldn't eat split peas either. I make 'Chicken Dinner' by putting split peas, brown rice in a pan with broth and whatever vegetable scraps I have saved and bake it. The peas turn to mush and stirred up, coats the rice. I add stuff to it, but they eat those peas.

 

[BastyPutt]

I know that it is easier to get the proper balance of nutrients using commercial layer pellets, but my husband and I grow most of our own organic table vegetables, and we have been itching to get into mixing our own chicken feed.

We have been growing our own chickens (and occasionally ducks) since 2007, as well as supplying 4 month old pullets in a timely manner to several local Farmer’s Market egg sellers. We supply our henhouses with 14 hours of light year round and have a both heat panel and heated waterers in every house, so that it never gets excessively cold (under 40 degrees) in their sleeping quarters. We know the difference between slow down of egg production due to inadequate light levels, molting, or winter cold.

So when our birds quit laying in December, we knew it was not a normal situation. We finally got them back to laying by making up a crude homemade mix of corn, oats, BOSS, split peas and kelp meal. Things we already had hanging around the farm.

We know that is inadequate for the long term. We just wanted something quick, until we could come up with a better recipe. And get all its ingredients together.


Thanks to Spaceylocust and U-Stormcrow on another thread, we have come up with a recipe that we think will work.

We would like your feedback or suggestions for possible improvement of the recipe.

But we respectfully ask that you do not get in here just to say you think we would do better using commercial feed.

Maybe we would, maybe we would not.

But either way, after several months of few or no eggs, we want to try our hand at making our own. We surely cannot do worse than the commercial feed we have been buying.

So, here is the recipe. If you have suggestions for improving it, or other insights to offer about what we might encounter, please share. We are listening.


The recipe:

Alfalfa meal (1 part)
Fish meal (1 part)
Flax seed (1/2 part)
Hard Wheat (4 parts)
Kelp meal (1/2 part)
Lentils (2 parts)
Oats (1 part) - probably crimped, but that is still up for debate
Split Peas (2 parts)
AND finally,

Adding in the manufacturer’s recommended amount of an all-in-one pre-mix (vitamins, minerals, probiotics and digestive enzymes) from Advanced Biological Concepts. (This is similar to Fertrell’s Nutri-balancer, except that it has some digestive enzymes that are supposed to make the feed mix easier for chickens to digest.)


In addition, we will offer both oyster shell and granite based grit as free choice 24/7, and DE from time to time, as needed.


Our thought is to ferment the seeds and grains over a period of about 3 days, and then mix in the dry powder based components completely, (that is, the fisn meal, alfalfa meal and pre-mix meal) to coat the wet mix right immediately before serving.

This way, the dry powders wlii coat the wet, fermented mix, and hopefully they will be eating a well mixed grub, and not just picking out the ingredients they prefer.

So, what dou all think about the recipe?

Just wanted to let you know that you are doing an incredible thing by mixing your own feed, and sparing no expense at that.

Feeding your food, with your food should always be the preferred method - you know exactly what is in there and therefor exactly what is in your food. I know for a fact it can be discouraging at times, but worth it. Bravo.

 

[KariBunny]

Hi Stormcrow, I wanted to know if its possible to share that calculator, so i could do different mixes and see which one gives me a good protein %, i have find some accross the web but they all give me different amounts and im very confused

 

[U_Stormcrow]

Hi Stormcrow, I wanted to know if its possible to share that calculator, so i could do different mixes and see which one gives me a good protein %, i have find some accross the web but they all give me different amounts and im very confused

I did share it (hadn't really thought things thru) in another thread, you can search for it. I'm not linking it for a couple of reasons. One, I think far more is learned in researching to understand enough in order to build one for yourself, than in simply using the work of others. Two, it needs a certain amount of knowledge to use effectively. Three, I made some mistakes in making it which I now mentally correct for before posting numbers, but have not rewritten the calculator to correct.

Also, I'm a complete @$$. But its not my intent to be an unhelpful one.

All the numbers in my calculator came from Feedipedia.org Not because they are the best, the most accurate, etc, but because they had a large number of common ingredients, and their numbers didn't seem out of line from other (reliable) sources. One of these days, I'll rebuild my calculator (with some corrections and additions) with data from Feedtables.com

USDA also has a very comprehensive database, but its slow to load, a pain to search, and has some odd and glaring voids - being intended for human, not animal feeds. I use it only in extremes.

 

[KariBunny]

It's alright. Thank you

 

[U_Stormcrow]

It's alright. Thank you

I'm also not a huge fan of make at home recipes (if its not obvious from this thread, it will be as you run across more of my posts), and I think focus on crude protein alone reflects a level of understanding that even our great great great grandparents had exceeded in practice, even if they couldn't fully explain the theory.

Ask a health, long term (many year) practicing Vegan about "protein complimentation" and take really good notes.

But if you let me know where you are starting from, I can point you in the right direction.