Can I grow chicken feed?

[3nglishteacher]

Like everyone, I'm anticipating exorbitant grain prices in the near future and wondered if it's worthwhile cost-wise and nutrition-wise to plant a crop (if someone would tell me what crop that'd be

) for my 2 dozen chickens?

Would it make more sense to just plan on paying more for feed in the coming months, years?

thanks!

 

[greyfields]

You can grow small amounts of grain for your birds to harvest as the seeds fall off. But, with all grains, they are in the 8-12% protein range which is on the lower end for layer feed. So, what you ought do is use the grain to stretch their layer ration further, rather than replacing it entirely.