can you make your own feed?

[HSerChickLady]

Is it practicle and remotely cost effective to make your own feeds? What i really want is a high quality, all natural, feed that they actually like. Can i make such a thing for 30 chickens without it being a huge ordeal? If it's doable i'd love to see others recipes.

 

[WI FarmChick]

There is a thread with some feed recipes take a look.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/651147/feed-recipe-not-sure-how-much-of-what

 

[Chicks on DL]

I make mine and they LOVE it! I have not done the math to see if it is cost effective but I only have 4 and I grind my own wheat for bread anyway. I am figuring it probably costs me $2 lb because everything I buy is organic. It only takes me 5-10 minutes to crack wheat, corn, and peas and put the ingredients together for 1 weeks worth. So many bugs lately that it took them 2 weeks to eat the last batch. I have read on this site some people formulating their own mixture and then taking it to a milling company. I feel the biggest challenge is storage because so many ingredients go into a batch of feed. I have no idea if this helps but I hope there is a little nugget of information in there.

 

[Chicks on DL]

Ooops, I meant that it costs me a little over $1 lb.

 

[Cyndi in Iowa]

Chicks on DL-- I see you must be a city-dweller... how do you crack your own grain? We are on a farm (brand-new to chickens, tho!) so my husband has a big grinder run by a tractor... but I am wondering about having something small for here at the house. (we have 5 chicks and a duckling right now)

 

[MsTigrLadi]

I would think that a home kitchen wheat/grain grinder would do the job, or even a coffee grinder

 

[HSerChickLady]

Thanks, i found a recipe in a book that i "think" i can find all the ingredients for. I'm going to see what is truelly available to me next trip i make to town. Then i'll just have to find a hand grinder someplace.

 

[WI FarmChick]

If your Chickens are old enough you wouldn't have to grind their grains for them. I have 9 week old's and they are on whole grains I have only 2 grains I need to crack yet. But soon they will be big enough to eat them all whole. The only time I ground their grains was when they were little.

Which book are you using? just curious.

 

[HSerChickLady]

If your Chickens are old enough you wouldn't have to grind their grains for them. I have 9 week old's and they are on whole grains I have only 2 grains I need to crack yet. But soon they will be big enough to eat them all whole. The only time I ground their grains was when they were little.

Which book are you using? just curious.

OK, good to know. I had read something about them needing to be switched to it slowly so their gizzards can get used to the whole grains. The book i found the recipe in is The Joy of Keeping Chickens. The ingredients i think will be fairly easy to find and it's for a 100 lb batch which i could handle. Some recipes i've seen make way more than i can manage. I did find a couple other recipes online i might try if i can find the ingredients. I think my birds would prefer the homemade stuff. They greatly prefer whole grains over commercial feed.

 

[WI FarmChick]

OK, good to know. I had read something about them needing to be switched to it slowly so their gizzards can get used to the whole grains. Yes the gizzard is a muscle so it will have to have time to build up it's strength......the longer the better. no need to rush it.

The book i found the recipe in is The Joy of Keeping Chickens. Thanks I will have to check it out.

The ingredients i think will be fairly easy to find and it's for a 100 lb batch which i could handle. I have 40....9 week old's an I am mixing 50# at time right now.

Some recipes i've seen make way more than i can manage. You can break those down to 100#

I did find a couple other recipes online i might try if i can find the ingredients. Keep it simple you don't want it to become a burden. won't be fun any more.

I think my birds would prefer the homemade stuff. They greatly prefer whole grains over commercial feed. I know mine do! LOL