Changing feed

[bertogomus]

I got so dang tired of the waste with the crumbles. And apparently the nutrena 16% layer feed is too low in calcium. So yesterday I invested in bulk CORN, sunflower seeds, flax seeds, millet, rolled Oats all with a whopping total of 187$! I carefully mixed with love and caring. I have enough feed for a good 6 months…. THEY WONT EAT IT!!!
Should I have transitioned, mixed, ferment or what. I payed awake all night worried they were hungry. Lord help me. Any suggestions? And would someone tell my husband for me??

 

[bertogomus]

I even grinded it in my blender and they didn’t want it?!

 

[Show Sebright]

Well if they get hungry they will eat. So if anyones suggestion doesn’t work they eventually they will eat.

 

[Brooks_]

I got so dang tired of the waste with the crumbles. And apparently the nutrena 16% layer feed is too low in calcium. So yesterday I invested in bulk CORN, sunflower seeds, flax seeds, millet, rolled Oats all with a whopping total of 187$! I carefully mixed with love and caring. I have enough feed for a good 6 months…. THEY WONT EAT IT!!!
Should I have transitioned, mixed, ferment or what. I payed awake all night worried they were hungry. Lord help me. Any suggestions? And would someone tell my husband for me??

Where is the calcium in your mix?

 

[U_Stormcrow]

I got so dang tired of the waste with the crumbles. And apparently the nutrena 16% layer feed is too low in calcium. So yesterday I invested in bulk CORN, sunflower seeds, flax seeds, millet, rolled Oats all with a whopping total of 187$! I carefully mixed with love and caring. I have enough feed for a good 6 months…. THEY WONT EAT IT!!!
Should I have transitioned, mixed, ferment or what. I payed awake all night worried they were hungry. Lord help me. Any suggestions? And would someone tell my husband for me??

So, believing you didn't have enough calcium, rather than offer oyster shell free choice, you made your own feed recipe which not only has no calcium source, but also no non-phytate phosphorus. Chickens can't use phytate (meaning plant-based) phosphorus for some stupid reason I won't pretend to explain.

Virtually all biological processes (such as bone building) use calcium and phosphorus together at a ratio of 2:1 - no phosphorus, no good. Egg shells are calcium carbonate, different story.

Anyhow, now that you are commited, what is your recipe? I'll throw it in my calculator and tell you what's wrong with it (apart from the fact the chickens won't eat it). At a glance, it looks to be high fiber, high fat, and with a poor AA profile - but I'm making some assumptions about the quantities you bought. Which millet, and dare the sunflowers shell on, or hulled?

Hungry, healthy birds WILL eat. Eventually. You can get it wet to reduce waste, and grinding will help ensure chickens don't pick out their favorites, further aggravating dietary imbalances.

Sorry, wish you had asked first, then acted. We'd have been in better position to help you, instead of merely assisting in cleaning up the mess.

 

[bertogomus]

Where is the calcium in your mix?

I use oyster shells and I powder my dry egg shells and mix with their feed…that they won’t eat still!!!

 

[bertogomus]

So, believing you didn't have enough calcium, rather than offer oyster shell free choice, you made your own feed recipe which not only has no calcium source, but also no non-phytate phosphorus. Chickens can't use phytate (meaning plant-based) phosphorus for some stupid reason I won't pretend to explain.

Virtually all biological processes (such as bone building) use calcium and phosphorus together at a ratio of 2:1 - no phosphorus, no good. Egg shells are calcium carbonate, different story.

Anyhow, now that you are commited, what is your recipe? I'll throw it in my calculator and tell you what's wrong with it (apart from the fact the chickens won't eat it). At a glance, it looks to be high fiber, high fat, and with a poor AA profile - but I'm making some assumptions about the quantities you bought. Which millet, and dare the sunflowers shell on, or hulled?

Hungry, healthy birds WILL eat. Eventually. You can get it wet to reduce waste, and grinding will help ensure chickens don't pick out their favorites, further aggravating dietary imbalances.

Sorry, wish you had asked first, then acted. We'd have been in better position to help you, instead of merely assisting in cleaning up the mess.

Now I’m just SICK!!
While sunflowers
Just millet
Whole corn
Rolled oats
Flax seed
I just followed Becky’s homestead and her book. Her chickens look great. I can’t waste it,
What do I do now?
By the way, I DID ask and virtually no one responded to the question.

 

[bertogomus]

I even grinded it in my blender and they didn’t want it?!

I got liver from a cow and cooked it and mixed it with the ground stuff and wet it and they ate some

 

[U_Stormcrow]

Now I’m just SICK!!
While sunflowers
Just millet
Whole corn
Rolled oats
Flax seed
I just followed Becky’s homestead and her book. Her chickens look great. I can’t waste it,
What do I do now?
By the way, I DID ask and virtually no one responded to the question.

I'm sorry I missed your post. Becky's Recipe is a disaster.

Becky's with corn formula works out as about 15.8% Protein, that's low, 8.1% fiber that's high, 14.1% Fat (that's 4x what's recommended for a chicken, and more than twice what's recommended for a CornishX when fattening for the table in its last weeks of life). Among the Amino Acids, its 0.31% Methionine (low - a few commercial feeds are this low, but its below the recommends for all growing birds and some birds generally. Lysine of 0.6% (see comment re: Met), Threonine of 0.55 (you won't find this on nutritional labels, but its borderline), and just barely hits the recommends for Tryptophan @ 0.21.

Oyster shell - with or without crushed egg shell, should always be served in a seperate dish, not mixed in with the feed.

Adding the liver was the smartest thing you could have done. Any idea how much lever you added, pounds wise???

and yes, grind what you have up, serve it damp to help keep them from choosing favorites and reducing waste. There's no way to take fat out of the recipe - all you can do is thin it out somehow.

*ASSUMING* you added a 5# liver, the cheapest way to thin the recipe out, and improve it somewhat? Prepare 10# (dry weight) of black eyed peas with 10# (dry weight) of enriched polished white rice, mix that in. Your new numbers are: 16.63, 6.9 (many commercial feeds are this high), 11.5% (still way too high), 0.33 (bottom of the commercial feed range), 0.74 (acceptable), 0.60 (acceptable), 0.21.

I rarely troll the Chicken Behavior forums, and missed your "thin egg shells" posts there. Apologies. Also, lay off the treats - BOSS, BSFL, various larvae, grubs, etc are all super high fat. And oatmeal is high in beta glucans - for human digestion, that's a good thing (to a point), in chickens, in contributes to sticky poops and can inhibit some vitamin absorption.

and for what its worth, GBetty's recipe has FAR too many seeds, in far too great a quantity - that's where the majority of the fat in her recipe is coming from - some of those ingredients are almost half fat by weight. She's doing it to inflate here protein numbers (she isn't looking at amino acids at all) - cheap lean animal proteins are a better source of both the protein, and a better AA profile. Liver (unless you process your own animals) sadly isn't cheap [anymore].

 

[bertogomus]

Well if they get hungry they will eat. So if anyones suggestion doesn’t work they

I'm sorry I missed your post. Becky's Recipe is a disaster.

Becky's with corn formula works out as about 15.8% Protein, that's low, 8.1% fiber that's high, 14.1% Fat (that's 4x what's recommended for a chicken, and more than twice what's recommended for a CornishX when fattening for the table in its last weeks of life). Among the Amino Acids, its 0.31% Methionine (low - a few commercial feeds are this low, but its below the recommends for all growing birds and some birds generally. Lysine of 0.6% (see comment re: Met), Threonine of 0.55 (you won't find this on nutritional labels, but its borderline), and just barely hits the recommends for Tryptophan @ 0.21.

View attachment 3065143

Oyster shell - with or without crushed egg shell, should always be served in a seperate dish, not mixed in with the feed.

Adding the liver was the smartest thing you could have done. Any idea how much lever you added, pounds wise???

and yes, grind what you have up, serve it damp to help keep them from choosing favorites and reducing waste. There's no way to take fat out of the recipe - all you can do is thin it out somehow.

*ASSUMING* you added a 5# liver, the cheapest way to thin the recipe out, and improve it somewhat? Prepare 10# (dry weight) of black eyed peas with 10# (dry weight) of enriched polished white rice, mix that in. Your new numbers are: 16.63, 6.9 (many commercial feeds are this high), 11.5% (still way too high), 0.33 (bottom of the commercial feed range), 0.74 (acceptable), 0.60 (acceptable), 0.21.

I rarely troll the Chicken Behavior forums, and missed your "thin egg shells" posts there. Apologies. Also, lay off the treats - BOSS, BSFL, various larvae, grubs, etc are all super high fat. And oatmeal is high in beta glucans - for human digestion, that's a good thing (to a point), in chickens, in contributes to sticky poops and can inhibit some vitamin absorption.

and for what its worth, GBetty's recipe has FAR too many seeds, in far too great a quantity - that's where the majority of the fat in her recipe is coming from - some of those ingredients are almost half fat by weight. She's doing it to inflate here protein numbers (she isn't looking at amino acids at all) - cheap lean animal proteins are a better source of both the protein, and a better AA profile. Liver (unless you process your own animals) sadly isn't cheap [anymore].

Thank you! I’m almost in tears!!! And yes the liver is from our own cow. Would it help if I went with a higher protein layer feed and mixed 2/3-1/3? I’ll do that. I was just trying to do what I thought would be best