Cheaper food for chickens?

[Casey207908]

Anyone have any good ideas on cutting down the expense of chicken food? I have been buying it by the bag at tractor supply...$16 for 50-lb. I have 3 chickens that are 1-1/2 years old and 8 that are 10 weeks old. Gets spendy when you have to drop $32 at a time for a couple bags of food. Buy bulk online? Anyone have any good ideas or like to share where they get food and how much they pay?

 

[silkensunlight]

Chickens will eat almost anything. Free ranging can help cut your costs, but if you can't do that then household stuff, like veggie peelings and leavings will do also. My chickens will eat anything I give them, right down to potato peels and apple cores. We keep a bowl on the counter for anything the girls might eat. Breads and cereals are always a hit.

 

[juststruttin]

Here are a few ideas. I have not tried any of em, but I may give 1 or 2 a try. Guess which ones

1) Call your local brewery for spent barley. Supplement your feed up to 20% with that. Barley is high in protein.

2) Ferment your feed, scratch and corn. Goes farther and is good for the gut. I have not tried, but know people who swear by it. I think you can google procedure.

3) Warning. This one is gross. A friend puts old meat scraps in a bucket with holes drilled in the bottom. He puts meat scraps in the bucket hangs from a tree. Flys fly on the meat, lay eggs and maggots hatch and drop out throw the holes and the chickens gobble them up. I know it sounds gross but the maggots are high in protein and the chickens love them. They say, the chicken hang out under the bucket waiting for the maggots to drop.