Chick Challenges DIY Feed

[Tashua]

I'm attempting to raise 50 chicks on a DIY feed that is completely raw. I have a niche market of potential customers that would value the eggs being produced this way and pay a nice premium. I am trying to stay away from legumes so here is what I fed for the first few weeks:
Ground barley soaked in whey
Raw ground beef
Half water/half whey for drink
A mat of grass from outside for grit/greens
They did well for a while (they're 3 weeks old) but now about half of them are having serious walking issues. It certainly looks like some kind of failure to thrive issue. They do not get any direct sunlight where I have them in the house which I am concerned about. I looked up calcium to phosphorus ratio and concluded they were not getting enough calcium. So I've been crushing raw egg shells and providing that free choice. I have another batch of 50 chicks coming soon and wanted to see if anyone with knowledge/experience in DIY chick foods could help me prepare for success on the next batch. My only rules are everything must be raw (no-soy) and no manufactured supplements. In other words, all the vitamins/minerals must come from raw foods in their diet. I haven't done so yet but I'm also considering starting a mealworm farm. Thanks for your help in advance, I look forward to your insights.

So I read all the reply's and yours as well . Seems that profit is your only goal . . . Look to big business that has failed . You also will fail with the loss of life a huge cost . Guess that's unimportant.

 

[Debby R]

I will continue with my endeavor in the belief there is a better way than what is being offered by commercial feed. I welcome any feedback that is encouraging in this endeavor and ask others to be understanding and open minded. Thank you for your time.

So you will continue with watching your chicks die?? What kind of person are you??

 

[U_Stormcrow]

So you will continue with watching your chicks die?? What kind of person are you??

Like many, OP is the kind of person who rejects reality in favor of their beliefs. Its a common failing of the human species. Public opprobrium won't change that - to the contrary, it tends to make humans dig further into their fantasies.

**IF** the OP learns, it will be thru failure - the same way most humans learn. A failure which will likely cost a large number of birds their lives - but they are the OPs birds, property. Nothing you can do or say will change that. Move on, your time is wasted here.

 

[Xatra]

I will continue with my endeavor in the belief there is a better way than what is being offered by commercial feed. I welcome any feedback that is encouraging in this endeavor and ask others to be understanding and open minded. Thank you for your time.

Obviously as has been explained, your recipe needs a lot of tweaking to get it right, but I also don't just believe but know it to be possible to make homemade food that is better and healthier than any commercial feed but it takes a lot of studying. I've already done this with dogs but put all the necessary research into it (fortunately much more info is known and freely available about feeding dogs raw diets compared to poultry) before beginning, didn't just randomly start trying different homemade raw diets to see what would "work."

Hopefully you continue posting when you have a better recipe. I'm also studying this in preparation for making my own poultry feed. It definitely will not include corn. I wonder if organic bone meal could be the solution or at least an important part of calcium/phosphorus balance. My adult dogs eat bones to get most of their calcium and phosphorus but young puppies can't chew through them so I give them organic bone meal and this is known to be excellent for dogs, have to research it for poultry though. Best of luck.

 

[U_Stormcrow]

Obviously as has been explained, your recipe needs a lot of tweaking to get it right, but I also don't just believe but know it to be possible to make homemade food that is better and healthier than any commercial feed but it takes a lot of studying. I've already done this with dogs but put all the necessary research into it (fortunately much more info is known and freely available about feeding dogs raw diets compared to poultry) before beginning, didn't just randomly start trying different homemade raw diets to see what would "work."

Hopefully you continue posting when you have a better recipe. I'm also studying this in preparation for making my own poultry feed. It definitely will not include corn. I wonder if organic bone meal could be the solution or at least an important part of calcium/phosphorus balance. My adult dogs eat bones to get most of their calcium and phosphorus but young puppies can't chew through them so I give them organic bone meal and this is known to be excellent for dogs, have to research it for poultry though. Best of luck.

As you do your reading, you will find that poultry nutrition is the most researched field in the whole of the animal world, in terms of dietary needs. The study of dogs dwarfs by comparison. Welcome to the rabbit hole.

Finding the actual Ca : P contents of your organic bone meal is the challenge on many labels, but yes, pay attention to @saysfaa 's posts on old feed recipes. Many of them relied on meat and bone meal to make them work (an ingredient the FDA no long allows to be included) - and one of the books that comes up frequently actually gives the breakdown for "typical" meat & bone meal of the time. Hint, its 55% protein, 11.5% fat, 10.Calc, almost 5% phos and 25% water.

Keep in mind also that the old feed recipes met the needs of less improved birds than current standards, with much lower expectations of production. But its a start, from which you can scale up.

 

[Xatra]

I use Burpee brand organic bone meal and it says right on the label 8% phosphate and 7% calcium, would never use any without this information in the guaranteed analysis, nor any that is not organic, nor "meat and bone meal," just pure organic bone meal with the required information.

Also just did a search for feeding bone meal to poultry and found this old thread, has some additional useful information, seems to indicate that organic bone meal is almost certainly safe for poultry, either mixed into food or fed separately free choice like some people do with oyster shell, and is something they could come across naturally in a truly wild free range environment, from decomposing carcasses:

https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/bone-meal.15059/

 

[Shahnaz13]

How many chicks have died from this experiment so far?
It would be better to have aquired the knowledge of what chicks need in their diet before getting them.
My suggestion is you forget about the nice premium a few people may pay and concentrate on the welfare and health of the chicks.

Perfectly put!

 

[Finnie]

Folks, I don’t think the OP is participating in this thread any more.

 

[Brahmas Beauty Homestead]

First off WOW…. I can not believe you literally asked the community to help you that your chicks are lame or not healthy I should say and you don’t want to make the same mistake on the ones ordered . WAKE UP!!!! Your being told the answer…. Your not providing the proper nutrition and where ever you conjured up your feeding program as of present is NOT what a customer based desire is. You can talk the good smack with these unknowable people that only hear ALL NATURE, NO SUPPLIMENTS, RAW ORGANIC And what ever your other words are when speaking this non sense to these potential customers but your failing to tell them but do to the way I feed it’s neglecting the actual requirements the chicks need which will in the long run make the pullets not be good producing egg hens. What they lack of as chicks will follow them the rest of their life. This includes their immune system. Their laying productive and they could lay but continue with just small eggs because you have destroyed their capabilities early on in their life here is a link to nutrition you might can follow and understand WHY CERTAIN SUPPLEMENTS ARE REQUIRED…. The poultry feed industry is not out to kill your chicks with having end results of putting them out of business, they do extensive research for poultry requirements. If you have kids did you prevent them from proper nutrition and void all supplements from them . I don’t think so . I can say for me I have customers exclusively buy my free range hi omega with the proper nutrition designed by a veterinarian and has non GMO and they sell organic too . I mix up a few of the different bags creating my own mix of their feed. It’s called Kalmbach feed I get mine off chewy but some are local to people. They get fruits and vegetables, some table scraps a highly recommend 5 grain scratch that’s soaked in cod liver oil and wheat germ oil over night then every 3 days they get whole oats soaked in rooster booster and apple cider vinegar and they get it . The other feed is open feed. My customers tell me my eggs are the best tasting eggs they have ever had and love all the extra nutrients I add. Your not providing ANYTHING in your long term goal . Please feed the chicks appropriately and learn how to raise them to achieve a long term goal . Your plan does not work .
https://www.merckvetmanual.com/poul...t-poultry/nutritional-requirements-of-poultry

 

[Avian Egg Farms]

I'm attempting to raise 50 chicks on a DIY feed that is completely raw. I have a niche market of potential customers that would value the eggs being produced this way and pay a nice premium. I am trying to stay away from legumes so here is what I fed for the first few weeks:
Ground barley soaked in whey
Raw ground beef
Half water/half whey for drink
A mat of grass from outside for grit/greens
They did well for a while (they're 3 weeks old) but now about half of them are having serious walking issues. It certainly looks like some kind of failure to thrive issue. They do not get any direct sunlight where I have them in the house which I am concerned about. I looked up calcium to phosphorus ratio and concluded they were not getting enough calcium. So I've been crushing raw egg shells and providing that free choice. I have another batch of 50 chicks coming soon and wanted to see if anyone with knowledge/experience in DIY chick foods could help me prepare for success on the next batch. My only rules are everything must be raw (no-soy) and no manufactured supplements. In other words, all the vitamins/minerals must come from raw foods in their diet. I haven't done so yet but I'm also considering starting a mealworm farm. Thanks for your help in advance, I look forward to your insights.

I'm attempting to raise 50 chicks on a DIY feed that is completely raw. I have a niche market of potential customers that would value the eggs being produced this way and pay a nice premium. I am trying to stay away from legumes so here is what I fed for the first few weeks:
Ground barley soaked in whey
Raw ground beef
Half water/half whey for drink
A mat of grass from outside for grit/greens
They did well for a while (they're 3 weeks old) but now about half of them are having serious walking issues. It certainly looks like some kind of failure to thrive issue. They do not get any direct sunlight where I have them in the house which I am concerned about. I looked up calcium to phosphorus ratio and concluded they were not getting enough calcium. So I've been crushing raw egg shells and providing that free choice. I have another batch of 50 chicks coming soon and wanted to see if anyone with knowledge/experience in DIY chick foods could help me prepare for success on the next batch. My only rules are everything must be raw (no-soy) and no manufactured supplements. In other words, all the vitamins/minerals must come from raw foods in their diet. I haven't done so yet but I'm also considering starting a mealworm farm. Thanks for your help in advance, I look forward to your insights.

I don't know much about chickens, but it sounds like you're missing several things if your chicks are dying. I can see you're heavily trying to avoid commercial feed. I once considered to make a DIY feed for quail in the future, but got heavily discouraged. I have found what works by using a seed blend that is commercially formulated for quail, which i've seen as the healthiest, most balanced, and cheapest option. I reccomend listening to some of the people on here, consulting a vet, and doing tons more research. It also seems like you're missing bugs and greens?