Chickens and Rice do mix

[KatfishKiller]

i Bought 50 pounds of rice at Sams. Cost was $23. I use 1 pint of dry rice each day. Cooked it makes right at 1 gallon of rice. Chickens devour every grain! Long story short, it is much more cost effective than feeding the corn/wheat mix.

 

[rural mouse]

As long as they can forage daily for the nutrients not found in rice, they could do just fine. Depends upon what is available to them. If not, they're going to end up lacking in dietary needs.

 

[2ndTink]

Rice alone does not contain the nutrients that chickens need to grow, thrive, and lay eggs.

Are you feeding this as a sole ration or just as a filler?

 

[Debbie292d]

Chickens thrive better when fed a nutritionally balanced feed. I would at least put Poultry Cell/chicken vitamins in it, or in their water, so they're getting something, as rice doesn't have much of anything they need. They could become vitamin-deficient, and then problems will start occurring. Commercial feed also provides immunities they won't get, so they could fall sick more easily.

 

[SourRoses]

Where's the protein?

 

[nuthatched]

Rice is nutritionally devoid, it's just filler.

 

[FrostRanger]

For less than that you could buy 50lbs of a basic chick feed or layer feed which unlike rice would provide everything they need. There are ways of cutting down on feed cost such as free ranging, fermenting feed and feeding them only a bit more than you know they'll eat every day (or using a treadle feeder which would be better) but feeding them only rice isn't it. They are very likely to have nutritional issues, especially if they can't free range and that's going to more than offset whatever you may have saved when you now have to buy poultry vitamins and/or raise replacement birds if any die from nutritional deficiencies (and you will still have to switch to a proper commercial feed). As tempting as it seems, don't do it, your birds will suffer for it and so will your wallet ultimately. Even the cheapest commercial feed is better than rice

 

[Debbie292d]

For less than that you could buy 50lbs of a basic chick feed or layer feed which unlike rice would provide everything they need. There are ways of cutting down on feed cost such as free ranging, fermenting feed and feeding them only a bit more than you know they'll eat every day (or using a treadle feeder which would be better) but feeding them only rice isn't it. They are very likely to have nutritional issues, especially if they can't free range and that's going to more than offset whatever you may have saved when you now have to buy poultry vitamins and/or raise replacement birds if any die from nutritional deficiencies (and you will still have to switch to a proper commercial feed). As tempting as it seems, don't do it, your birds will suffer for it and so will your wallet ultimately. Even the cheapest commercial feed is better than rice

Indeed!

50# of Kalmbach's Flock Maker is less than that rice, delivered to our door.

Granted, it's low calcium, so you'd need to provide oyster shell in a separate dish, but most everyone does that anyway, no matter what the feed.

We purchase two bags of that, plus a 30# bag of Henhouse Reserve for their scratch to get the free shipping from Chewy.