Choosing the correct food

[Rodrad]

Most chickens can moderate their diet just fine. They should have feed, whether grower or layer, available when they're awake.

Thank you.

 

[GC-Raptor]

My question is how much of the layer type feed they should get per day. I wonder if they would not get too fat (which can’t be good for chicken plus is more expensive) if they have available food 24/7.

I plan to use 25% Kalmbach 122P 44% poultry supplement and 75% corn

Poultry feed (Layer, Starter-Grower) is properly balanced, Protein, Carbohydrates, Fat.
All ages of Chickens will eat till they meet their energy needs when feed is given free choice, exceptions are meat type chickens like Cornish X, Red Rangers.
I've had chickens for 5 years and have always had feed available for chickens 24/7.
I've had Sex-links (Golden Comets, ISA Browns).
Duel Purpose chickens (Barred Rocks, Rhode Island Reds).
None have ever gotten fat. GC

 

[Rodrad]

Poultry feed (Layer, Starter-Grower) is properly balanced, Protein, Carbohydrates, Fat.
All ages of Chickens will eat till they meet their energy needs when feed is given free choice, exceptions are meat type chickens like Cornish X, Red Rangers.
I've had chickens for 5 years and have always had feed available for chickens 24/7.
I've had Sex-links (Golden Comets, ISA Browns).
Duel Purpose chickens (Barred Rocks, Rhode Island Reds).
None have ever gotten fat. GC

That’s great information. It appears that consensus is (at least from home growers) to give the pullets starter-grower feed as well as laying chickens layer feed for at least during whole day if not 24/7.

thank you for your input

 

[Rodrad]

Somebody question if my plan to make my own feed using 25% Kalmbach 44% Protein supplement and 75% corn would have the proper nutrients as needed for the layer chickens. BTW, the chickens will have on the side dish with crushed egg shells and oyster shells.

Here is the link to the specs for that supplement:
http://3.143.41.229/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/122P.pdf

I would appreciate any comments on the quality of such ”home” made feed.

Thank you

 

[Auntiejessi3]

Somebody question if my plan to make my own feed using 25% Kalmbach 44% Protein supplement and 75% corn would have the proper nutrients as needed for the layer chickens. BTW, the chickens will have on the side dish with crushed egg shells and oyster shells.

Here is the link to the specs for that supplement:
http://3.143.41.229/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/122P.pdf

I would appreciate any comments on the quality of such ”home” made feed.

Thank you

Stick with just the kalmbach, it has everything your ladies need. They definitely don't need corn especially in the summer as it raises their body temp. Skip all the junk and additives.

 

[GC-Raptor]

Stick with just the kalmbach, it has everything your ladies need.

Its 44% Protein, way too much by itself.
Its a supplement to mix with grains like corn, wheat, barley, rye and others.

I would appreciate any comments on the quality of such ”home” made feed.

I've never mixed my own feed, but I noticed that the supplement is a meal/mash form. Unless you grind up the corn they may eat the corn and leave the supplement in the feeder.
You could ferment the corn and mash so they eat everything.
Myself I like a Crumble or pellet type feed. GC

 

[Auntiejessi3]

Its 44% Protein, way too much by itself.
Its a supplement to mix with grains like corn, wheat, barley, rye and others.

I've never mixed my own feed, but I noticed that the supplement is a meal/mash form. Unless you grind up the corn they may eat the corn and leave the supplement in the feeder.
You could ferment the corn and mash so they eat everything.
Myself I like a Crumble or pellet type feed. GC

My bad, I misread, I feed kalmbach 20% all flock so I think that was just in my head

 

[U_Stormcrow]

Somebody question if my plan to make my own feed using 25% Kalmbach 44% Protein supplement and 75% corn would have the proper nutrients as needed for the layer chickens. BTW, the chickens will have on the side dish with crushed egg shells and oyster shells.

Here is the link to the specs for that supplement:
http://3.143.41.229/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/122P.pdf

I would appreciate any comments on the quality of such ”home” made feed.

Thank you

@Auntiejessi3 he's propossing mixing that particular Kalmbach (essentially a high protein super vitamin mix) with the much cheaper corn to reduce its crude protein down to around 20% and otherwise control costs - it is, in fact, what that Kalmbach product is made for. Similar to feeding us breeead and water, sprinkled liberally with multivitamins and other suppliments - in theory.

@Rodrad as I said, I'm not a professional at this. I'm just a guy with wierd reading habits. You will want to reference this from USDA/NRCS. You will have to accept that the K product label doesn't give you all the information you need, as it lists only Lysine and Methionine, leaving off the other essential Amino Acids. Its "probably" all right. Maybe. Tryptophan isn't listed, and it (together with Lysine and Methionine) are the three limiting amino acids corn is deficient in.

Then you want to look for something offering the crude protein and amino acid profiles of dried corn. Sources vary, but you will likely find something in the neighborhood of 8.5% crude protein (CP), 0.265% Lysine (LY), 0.16% Methionine (ME), and 0.06% Tryptophan (TR).

Then you want to plug those numbers in based on your feed mix ratio, and compare to target.

Assuming you use the USDA/NRCS numbers for laying hens (which I believe to be quite low, actually, based on studies since the early 80s), your targets are 15% CP, 0.69% LY, 0.3% ME, 0.16% TR.

Kalmbach (for those who don't want to follow the link) is 44.0% CP, 2.75% LY, 0.75% ME, ?.xx TR

Adding three parts corn to one part Kalmbach -

CP = (8.5 + 8.5 + 8.5 + 44) / 4 = 17.375% CP
LY = (0.265 x3 + 2.75) / 4 = 0.886 % LY
ME =(0.16 x 3 + 0.75) / 4 = 0.308 % ME
TR = (0.06 x 3 + ?.xx) / 4 = ???? TR

Compare to the USDA targets, and you see your proposed mix exceeds the minimum crude protein and Lysine numbers, just meets the Methionine number, and may or may not meet the minimum Tryptophan levels needed for their health.

If you intended to use the same mix for broilers in their first weeks of life, your targets would be 23, 1.1, 0.5, 0.2 (respectively) - and you'd miss every one of them by wide margin. High Yield broilers (i.e Cornish X), you'd miss them even further.

The math is simple, the research is time consuming.

I recommend you either stick with complete feeds, or follow my example and do your research, rather than trusting the feeding of your hens entirely to the opinions of anonymous voices offering advice on the internet - opinions worth not more, and perhaps less, than you paid for them. Mixing raw ingredients to create a balanced feed (or correcting a known imbalanced feed like corn with suppliments) is beyond the skill and experience of most backyard owners. In spite of (or perhaps because of) my research, its something I would not try myself - I'm confident just enough in the state of my learning to show my sources, and my work.

 

[NatJ]

Somebody question if my plan to make my own feed using 25% Kalmbach 44% Protein supplement and 75% corn would have the proper nutrients as needed for the layer chickens. BTW, the chickens will have on the side dish with crushed egg shells and oyster shells.

Here is the link to the specs for that supplement:
http://3.143.41.229/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/122P.pdf

I would appreciate any comments on the quality of such ”home” made feed.

Thank you

I would expect problems if you mix the supplement with whole corn, because the chickens will pick out one part or another and waste the rest.

If you grind up the corn and mix them, it might work, but chickens tend to waste finely-ground food. If you grind the corn, mix them, and serve it wet the chickens will probably eat it all without too much wastage.

You could try putting the supplement and the corn in separate feeders, and see whether the chickens will eat the right balance by themselves. (Weigh the food when you put it in the feeders, then again a few days later.) If they will eat the right ratios, this would probably be easiest.

If that doesn't work, you could try serving the supplement as a wet mash (just add water.) Chickens will often consider that a treat and gobble it down. If you do that, serve the corn free-choice, and give them a measured amount of the supplement as mash each day. (How much supplement? Weigh how much corn they usually consume in a day, then weigh 1/3 that much supplement to make their mash. After you've got the amount figured out, just find the right size scoop to use for the supplement each day. The chickens will probably eat more corn in cold weather, but you can use the same amount of supplement all year long.)

 

[U_Stormcrow]

Its 44% Protein, way too much by itself.
Its a supplement to mix with grains like corn, wheat, barley, rye and others.

I've never mixed my own feed, but I noticed that the supplement is a meal/mash form. Unless you grind up the corn they may eat the corn and leave the supplement in the feeder.
You could ferment the corn and mash so they eat everything.
Myself I like a Crumble or pellet type feed. GC

^^^ Good advice, always. We have lots of posters on BYC complaining of apparent dietary imbalances in backyard flocks eating very expensive whole grain feeds. It doesn't matter what's in it, if your birds don't eat all of it - or the birds select out their favorites based on flock dominance, and thus avoid some significant part of a balanced diet

and as a further piece of advice? If you go forward with this, take out some of the corn and use oats instead. The why? the how much? and the math I leave to you as a useful exercise in understanding.