Conventional non-GMO Whole Grain/Seed Recipe for Layers

[carolb5]

@Dandelioness

Good post! I LOVE Harvey Ussery's book too

I'm leaving a link for you that may be helpful. It talks about percentages of various grains in the overall diet and which things can't be fed unless cooked (in which case, chickens wouldn't eat it anyhow...never saw any chickens out roasting anything lately... )

Anyhow, a couple examples are: Oats and Barley combined should be no more than 40% of the total feed; Amaranth can't be fed raw; Buckwheat causes photosensitivity (more susceptible to sunburn) and should be used only in moderation...etc.



http://www2.ca.uky.edu/smallflocks/Nutrition-Grains.html

http://www2.ca.uky.edu/smallflocks/Nutrition.html

PS: I also make my own feed no-soy but I'm using organic as I can get the grains at the feed mill not too far in 50 lb bags. I do grind the field peas since no self-respecting chicken would EVER eat a legume seed if it had a choice. But so far I haven't found a reasonable alternative to get the protein up high enough. Though I do use fish meal (at the highest level you can use without causing fishy tasting eggs) and they do get animal protein at least weekly otherwise. I still wish I could find a good animal protein source that was a reasonable price that could go into the dry feed.

We do get livers and other items from a friend that hunts deer and use that as well as a little ground meat now and then (all raw). But it sure would be nice to find something that could go into the dry feed that didn't cost an arm and a leg. For sure folks with large flocks wouldn't likely be able to give the meat I give unless it was the livers, etc. My local butcher will give me all I want of those free, too, but I like to know how the cattle are raised as I feed raw and I don't want CAFO raised meat (or grain fed for that matter).

I did finally realize that for the price of my grass fed ground beef (I get it at $3.50 lb) it is actually cheaper than getting dried mealworms or the like lb. by lb. But there are certain nutrients in the bugs that you won't get in the meat... sigh

Hey Leah's mom. What kind of field peas or variety do you feed? I am growing a small patch this year. I have a reliable source of liver and beef trimmings, but was wanting a vegetable protein source. I only have so much freezer space for meat proteins. Thanks! Does anyone else feed field peas to their birds?

 

[Leahs Mom]

The ones I'm currently getting are from my local mill and they're organic. Here is what the label says (50 lb. bag)

King Fisher Organic Forage Seed
4010 Forage Certified Organic Pea
Byron Seed Company
775 N. 350 E.
Rockville, IN 47572

800-801-3596

 

[carolb5]

Thanks for the info Leahs Mom. What percentage do you feed.

 

[Dandelioness]

Quote:
Hi - sorry about the delayed response!

As far as the wet feed/dry feed question - I always add all of my flax and brewer's yeast and mineral mix to that morning slurry. So that is their main meal with all the "extras" that they may not get foraging. Depending on the day (can they free range, have I remembered to soak some more feed), I will feed a full dry ration right on the coop floor to encourage "foraging behavior" even in the coop, use the dry ration as scratch (just a few handfuls) (no powder in it, so it's not getting wasted), or feed half the last portion of the feed (so a quarter of the day's total dry ration) presoaked for a couple hours, or even omit the second half of the feeding if it's a great day with plenty of pickings outside or I've brought them tons of garden weeds. So as long as you get that full day's mineral mix into them, you can do whatever you like the rest of the day. You will be able to tell as you go along whether they need the full day's ration or are doing fine outside.

So when I read that paragraph, it may sound like some days they get fed and some they don't, but I assure you they are well fed whether by me or the available forage here. It is key to watch your flock's condition, behavior and production. If all of those are satisfactory, they are definitely getting everything they need from you.

The difference between a starter/grower and a layer ration is primarily protein content, but the mineral supplement is different as well. Hens need extra calcium in the ration (provided by my poultry premix for layers and free-choice shell grit), but growing birds can be harmed by that amount of calcium. As far as protein, I've seen grower/starter rations varying from 18% (where I had to supplement with fresh protein in meat types, but layer chicks seemed fine) to 22%. I personally start all my chicks on 20% crude protein (or 18% supplementing to 20%) for the first three weeks for sure. Some people switch down to 18% after that period, but I stay at 20% for the first 8-12 weeks. Mine are always outside in portable pens until they are bigger than the cats, so it is different from confinement feeding, much more forgiving as they glean a lot themselves.

What some home mixers do is blend an all-flock type of ration, usually at 18%, and just offer free-choice shell grit. The younger birds will leave it alone until they need to start building those stores for laying. My mix above is an 18% crude protein mix, so you could use it for chicks, but it would need to be ground for the first couple weeks, until they can handle the larger grains of sunflower and oats. Barley is also usually not recommended for chicks, but very good for layers. Too many oats will give you pasty butts, which means they are not utilizing the ration as well as if they had normal stools. So there are a few things I'm thinking of - smaller seeds and grains, more brewer's yeast, a chick mineral mix, what to sub out the barley for (maybe wheat?), things like that. Even just fixing the barley and minerals and soaking the mix might make it soft enough for the chicks to digest.

I started a little bit the other day, the main components were brewer's yeast, fishmeal, millet, wheat and oats, plus chick minerals, has 20% crude protein, and it's under $17 per 50# batch (conventional runs $13.50 here, organic with soy $22 locally). When I try to see it in my head, though, it seems really powdery to me. But I suppose the answer there is feeding it wet, chicks really seem to like it when I have extra whey or it's a really hot day and I add liquid to the feed.

I'm wide open for other feed ingredient suggestions. I could grind chick feed in the blender for three weeks, and then transition them to my regular ration (with the barley switched out for probably wheat) after that period. Avoiding corn and soy are my only big things.

 

[Dandelioness]

Does anyone else feed field peas to their birds?

Hi, Carol - welcome to the thread!

The non-soy ration I used to buy used peas as the primary source of protein, and they can only tolerate so much of it so the crude protein levels were only at 18%. Peas and even lentils are absolutely better than soy for health, but I have avoided them just because of my experience them as the main protein source.

I think if you diversified your mix, say some peas, some brewer's yeast, some sunflower, some fishmeal, you would have better results than I did with that particular company's ration.

I will grind some food for chicks, but not grown chickens, and they tend to shun the peas unless they are ground or wet or even sprouted, so my laziness is the only reason I have not utilized dry peas in the ration.

They do LOVE them fresh, though. I plant a large swath of field peas and oats every year for my chickens and they are in there all the time. Almost all the feed ingredients in my mix, plus buckwheat, quinoa and wheat, are also grown in swaths for them here to eat fresh during the growing season and left to ripen in the field for them to self-harvest in the cold months. I buy all the ingredients bagged for my feed mix. I cannot imagine threshing all that grain each year here, so I just let them do the work themselves!

But please feel free to add any recipe with peas in it to this thread. I have my hang-up about grinding, but plenty of people don't and they may be looking for a good non-soy recipe with readily available ingredients, too. Just be sure to check the upper limits of any feed ingredient as you're formulating. And share that info here if you had to jump through a lot of hoops to find it!

 

[GreenLove]

I did finally realize that for the price of my grass fed ground beef (I get it at $3.50 lb) it is actually cheaper than getting dried mealworms or the like lb. by lb. But there are certain nutrients in the bugs that you won't get in the meat... sigh

Mealworms are great! I started raising my own after I found out that the dried ones you can buy in the store are from China

. Just wanted to let people know.

 

[GreenLove]

Forgot to add that they state that the sunflower seed shouldn't be more than 30% of total diet so that kind of restricts totally replacing the peas with them.

Does that include raw hulled sunflower seeds? I don't want to use BOSS (in the shell) because I can't find a reasonably priced organic supplier anywhere.

 

[GreenLove]

Yeah, it goes rancid so quick. Why not get some alfalfa pellets and soak some in water and feed out. The bag would last forever. It puts the nice orange yolks in. Good for them. Mine has lasted for months.

How well do your chickens like the soaked alfalfa pellets? How much do you give them and how often? How long do you soak them for? I was going to blend some in my Blendtec, but I didn't want to burn up the motor. The soaking method sound much easier (and safer for my blender lol)

 

[GreenLove]

Well, the past few weeks, I've tried adjusting the recipe in my original post, to see if there are cost savings or an easier way to get that protein into them without soaking/grinding the darn flax seeds.

My main attempt was at buying sunflower "chips", which are hulled sunflowers very coarsely ground, not really even ground - chipped like it says on the bag. However, those chips are of multiple types of sunflower seeds, not just BOSS. Your mileage will vary by feed mill as far as crude protein. The bag I got was 20% - not much higher than the whole, unhulled BOSS in the original recipe (17% crude protein). The chips also started smelling funny after being open for only a week, not off but not fresh smelling either, just kinda stale. I do not have that happen with my whole BOSS. Plus this bag of chips was like $50!!!

For whatever its worth, I get my hulled sunflower seeds from Azure Standard and they have always been wonderful! I even had a handful myself and they were delicious! My chickens love them.

 

[LindaB220]

I just use one cup of pellets in a Little water. It melts down to mush in minutes. 2x a week for 15 hens