Does this feed mix sound sufficient?

[RollinWithTheStones]

I have egg layers (8 birds), meat birds (10), Ducks pets/eggs (2). I want to mix a 55 gallon barrel of food. I live in the city and I have no clue where a mill is that can just sell me a mix so I'll be mixing it together myself.

Mix:

Cracked Corn, Wheat, Milo, Oats and Heat Treated Soybean, layer pellets, BOSS, crushed egg shells


Does this sound like a good mix of food for them?

Should I add anything else?

 

[redsoxs]

For layers, I think the ingredients you have listed are fine but the ratio will be the important thing. The grains in the list are pretty much what's in a bag of scratch grains and scratch grains should comprise a pretty small percentage of a laying hen's diet. And BOSS is generally given as a treat.
In terms of the meat birds and ducks, I know they generally eat a higher protein content food. Not suggesting your mix isn't good for them - but I don't say definitively that it is.
Good luck to you.

 

[GreenMountainEric]

You will not want to feed that mix to meat birds..... It will be too high in calcium, and more importantly, it will have a very unhealthy calcium/phosphorous ratio. Not to mention, that it will be too low in protein for them.


Also, as said above, layer pellets should be the largest portion of that mix. BOSS should just be a treat.

 

[Fred's Hens]

That is pretty much the "base" to which the mills then add the package of vitamins and minerals. While a nice list, it is essentially what is in a bag of good, 7 grain scratch, which is not a complete feed. If you were to get a bag of the additive pack, which local feed mills will indeed sell you separately, you'd be good to go. The ratio for mixing is on feed company's website.

Since many farmers have the grains they grow, they only purchase the Vita-Pack from the mill and mix it into their own grains for feed.

 

[RollinWithTheStones]

I was thinking of 1 bag of 7 grain scratch, 1 bag of BOSS and 4 bags of layer feed and the 5 gallon bags of egg shells I have. Mix all together in a 55 gallon barrel.

I just purchased my "meat" birds today and they're not meat birds just production red roos. I couldn't pass up the deal 28x 4week old birds for $10.

 

[GreenMountainEric]

I was thinking of 1 bag of 7 grain scratch, 1 bag of BOSS and 4 bags of layer feed and the 5 gallon bags of egg shells I have. Mix all together in a 55 gallon barrel.

I just purchased my "meat" birds today and they're not meat birds just production red roos. I couldn't pass up the deal 28x 4week old birds for $10.

Just don't feed that mix to birds that are under 18 weeks of age. They will develop Rickets and most likely die. You should probably just get an appropriate grower for the young birds. The other mix will work for layers, but you might want to leave the BOSS out. They will probably toss the feed around while they are picking out the BOSS. Use it as a treat instead.

 

[Egghead_Jr]

Your mix doesn't sound cheaper than a bag you can buy from the feed store. If you want all the birds on one diet for ease of feeding just purchase all flock feed. It's a balanced diet and good for all poultry, ranges in protein of 20-24% depending on supplier. Simple to feed to all and just buy bulk oyster shells to offer free choice in another container. Your layer hens will use it as they need it.

 

[Fred's Hens]

Your mix doesn't sound cheaper than a bag you can buy from the feed store. If you want all the birds on one diet for ease of feeding just purchase all flock feed. It's a balanced diet and good for all poultry, ranges in protein of 20-24% depending on supplier. Simple to feed to all and just buy bulk oyster shells to offer free choice in another container. Your layer hens will use it as they need it.

This accents the issue, for me, in even thinking about rolling my own, as it were. I am a vegetable farmer not a grain farmer. I've no particular access to grains at anywhere near the price point that my local mill does. They buy grain, wholesale, by the elevator full. Huge metric tons at a time. They can sell me a balanced, enriched, vita-mineral packed feed of my choice, by the 100 lb sack, all nice and freshly ground for far less than I could possibly buy the ingredients piecemeal. That's the simple reality for me anyhow. I dunno.

 

[GreenMountainEric]

This accents the issue, for me, in even thinking about rolling my own, as it were. I am a vegetable farmer not a grain farmer. I've no particular access to grains at anywhere near the price point that my local mill does. They buy grain, wholesale, by the elevator full. Huge metric tons at a time. They can sell me a balanced, enriched, vita-mineral packed feed of my choice, by the 100 lb sack, all nice and freshly ground for far less than I could possibly buy the ingredients piecemeal. That's the simple reality for me anyhow. I dunno.

That is almost always true. It is easy to think that buying the ingredients and mixing yourself will save money. 99% of the time, you are missing something from the diet, that would be included in a mixed feed. A feed mill has almost no cost incorporated in mixing a complete balanced feed. Most of the added cost of a mixed feed, over buyin individual ingredients, is the Vitamins, Minerals, and Probiotics. It is not a "mixing charge". The cost involved for a mill to mix a feed is less than $4.00 per ton..... Which means it is less than 10 cents, per 50 lb bag.

 

[RollinWithTheStones]

The store I was talking to said they'd cut me a deal for buying several bags at once. Which would be cheaper than TSC feed. Which is about $19 for a 50lb bag. This place said they can do it as low as $11 a 50lb bag. So it's not much, but it does add up a bit.

Your mix doesn't sound cheaper than a bag you can buy from the feed store. If you want all the birds on one diet for ease of feeding just purchase all flock feed. It's a balanced diet and good for all poultry, ranges in protein of 20-24% depending on supplier. Simple to feed to all and just buy bulk oyster shells to offer free choice in another container. Your layer hens will use it as they need it.