Everyone, post your best homemade chicken feed recipes!

[hencackle]

Here's a link I had in my bookmarks: http://www.lionsgrip.com/nutrition.html
Stephanie

 

[dlhunicorn]

http://p072.ezboard.com/fbackyardchickensfrm13
I would suggest you look through the links in the sticky here for the basics. (the question has also been addressed many many times in the forum and a peruse through the posts will also give some great tips and info!)

 

[mudhen]

Thank you hencackle and dhl!
Some of those I had read before, but some not, so it is a lot of help.
Amazing how much has been studied, discussed and tested on this subject!

 

[amcclaran]

Hi, am also looking for a soy-free replacement for layer pellets: either to purchase (havent been able to find any) or to make. usual homemade recipes seem way too overwhelming for me and my small flock. if i could buy in bulk instead of needing to get a 50lb bag of everything, maybe i could cope. the recipe listed sounds good. what about iodized salt? what about meat & bone meal? (i'm looking at a recipe from a book i have) this book also lists herring meal?? where does the protein come from in your listed recipe? from the sunflower seeds? - also, would crimped oats or steamed/flaked corn work (these are things i buy for my horses) - i give my chickens beef suet in the winter. will that provide protein? as you can tell, i'm pretty clueless. keep the posts on this topic comming!!

 

[Barnyard Dawg]

We feed our chickens mainly steamed rice from a rice cooker. We cook the rice the night before or they like it warm also mixed with some DE added, along with a cup of crumble; you can add ground flaxseed or rice hulls to it.

 

[dlhunicorn]

I have read everyone of those articles in that sticky and if you really want to understand the basics on nutrition and what is required (and what happens when it goes wrong) then look here through the articles I have collected:
http://dlhunicorn.conforums.com/index.cgi?board=nutrition
(General Nutrition section-some of these articles are posted in the sticky at EZboard BYC)

http://dlhunicorn.conforums.com/index.cgi?board=feednutrition
(FEED articles on>Ration Balancing / Nutritional Analyses of Various Feedstuffs / Feed Calculation etc)

http://dlhunicorn.conforums.com/index.cgi?board=contributingfactorsnutrition
(Feed) Factors Contributing to Nutritional Disorders)

http://dlhunicorn.conforums.com/index.cgi?board=NutriDisorders
(Nutritional Disorders)

... I personally will not be attempting what is proposed in this thread (to make your own and not use the commercial mix). I use the commercial mix as a basis and then supplement that according to various factors such as season etc.
For those determined to get away from the commercial mixes alltogether I would suggest you go to a feedmill and talk with them...they have feed calculation software and can add the vit/nutr. premix to the ingredients you select so that the basic micronutrients are not forgotten and that the ratios of basic things like phosperorus/Calcium etc. are correct

 

[SandraChick]

I keep hearing people adding flax seed to a hen's diet. Although I understand that it is a good addition for omega nutrients, it is also my understanding that too much flax is actually detremental to birds. I will try and find the source that I read---it was probably a year ago, so no promises that I actually find it. I wish I remembered how much was too much (hmmmmph!)

Sandra

Ok...not what I was originally looking for but here's a link to a great article about organic feeds....and a quote about flax
http://www.misa.umn.edu/Finding_Options_for_Organic_Poultry_Feed.html

Flax seed, wondrously high in protein and in oil, affects egg flavor when used as more than 10% of the feed.

also ( I added bolding and italics)
http://animalscience.ucdavis.edu/avian/pfs21.htm

THE USE OF FLAXSEED AS A POULTRY FEEDSTUFF
F.H. Kratzer and Pran Vohra University of California, Avian Sciences Department, Davis, CA 95616

Flax or linseed (Linum usitatissimum L.) is grown in the northern United States and southern Canada. It is a source of linseed oil, an important drying oil for paints, varnishes and linoleum. Flaxseed may be processed by mechanical expellers or solvent extraction and the residual linseed meal is available as an animal feed ingredient. Linseed meal is an important feedstuff for cattle but its use in poultry feeds is limited.

Flaxseed contains a cyanide containing glucoside, linamarin, which releases hydrogen cyanide under acidic, moist conditions in the presence of an enzyme, linase. Under normal processing conditions involving high temperature treatment, linase is destroyed so that the subsequent release of hydrogen cyanide is not a problem.

Flaxseed contains about 34% oil which is reduced to about 5% by expeller processing or about 1% by solvent extraction (Table 1). The fiber content of the meal is relatively high, but in addition, contains mucilage, a water-dispersable polysaccharide which is extremely sticky when wet. The protein of linseed meal is somewhat deficient in lysine, and possibly, methionine. {added: methionine very important for feather growth}

Historically, linseed meal has not been a satisfactory feedstuff for poultry. It could satisfactorily replace the protein equivalent of soybean meal up to 2 or 3 percent of the diet, but higher levels caused noticeable reduction in gain and feed efficiency in broilers and poults (Ewing, 1963). The adverse effect of feeding linseed meal was greater than one would predict from the nutritional contribution to the diet and there was concern that it contained a toxic factor. At one time, it was speculated that cyanide from its cyanogenetic glucoside might be responsible for the adverse feeding value.​

 

[dlhunicorn]

I agree sandra and I am scared to use it myself... Human omega three supplements (and all kinds of others) are so cheap and I occasionally prick open one of those and add to their cakes I make up...

 

[SandraChick]

I bought some seeds myself....but I've been using it VERY sparingly and not too often.

It treat it like a supplemental treat.....

Sandra

 

[KingsCalls]

One handfull of earthworms, a half jar of grasshoppers/crickets, some left over green beans or peas, un-cooked cauliflower and a little milk to wash it all down. Ducks love it! WARNING...! This is only a treat and only given about once a month. AND I have no clue to the calorie/vitamin/protein/fat/starch/sugar/etc.....content, so therefor I can't bag & sell it!