Everyone, post your best homemade chicken feed recipes!

[tobystevensonjr]

I just noticed, what are you feeding that has that high a crude protein. Most grains have only 6% to 10%. To use a game bird feed and mix in grains and soy, why??? Are these laying hens? Your wasting money. The 28% game bird feed has everything in it a show or game bird needs. You need to find a good bag of laying pellets and stop trying to improve an expensive bag of feed. Read this. Learn something about making feed. http://homesteadapps.com/app/free/feedcalc/pearsonsquare.php

 

[MeepBeep]

To use a game bird feed and mix in grains and soy, why???

It appears that is what his mill does for their lower protein bulk feed mixes...

our wasting money.

Without knowing the final cost, how do you know that?

You need to find a good bag of laying pellets and stop trying to improve an expensive bag of feed.

I believe the entire purpose of this is to leverage a bulk feed price vs the higher bagged feed price...

This savings might not be all the important to people with small flocks but as the flock size increases saving pennies per pound adds up real quick, and if you can cut feed cost and maintain production with a custom blend there is absolutely nothing wrong with that nor is it a waste, it's actually what most larger flock owners do as a regular course of action...

I don't have a huge flock and even with heavy supplementation, my birds polish off 50lbs of feed a day... I know full well the desire to save any amount I can on feed cost... For example an extra $1 per 50lbs totals out to almost $400 a year extra, if I can save that $400 or more, you bet I will as I suspect many others will as well...

 

[tobystevensonjr]

Bag feed is 22¢ a pound. I have about 50 chickens at my place and feed 100 lbs. a wk. I raise 300 meat chickens a yr. Also sell Hatching eggs on eBay. A mill, that is a real mill sells a feed mix made from local grains. They all use the Pearson or a computer. Most ship their feed in. I have posted on this feed for about a yr+. The cheapest feed made, that works, is 9¢ a pound. You cannot dissect a feed mix that is commercial made. There are chemicals in the feed that in some % enhance the lower protein grains. This allows the company to cheat on real protein. So to use soymeal and grains and a premix would dilute the chemical and cause the commercial feed not to be what it advertised. All gamebird feed is expensive. If you feed 50lbs+ a day, you are producing enough meat or eggs to pay for it. When my last batch of Cornish were ready for butcher I was feeding 3000lbs. a day. Feed bins not bags. I'm also not a backyard chicken man, I'm a farmer that likes chickens.

 

[tobystevensonjr]

My mix is on this feed. 3 elevators in Illinois list it as one of the mixed they have available. Some use different minerals than I do. My mix come from a chicken farmer who raised meat chickens in the 70's. Local grains are the only way to save. Shipping in grains from other states only increase the price of your feed.

 

[MeepBeep]

Bag feed is 22¢ a pound.

Not sure where you are going with that, because the fact remains you can leverage a better price in bulk, and even a better price on locally milled stuff sometimes...

A mill, that is a real mill sells a feed mix made from local grains.

What is a real mill? Not all areas of the US have all the available grains locally, and thus they choose different formulas to accomplish their goals, that does not mean they are not a real mill, it just means they do what they have to do based on their region, location and availability...

You cannot dissect a feed mix that is commercial made.

Sure you can, there is no shortage of people on this forum that dissect commercial feeds or seek feeds that have this or that or lack this or that ingredient... And just because it's a commercial feed does not make it superior to a properly mixed custom feed... A custom mix done properly can be just as good, there is no magic to commercial feeds, just a planned out nutritional profile...

There are chemicals in the feed that in some % enhance the lower protein grains.

Generally the inferior protein is simply balanced with amino acids be them natural or synthetic not chemicals...

This allows the company to cheat on real protein.

No it allows the company to optimize the protein in the feed based on the necessary amino acid balance required for the animal and reduce waste, it's not cheating it's tailoring the feed to the requirements of the specific animal while reducing waste... That is not cheating that is optimizing and reducing waste... Back in the day it was not uncommon for feed companies to produce 30% or higher protein plant feeds for chickens while trying to get the proper amounts of Methionine and Lysine, today they can do a 16% crude protein and then toss in some Methionine and Lysine additive and/or meat by-products and get the same results with less waste at a lower cost...

So to use soymeal and grains and a premix would dilute the chemical and cause the commercial feed not to be what it advertised.

Dilute what chemical? If a decent mix of soy meal and grains is used the nutritional profile can be maintained as well as the amino acid requirements, especially if a supplement like Diamond V as I suggested is added to fill in any possible nutritional gaps... Again there is no magic in commercial feeds you can mix your own of equal quality if you plan it out, and in many cases leverage an overall savings in bulk if you have a local mill... Heck there are local mills all over the US now making regional 'commercial' feed blends even further blurring the difference between a custom mill mix and commercial mix...

If you feed 50lbs+ a day, you are producing enough meat or eggs to pay for it.

You are incorrect and wrong in your assumptions...

I don't raise meat and I sell a very limited number of eggs... Some of my birds like my peafowl are mostly 'pets' and offer little return at this time especially since most are not mature and thus not laying, and even when they do start laying, they hens generally won't lay enough eggs to pay for the entire peafowl's yearly feed bill... Same with my flock of guinea fowl, I can't even give their eggs away around here so they produce zero income, the same applies for my bantams, no one is interested in buying bantam eggs around here either... In time I certainly might turn a positive return in my newly started breeding programs and that is the goal, but I'm certainly not at that point right now... I 100% guarantee you that my feed cost far exceeds any monetary return from flock at this time,. that is not speculation that is fact... And even if they were fully paying for themselves I would still pursue savings on feed within limits, there is simply no reason to waste money just because I'm making money...

There is no local mill by me so that route is not an option, but saving a few dollars a bag by driving 20-30 miles extra is an option, so I do that over buying locally when I have the time to make the drive and leverage a big enough purchase to defer the gas cost...

When my last batch of Cornish were ready for butcher I was feeding 3000lbs. a day. Feed bins not bags. I'm also not a backyard chicken man, I'm a farmer that likes chickens.

I raise 300 meat chickens a yr.

And thus your goal is to turn a profit as a business venture and run it as a business, the same can not be said for many others on this forum...

And if you were raising 300 meat chickens and feeding 3000lbs of feed a day you really should figure out where all those tons of feed waste was going... At 8/9 weeks a single broiler should only be consuming about 3 lbs of feed a week for a total of about 900lbs of feed a week for your flock of 300, that comes out to be about 128lbs a day a far cry from 3000lbs... You could have fed a flock of 7000 birds with that 3000lbs a day....

 

[tobystevensonjr]

A Cornish cross at butcher, 8 to 9 wks., consumes .4 to .6 lbs of feed a day. With 300 and waste of feed it is about 300lbs. every day, 24hr. day. It takes 17 to 20 of feed to feed out a Cornish. Mine weigh 9 to 10 lbs.live weight and 7 to 8 butcher weight. It requires a ton of feed per 100 chickens. I butcher when I run out of feed. Been the same here for yrs. You need to quit trying to prove me wrong, I do this for a living. Again the cheapest you can make feed is 9¢ a pound. That is buying it by the ton or by the lb. A bag feed is 22¢ a pound.
You said your goal was to save money on feed. I'm trying to tell you, you can't do it the way you are. You like math, obviously, so do it. 22¢ a pound. In a bag. At the feed store. If you could make it cheaper in the bag would be cheaper. Chemist made the commercial feed recipes. Tested and tested again. The company markets it. Feed store tacks on their %. A man who raises chickens and has no grain elevator within 50 miles can not save any money by adding grains to a bag feed and maintain the bag feed qualities. Read my post, All bag feed has chemicals added. I quote some but I don't have a bag label on bags from the elevator.
I live were there is a grain elevator in every town. A mill, here make flour and corn meal, food grade. We have one of the largest with in 15 miles of me.

Here's a small example
Corn, wheat, Milo, oats are all less than 6¢ a lbs.
Soy meal is 18¢ a lb.
Salt, bonemeal and calcium are in small amounts that don't add up to 3¢.
A chicken doesn't need anything else that these 8 item can't provide. The only way to make them cheaper is to grow them yourself. As a FARMER I can tell you now. Can't be done on a small scale. The sweat equity is to high.

 

[chickengr]

A Cornish cross at butcher, 8 to 9 wks., consumes .4 to .6 lbs of feed a day. With 300 and waste of feed it is about 300lbs. every day, 24hr. day. It takes 17 to 20 of feed to feed out a Cornish. Mine weigh 9 to 10 lbs.live weight and 7 to 8 butcher weight. It requires a ton of feed per 100 chickens. I butcher when I run out of feed. Been the same here for yrs. You need to quit trying to prove me wrong, I do this for a living. Again the cheapest you can make feed is 9¢ a pound. That is buying it by the ton or by the lb. A bag feed is 22¢ a pound.
You said your goal was to save money on feed. I'm trying to tell you, you can't do it the way you are. You like math, obviously, so do it. 22¢ a pound. In a bag. At the feed store. If you could make it cheaper in the bag would be cheaper. Chemist made the commercial feed recipes. Tested and tested again. The company markets it. Feed store tacks on their %. A man who raises chickens and has no grain elevator within 50 miles can not save any money by adding grains to a bag feed and maintain the bag feed qualities. Read my post, All bag feed has chemicals added. I quote some but I don't have a bag label on bags from the elevator.
I live were there is a grain elevator in every town. A mill, here make flour and corn meal, food grade. We have one of the largest with in 15 miles of me.

Here's a small example
Corn, wheat, Milo, oats are all less than 6¢ a lbs.
Soy meal is 18¢ a lb.
Salt, bonemeal and calcium are in small amounts that don't add up to 3¢.
A chicken doesn't need anything else that these 8 item can't provide. The only way to make them cheaper is to grow them yourself. As a FARMER I can tell you now. Can't be done on a small scale. The sweat equity is to high.

I like your way of thinking.

I don't know if your meat birds are the same but the meat birds here (look like white cornish to me) should be raised for 45 days only. every day after that they eat more than they gain weight so it is not worth feeding them if you sell them. you have a chance to check this theory with so many birds you raise. I hope this helps.

 

[tobystevensonjr]

I like your way of thinking.

I don't know if your meat birds are the same but the meat birds here (look like white cornish to me) should be raised for 45 days only. every day after that they eat more than they gain weight so it is not worth feeding them if you sell them. you have a chance to check this theory with so many birds you raise. I hope this helps.

Your right. Feeding after 6 wks is a waste of feed. I get $2 lb for a butchered bird. I sell whole and cut 8 pc. My frozen, vacuum packed 8 pc. Weighs an average of 7.5 lbs. That's $15 to $20 a chicken. $1.80 for feed. I loose about 10% a yr. Some yrs more. I also raise them in cages. Much better for health reasons. I raise all my chickens in cages to 12 wks. The Cornish just never make it that long. This is my fat girl. She was a runt and I am going to breed her with my white rocks. Do some line breeding, see if I can get a 4lb. chicken in 12 wks.

 

[chickengr]

Your right. Feeding after 6 wks is a waste of feed. I get $2 lb for a butchered bird. I sell whole and cut 8 pc. My frozen, vacuum packed 8 pc. Weighs an average of 7.5 lbs. That's $15 to $20 a chicken. $1.80 for feed. I loose about 10% a yr. Some yrs more. I also raise them in cages. Much better for health reasons. I raise all my chickens in cages to 12 wks. The Cornish just never make it that long. This is my fat girl. She was a runt and I am going to breed her with my white rocks. Do some line breeding, see if I can get a 4lb. chicken in 12 wks.

that is a good idea. I know nothing about genetics but I would try to breed the biggest girl with the white rocks. I don't know why some chickens are runts but I would be afraid that she would pass it on her offspring. unless she is not a real runt but the other birds didn't let her eat.

 

[weidnercharm]