Everyone, post your best homemade chicken feed recipes!

[Newchickey]

Oh I think I understand you are using two diff grain mixes... you bought and a crumble feed? all mixed together. and like all fermented... Or is the whole grain part   all put together by you??? so are there any additives? like a premix of vitamins etc.. causemost membrs on here say "balanced feed""""""""""
over and over again.... 
 But I detest the big box store junk too much soy etc. but i hate the waste of the chickens picking out  the stuff they want first...It bugs me to no end... after all the work I do. so guess will have to buy a real mill. A guy we know wont sell his old big wheel hand crank grinder  one to us. WE borrowed it for a few weeks.. so nice. But he told Hubby he wanted it back.... even though he never uses it anymore and buys cracked corn now to feed the wildlife...and he has health issues.. ah well....
thanks all

. Yes I am mixing the whole grains that I listed myself. I don't grind in a mill, with fermenting the grain They become soft and you don't need to. It makes the protein more accessible to them to and it's really easy to do. I use nature wise organic crumbles, and that means "commercial feed" is only 1/4 of their feed and at least it's organic. I found adding the cumbles makes more of a "mash" and the girls love if like that. Mine picked at stuff til a started fermenting now it all goes down the hatch!

 

[ladyearth]

yah i bought the crumbles another brand like 6 times...... and they wasted more than they ate.. that crumbles I bought was mostly cracked grains .. so much "powder" bought it cause it was soy free too supposedly...
mostly saw the casing of the grain. I couldnt tell you how much got tossed of that > I did ferment it for a while. No more will I waste $50 with shipping on a bag of it...
you are fortunate to find a local mill or feed store that does good stuff
I did ferment whole grains and they love it.was worried sev times it got too yeasty...
so went back to fermenting and today they picked thru the stuff. only the peas are split peas .. yellow and green....split peas...or the buckwheat is already 'cracked" "kashi"
I put out 6 dishes and still had the top 4 or 5 chickens going from dish to dish picking out what grains or grasses they wanted... and running off the others...I couldnt tell what exactly they were getting. some avoided the peas entirely....so the bowl that was left...we will put out again tomorrow. Most of its organic I bought ....so that why I am ticked off....or one chicken girl flinging out the stuff.
I even put the bowls on trays and in baking pans trying to catch the "spillage"
so I need to put up "dividers" to keep them from doing so.. Or just say medium grind it so they wont pick thru as much
I looked thru flea mkt today looking for more deep pans to set the individual bowls in......
that why I am seriously thinking about grinding small batches every few days....even though the flax and millet and teff and quoina, kelp, nutrtional yeast are small already......most of the grasses are reduced salvage store finds...or bargains. that were removed from store shelves during store resets...

thanks all

 

[Stout]

I will use this thank you so much

 

[Newchickey]

yah i bought the crumbles another  brand    like 6 times...... and they wasted more than they ate.. that crumbles I bought was mostly cracked grains .. so much "powder" bought it cause it was soy free too supposedly...
 mostly saw the casing of the grain. I couldnt tell you how much got tossed of that > I did ferment it for a while. No more will I waste $50 with shipping  on a bag of it...
you are fortunate to find a local mill  or feed store that does good stuff
   I did ferment whole grains and they love it.was  worried sev times it got too yeasty...
   so went back to fermenting       and today they picked thru the  stuff. only the peas are split peas .. yellow and green....split peas...or the buckwheat is already 'cracked" "kashi"
  I put out 6 dishes and still had  the top 4 or 5 chickens  going from dish to dish picking out what grains or grasses they wanted... and running off the others...I couldnt tell what exactly they were getting. some  avoided the peas entirely....so the bowl that was left...we will put out again tomorrow. Most of its organic I bought ....so that why I am ticked off....or one chicken girl flinging out  the stuff.
I even put the bowls on trays and in baking pans trying to catch the "spillage"
   so I need to put up "dividers" to keep them from  doing so.. Or just say medium  grind it  so they wont pick thru as much
 I looked thru flea mkt today looking for more deep pans to set the individual bowls in......
that why I am seriously thinking about grinding small batches every few days....even though the flax and millet and teff and quoina, kelp, nutrtional yeast    are small already......most of the grasses are reduced salvage store finds...or bargains. that were removed from store shelves during store  resets...

 thanks all

. I forgot to answer I've if your other questions. I add ABC (advanced biological concepts) all poultry premix for the mineral vitamin additives. It is what my private supplier of the all whole grain organic uses. It's a 50lb bag and was shipped to me from Illinois I believe. I did the math and add one tablespoon for each lb of my own whole grain mix, and it's the weight after fermentation and drained. I Checked with ABC to make sure I had calculated correct. So I use 4 tablespoons a day, the other 4lbs of the fermented Mix are from the crumbles and my organic grain layer mix so it already has its additives in it.

 

[Chris09]

Is this a good mix? and is it calculated correctly

1 part = 50 lbs
Feed mix Part Protien Total protien
Boss 0.8 26.3 21.04 40
Oats 1.5 9.5 14.25 75
Flax 1 37 37 50
Wheat 2 12.5 25 100
corn 0.5 7 3.5 25
Barley 1 12.3 12.3 50
Peas 1 24.5 24.5 50
390 lbs total
7.8 137.59 17.63974

Black Oil Sunflower Seeds (BOSS) is closer to 16% protein. The 26.3% protein that you posted sounds more like the protein percentage of Striped Sunflower Seeds or maybe Sunflower Seed Meal.

 

[Stout]

Is hen scratch good to feed for every day product from tractor supply co.

 

[happyfeet24]

Is hen scratch good to feed for every day product from tractor supply co.

it depends on if your going for non gmo soy and corn are going to contain gmo so I don't buy it

 

[happyfeet24]

I'm still working on my formula but here's what I buy right now all 50lb bags from the feed store 2 red wheat 1 flaked barley, 1 feeder oats crimped or rolled (crimped is cheaper but just discovered they prefer rolled) and 1 bag of whole peas (the full grown chickens have no problem eating them whole) I do leave it out of the duck mix comes to 250lbs for 96.00 my birds eat kitchen scraps and free range.

 

[Stout]

Mine get scraps as well they love it are your chickens laying mine have stopped fo about 5-6 month

 

[happyfeet24]

I'm still waiting for my first egg they were hatched in the middle of august im guessing this month or next just built next boxes