Everyone, post your best homemade chicken feed recipes!

[farmer jon1]

You need to read the tag, you do not add Soybean Meal to this product. You must need to mix it with corn and some minerals. By adding SBM against the instructions of the tag you are supply way too much protein to your chickens.

I mixed everything up and said time for premix. I should have read the tag first. Im going to have to dilute it down. I mix it by the 5 gallon bucket so its not that big a deal to change it.

 

[farmer jon1]

farmerjon1 why dont you call the COMPANY first thing Monday???? Cause its hard to understand if you supp to add anything other than your grain mixed.. that my two cents worth
good luck

I talked to the manager of the co-op. A young kid. He has no place behind that desk. He didn't know anything abut rations. Said I had to take to the old man in the mill but he was gone. Said this is what everyone else buys for layers. Idiot. I wont go there anymore.

 

[PluckyJen]

hi everyone. I have two cochin fluff butts. They are 5 months old. I give them fresh fruit, veg and bits n bobs of kitchen scraps daily, they get sunflower seeds and crushed mielies (corn) as well as i let them out in garden in afternoons to have a good ol scratch. ( hubby says my two girls eat like queens lol ) BUT I know they need more in their diet after reading through a couple pages here. Could i please get some suggestions on a nice homemade feed i can make up for them please. Ill have to do some hunting for the ingredients at health stores and whatever agri store i can find. Here in S.A., chicken farming is HUGE for meat but nothing decent really available for backyard chicken"ing P.s. my girls are laying already. Gorgeous perfect shells at that too.

 

[chickengr]

hi everyone. I have two cochin fluff butts. They are 5 months old. I give them fresh fruit, veg and bits n bobs of kitchen scraps daily, they get sunflower seeds and crushed mielies (corn) as well as i let them out in garden in afternoons to have a good ol scratch. ( hubby says my two girls eat like queens lol ) BUT I know they need more in their diet after reading through a couple pages here. Could i please get some suggestions on a nice homemade feed i can make up for them please. Ill have to do some hunting for the ingredients at health stores and whatever agri store i can find. Here in S.A., chicken farming is HUGE for meat but nothing decent really available for backyard chicken"ing

P.s. my girls are laying already. Gorgeous perfect shells at that too.

I think your girls are healthy and happy. if they are laying at 5 months, perfect shells, I wouldn't mess up with any change in their diet.

 

[WPFarmstead]

I think your girls are healthy and happy. if they are laying at 5 months, perfect shells, I wouldn't mess up with any change in their diet.

I would highly disagree. It takes a long while for nutrient deficiencies to show up, but once they do, they cripple the bird. The biggest concern, for me, is the lack of protein in the diet. Corn doesn't contain much and while sunflower seeds do have protein, they're also quite high in oil content.

 

[PluckyJen]

So i can get cracking on a meal worm farm

. Ill give them scrambled eggs and any meat or chicken carcasses from kitchen too. That should up their protein? Got 4 eggs today. So impressed with my girls.

 

[chickengr]

So i can get cracking on a meal worm farm

. Ill give them scrambled eggs and any meat or chicken carcasses from kitchen too. That should up their protein? Got 4 eggs today. So impressed with my girls.

I give boiled eggs to my chickens twice a week. they catch plenty of bugs, worms, centipedes, etc. if someone has caged or locked in the coop birds than their diet is much different from the backyard and free range chickens. meat scraps are a good source of protein, too.

 

[ladyearth]

heck I was giving egg to girls couple times a week..
but heck I am only getting 1 egg a day or so if more than they are shelless on the poop bd...
Now starting to dose with diluted oregano oil hoping to get the runny watery all over the place poo GONE.....
wanting to give 1/2 tablet of calcium, plus vitamin D tablet too
but I dont think together. Tried hiding a split tablet in a cranberry or grape. No go.... it just fell out t they left it. DANg . If the grape or cranberry or cherry tomato was small enough might be able to seal it back and they swallow whole. But they mostly throw such, whatever, on the ground and tear into it.
mostly they get their feed...
I have mixed up a batch of the "grasses" again but I know they will pick thru but its still in the big glass lidded bowl waiting.
. the quoina is already tiny, so is the buckwheat, the split peas are halved, the flax is whole...
so other than almost grinding it to flour and adding the nutrional Ferrell premix... how do I keep them from picking thru the mixture. Even fermenting it they can see the mixture and still pick thru it.
I will prob give them another pc of "whitefish" after while... the glass Passover jared kind all chopped up withoutout all the salty broth...

 

[ShanandGem]

heck I was giving egg to girls couple times a week..
but heck I am only getting 1 egg a day or so if more than they are shelless on the poop bd...
Now starting to dose with diluted oregano oil hoping to get the runny watery all over the place poo GONE.....
wanting to give 1/2 tablet of calcium, plus vitamin D tablet too
but I dont think together. Tried hiding a split tablet in a cranberry or grape. No go.... it just fell out t they left it. DANg . If the grape or cranberry or cherry tomato was small enough might be able to seal it back and they swallow whole. But they mostly throw such, whatever, on the ground and tear into it.
mostly they get their feed...
I have mixed up a batch of the "grasses" again but I know they will pick thru but its still in the big glass lidded bowl waiting.
. the quoina is already tiny, so is the buckwheat, the split peas are halved, the flax is whole...
so other than almost grinding it to flour and adding the nutrional Ferrell premix... how do I keep them from picking thru the mixture. Even fermenting it they can see the mixture and still pick thru it.
I will prob give them another pc of "whitefish" after while... the glass Passover jared kind all chopped up withoutout all the salty broth...

Watery feces is pften a sign of a lot of liquid in their diet. Do you feed a lot of vegetable?
I would lay off the supplements too. Just like with people, over supplementation is a very real concern with chickens.

 

[PluckyJen]

I agree with ShanandGem about upset tums. If i give my girls too much watermelon or other veg they get very runny poop.