Everyone, post your best homemade chicken feed recipes!

[mispollitos]

Wow thanks! I have no idea what you calculated but if it's good, mis pollitos will continue to be happy and a happy me knowing I made it....question about alfalfa...do alfalfa sprout seed count? Like you put in the window? That's what I had on hand.

 

[Organics North]

Quote:
Greens for winter or dry season.. Greens make the egg yolks nice and golden


That is the approximate protein of your feed ingredients.. ie.. 2 cups corn meal. Corn meal is 9% protein so 2x9=18 and so on. You add them all up and then divide. This way you know what your birds are getting for protein...

17% is the target for layers. For starter you want to be around 20%
ON

2X9=18
3x14=42
1x13=13
2x16=32
1x24=24
1x24=24
1x24=24
.25x45=11.25
.5x34=17

Total=205.25
divided by 11.75=17.46% protein...​

 

[coq au vin]

One thing I'd like to point out, and I'm not sure it really makes any difference to anybody's home recipe, is that the nutritional analysis of feed ingredients is broken down by weight, not volume. So the "standard" method of calculating your recipe's value is to weigh all the ingredients and figure it out that way. It seems to me that the way Organics North is doing it is probably the same mathematically, but I cannot really comment on that for sure because I've just consumed a bottle of wine while working on my new coop.

Quote:
There are a few reasons, but here are mine...

1. Unless it's organic soy, it's probably GMO (and even still it could easily be contaminated by GMO).
2. Soy farming is one of the biggest destroyers of the Amazon Rainforest.
3. Soy is really not a natural chicken feed at all. It has to be heated (baked, steamed, I'm not sure how "they" do it) to a certain point before the protein is even available to the chickens.
4. Some folks are concerned about estrogen in soy, while some say it's a totally different type of estrogen and not a factor. I don't know, it doesn't matter to me due to the previous three issues.

 

[coq au vin]

Here are three more key ingredients that most people are not aware should be part of their recipes:

Iodized Salt: 1/2 lb. per 100 lbs. of feed.

Calcium and Phosphorus: These are essential for nutrient uptake. You need 2.5X more calcium than phosphorus. Here's how to get it...

1. Ground limestone: 1.5 lbs. per 100 lbs. feed.

AND

2. Steamed Bone Meal: 2.5 lbs. per 100 lbs. feed.

OR

3. Dicalcium Phosphate: 2.5 lbs. per 100 lbs. feed.

These are in addition to the standard practice of offering oyster shell free-choice.

http://www.motherearthnews.com/Sustainable-Farming/1975-09-01/How-To-Mix-Chicken-Feed.aspx
(I realize Mother Earth News is not the most reputable source for information, but I do think this is a good article.)

 

[coq au vin]

One more thing in order to pull off a hat-trick in this thread...my chickens would greatly prefer to not eat the oats and they would also leave a bunch of fines in the bottom of the bowl, so I started mixing it all up with warm water a few minutes before feeding. Now, they practically lick the bowls clean! I collect the bowls nightly, wash and sanitize, then slip the feed to them just before they wake up in the morning.

 

[mispollitos]

Quote:
mis pollitos loved their chicken feed! 5 chicks ate almost an entire cup of feed today.

So, if I saved our old egg shells and ground them up, that would not do the trick for calcium??? I've read that others give their laying hens crushed shells if they start laying thin shelled eggs. Is that the purpose of the ground oyster shell? How do wild chickens get ahold of this type of mixture? I don't expect an answer for that but just saying that the it seems rather complicated. What happens if our laying hens don't get those last 3 items in their diet? (I'm such a newbie at this...day 1) and sea salt isn't better than iodized salt?

 

[Organics North]

Quote:
The main point of the ingredients is a source of calcium.
Ground egg shells can work for calcium. I add a small 1% or so calcium to my feed BUT I offer free choice calcium in a seperate feeder. This way the birds can take what they need.. I use oyster shells. Love em... in the garden too..

It is laying hens that need lots of extra calcium... Wild birds do not lay an egg every day or other day do they???? Egg shells are calcium so your girls will need a good amount of it. If they do not get enough you may have soft shell eggs, which you will likely get a few of one they start laying.. it is normal in the beginning.

coq au vin,
Thanks for your wisdom. Indeed you are correct on the weight verses volume issue! By using volume one is simply favoring the heavier ingredients, such as peas wheat and corn.

Be well
ON

 

[Chris09]

Quote:
I would like to add that you will want to make sure that all the above feed additives are feed grade not not agriculture grade.

Chris

 

[LALASD4]

All these formulas sounds so complicated.

When I was young, my mother use to have 30-40 chickens and they ate anything we gave them, steam rice, corn, oat, etc. And they did just fine.

I was thinking about getting leftovers from a restaurant but the cost of gas from going to the restaurant every day would be a little high.

 

[mispollitos]

Quote:
FANTASTIC response!!! Perfect!! So glad to hear this!!!

Now, if I just knew what my chicks are