Everyone, post your best homemade chicken feed recipes!

[geebs]

1/3 wheat, layer ration, (corn,millet, sunflower seeds) If I have a few oats on hand or eljer seed if it goes on sale..
1 cup of DE to a metal garbage can... 1/2 cup of cinnamon and another of tumeric and celery seeds
A package (about a pound of dried cranberries... I will also use other dried fruit. Pepitas 1 pound if I have em. Almonds I may use a very nominal amount of oil so that the spices stick to the grains. Also 1/2 a small package of matzuri Kio fish food. I have been known to substitue catfood for this... There is gravel in thier play area and they pick it up daily... I also will supplement with grated apple. My yolks taste good and stand up... I use ACV in their water as well.

I was graded Double AA and my hatchability after shipping has been excellent.

 

[dsc6]

I think that by 'homemade' recipe, the OP means those not including commercial rations or 'feed', for those of us trying to get away from using commercial chicken food.

Since I stopped using commercial feed, my chickens' poop is small and not all liquid like it was before. I think that means that they are using the food much more effieciently. They are also eating less. And none of the food is wasted in powder/dust at the bottom of the bowl.

I know that gazillions of chickens do fine on commercial feed. To me, it's like the baby formula vs breastmilk thing. I get alot of satisfaction out of feeding them the 'best'. Of course, I don't have hundreds, or even tens, of chickens. I really admire the people who feed large flocks fresh, high-quality, homemade rations, and do it economically.

 

[Beekissed]

Just mixed wheat, oats, cracked corn, BOSS and a little OS into a large metal trash can. I like to use more whole grains in the winter but I'm thinking I will stick with the whole grains and lay off the mash this winter altogether if I can manage to do so.

I want to see just how the egg production does with just feeding whole grains and my free range.

 

[geebs]

I found that I still needed to suppletment with layer mash/pellets... Wish I didn't have to... Anyone out there know what it is that they HAVE to have to continue to lay without it... what is in it that they NEED that grains do NOT provide and what form could I use to add it to my mix... Dolomite perhaps???

 

[Beekissed]

A protein source? I usually add alfalfa pellets later on in the winter but most folks add fish meal. I couldn't find it at my local feed store.

 

[geebs]

Beekissed... You can buy it in the form of Koi Fish food, but read the label.. the cheap one isn't likely to contain much... a 5 pound I think it is sets me back 10- 12 dollars.. but they only need a couple pellets each.

 

[Beekissed]

I never thought of that....will check it out! Thanks!

 

[ChickensAreSweet]

Quote:
I have discovered that there is a "dosage" for pumpkin seeds - beyond which, my chickens won't eat them. So if I put a pound of them in my recipe, they get eaten. Two pounds, and I find lots of them on the ground.

You are welcome for the recipe! I keep changing it around.

 

[Organics North]

I have been using rolled oats in the dry mix along with a couple percent of whole peanuts ground up... Maybe it is because they are spending more time in the coop, but they sure love both those ingredients... I am starting to feel a percentage of nuts in the mix is a good thing..

Now that the range is basically a block of ice, I give the flock (26 birds) 1 pound of ground venison a week.. (The parts we could not eat from the deer I hit with my truck..

) I mix this in with the sprouts/mash mix..

Yolk color is still decent even without a quality range this time of year.. I have one group of hens in molt, they seem to be moving through it quite fast. (Maybe 1 month, and then laying again.) I do supplement light to 12 or 13 hours a day. (I will cut that down in December and by the end of January have them on natural light.. At our latitude and in a snowy climate it is pretty dark until Jan when we get dry weather and some sun.

ON

 

[geepy]

What about chickens raised in the south? Do they need the same supplements as ones up north? I'm in florida and I'm not sure that my girls need alot of protein. I'm really not sure but thought I'd ask. I feed the girls layer pellets but they also get black oil sunflower seeds, corn, and chili peppers. I grow the peppers my self and mix in their food. (they love them) They also get scraps. I get pleny of eggs and the roos that have gone to freezer camp were very good.