Feed Nerds! Opinions wanted re: whole grain feed recipe

[Double Kindness]

perchon chick- This might prompt a visit to voodoo doughnuts near downtown to pick up a bucket or 2 of doughnuts for $8, which is a boatload of doughnuts, as we're busy this weekend picking up beef from 70 miles away and I got in 150' of 1/2" galvanized fencing in to predator proof the chicken runs and finish building out my next coops and runs (chicken math!). I will use the very good deal on doughnuts to reward my hard working crew this weekend.

I have a few buckets left over from my last foray to voodoo, which I don't do often but with how crazy busy this weekend is looking, I don't feel like messing up my kitchen that's finally almost clean again! I will hit up the voodoo peeps for more empty buckets, since this is their way of getting rid of stale an hour old, and the doughnuts stay fresh for quite a wile in those buckets, like 2 months...so yay! I know my 24 year old son who is 6'8" junkfood eating machine and my friends and my bf will snarf down on them and be tweaking out on sugar and caffeine drilling, digging, erecting things.. guy stuff. And looks like I need to figure out what our first meal from all this beef is going to be. Time to start a new pinterest board perhaps?

 

[SchipAlong]

Right now my chickens are getting a mix of homemade and commercial to make sure they get everything they need while they're still growing, but I plan on phasing it out after my current bag. To be honest they don't seem to eat much of the commercial anyway and I think most of it ends up thrown onto the ground or left in their bowl, so I take that as a sign they're doing okay with just the homemade. I based my recipe off this one, but changed it slightly to fit what's available in my area because shipping from Azure Standard would be too expensive for me. I also cut back on the sesame because I noticed my guys were leaving a lot of those behind. I've bracketed anything that would need replacing (I noticed you had oats in your recipe, so I'm assuming you're okay with oats and left that in).

4 cups oats
4 cups black oil sunflower seeds
6 cups (wheat)
2 cups buckwheat
2 cups (barley)
2 cups millet
1 cup sesame seeds
1 cup flax seeds
1/2 cup brewer's yeast
1/4 cup kelp granules
Free-choice oyster/eggshell and grit

Then I mix in a tablespoon each of various dried herbs that I have on hand (oregano, parsley, thyme, and garlic for example). I buy all my herbs, sesame seeds, and kelp from Mountain Rose Herbs. The big thing is that I look at the grain mix as a complement to their overall diet, rather than the main meal. They get all the healthy veggie and fruit scraps, a bucket of weeds and grass each day, and meat treats. When we filleted a bunch of salmon I even gave them a carcass to pick apart, which they went absolutely nuts for.

Although I've been making my own dog food for about two years I'm still new to feeding chickens, so it's probably a good idea for someone with more experience and knowledge to go over the modified recipe before you switch to it. I hope it helps though!

4 cups oats
4 cups black oil sunflower seeds
4 cups split peas
4 cups buckwheat
2 cups rice
2 cups millet
1 cup sesame seeds
1 cup flax seeds
1/2 cup brewer's yeast
1/4 cup kelp granules
Free-choice oyster/eggshell and grit

 

[Double Kindness]

The thing is I can't touch wheat, barley, rye... celiac disease is the reason.

So the question is, what to put in place of the wheat, barley, rye, soy & corn?

 

[SchipAlong]

Sorry, my post was a bit of a ramble and the modified recipe must have gotten lost. I included a possible gluten free version at the bottom, with the original recipe and my own at the top just for extra ideas.

4 cups oats
4 cups black oil sunflower seeds
4 cups split peas
4 cups buckwheat
2 cups rice
2 cups millet
1 cup sesame seeds
1 cup flax seeds
1/2 cup brewer's yeast
1/4 cup kelp granules
Free-choice oyster/eggshell and grit

 

[LindaB220]

Right now my chickens are getting a mix of homemade and commercial to make sure they get everything they need while they're still growing, but I plan on phasing it out after my current bag. To be honest they don't seem to eat much of the commercial anyway and I think most of it ends up thrown onto the ground or left in their bowl, so I take that as a sign they're doing okay with just the homemade. I based my recipe off this one, but changed it slightly to fit what's available in my area because shipping from Azure Standard would be too expensive for me. I also cut back on the sesame because I noticed my guys were leaving a lot of those behind. I've bracketed anything that would need replacing (I noticed you had oats in your recipe, so I'm assuming you're okay with oats and left that in).

4 cups oats
4 cups black oil sunflower seeds
6 cups (wheat)
2 cups buckwheat
2 cups (barley)
2 cups millet
1 cup sesame seeds
1 cup flax seeds
1/2 cup brewer's yeast
1/4 cup kelp granules
Free-choice oyster/eggshell and grit

Then I mix in a tablespoon each of various dried herbs that I have on hand (oregano, parsley, thyme, and garlic for example). I buy all my herbs, sesame seeds, and kelp from Mountain Rose Herbs. The big thing is that I look at the grain mix as a complement to their overall diet, rather than the main meal. They get all the healthy veggie and fruit scraps, a bucket of weeds and grass each day, and meat treats. When we filleted a bunch of salmon I even gave them a carcass to pick apart, which they went absolutely nuts for.

Although I've been making my own dog food for about two years I'm still new to feeding chickens, so it's probably a good idea for someone with more experience and knowledge to go over the modified recipe before you switch to it. I hope it helps though!

4 cups oats
4 cups black oil sunflower seeds
4 cups split peas
4 cups buckwheat
2 cups rice
2 cups millet
1 cup sesame seeds
1 cup flax seeds
1/2 cup brewer's yeast
1/4 cup kelp granules
Free-choice oyster/eggshell and grit

You know, ScripAlong, I'd be interested in what you feed your dogs. Can you post a recipe?

 

[Double Kindness]

My bad... it seems like I can't read sometimes!

Sometimes I can eat oats, other times no. So I was thinking hemp protein flour? It's got a high % protein and good omega fatty acids to replace the wheat portion & oat portion & not insanely expensive.

My picky chickens toss out the split peas, even soaked and I tried different kinds, colors, brands.

 

[SchipAlong]

You know, ScripAlong, I'd be interested in what you feed your dogs. Can you post a recipe?

I follow a recipe book, Dinner Pawsible

. A lot of people are uncomfortable that some of the recipes include pasta, but the great thing about mixing it yourself is that you can substitute any other carbohydrate. I usually go with pasta because my dog loves it and does really well eating it, but if I'm out of pasta I'll use rice or quinoa. This book looks at dogs as omnivores, which is what works best for my dog. When I tried doing a low carbohydrate meat-and-vegetables diet for her she had a huge hypoglycemic attack and had to be rushed to the vet. The recipes may not work for every dog and breed (I think that like people there's no one kind fits all diet for dogs), but I highly recommend it. Over time I watched to see how Suki was doing and adjusted the recipes slightly as needed. I leave out the fish oil now because she was getting too much vitamin A, and I add 1-2 tbsp of salt to my slow cooker when I make a batch of bone broth for her because she came up deficient in sodium and chloride when I had a blood panel done (yup, I had a vet tell me to feed my dog more salt lol). Other people feed the recipes exactly as printed and their dogs do fine.

Unfortunately the book says it can't be posted online, but they do offer a sample recipe on their website:

My bad... it seems like I can't read sometimes!

Sometimes I can eat oats, other times no. So I was thinking hemp protein flour? It's got a high % protein and good omega fatty acids to replace the wheat portion & oat portion & not insanely expensive.

My picky chickens toss out the split peas, even soaked and I tried different kinds, colors, brands.

I would probably include something else as well, since the oats and wheat make up a large portion of the recipe. I noticed you had included milo/sorghum in your original post. That might work.

4 cups buckwheat
4 cups black oil sunflower seeds
6 cups hemp protein flour
2 cups rice
2 cups millet
2 cups milo/sorghum
1 cup sesame seeds
1 cup flax seeds
1/2 cup brewer's yeast
1/4 cup kelp granules
Free-choice oyster/eggshell and grit

 

[bootsNbirds]

I definitely need to do SOMETHING! I'm broken out in bumps everywhere! Even the cold sores are back and feeling awful from handling all the wheat, barley, rye, oats in commercial organic non gmo soy & corn free chicken feed.

Some oats have gluten in them? Ugg I feel awful and my bag of all flock organic non gmo corn/soy free feed is almost gone, I'm adding the last to my home depot bucket I ferment their food in. This morning I remembered to wear my long pink kimchi making gloves before I went and fed everyone this morning.

10 in my layer flock. 26 x 5 week old itty bitty peep peeps (my meatie pen of straight run chicks br, slw and leghorn), that get 26% protein gamebird feed. 6 teensy weensie chicks that are part of my fm (black meat) project of ayam cemani x orpington & purebreed ayam cemani. And I'm picking up yes, more chicks this weekend after we go pick up the 1/2 of an organic grass fed/finished angus beef from the butchers on Saturday.

Yowza, I had forgotten how awful the side effects of being gluten bombed are. I spent 3.5 years in the hospital every other week for a week vomiting violently until 18 months ago. I'd like to continue to stay out of the hospital ideally, as having chickens makes me very very happy (better than all the therapy and drugs I think..). Hmmm, maybe there would be a market for gluten-free organic non gmo chicken feed? We can't be the only 2 chicken keeping ppl with celiac out here right?

Oh wow it sounds like you have a terrible gluten reaction!

You probably know this, but the oats can have gluten because they're often grown in the same fields where wheat has been/is & often the two crops cross-breed. Just hoping that it's a small enough percentage that it won't affect me, but I don't have such violent reactions to the gluten as you do! That's terrifying, risking hospital stays over chicken feed.
The only GF solution I've seen is the homemade feed mixes, unfortunately. :/ On this thread, someone said that they do still feed gluten grains, but that sprouting them seems to have destroyed the gluten & caused her no reaction. https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/702367/gluten-free-feed But everyone's body reacts differently. I was soaking a whole grain mix for a while, which had wheat berries, and I had to give the rest of it away because my hands broke out so badly just from being in the water.
At this point it seems like gloves are our best option!

 

[bootsNbirds]

Quote: Hehe that's where I get my buckets too. And the donut shops. The looks I get from the staff & other customers when I walk out with nothing but a tower of sticky icing buckets!

 

[bootsNbirds]

@Double Kindness Thought you might be interested: this was recommended on a blog as a GF supplemental feed. http://www.wildbirdsuets.com/foragecakes/kibble.htm# Still has soy though.