Feed Recipe - Not Sure How Much Of What...

[Reyvaughn]

Only way it'll be more is if they charge more for bagging and I am not aware of it. Do you have a run down of the cost per ingredient? We can compare...
Oh, you are using nutribalancer, too. That stuff would drive my total up another $60, at least.

If you do decide to come this way... Let me know what for chickens you have for sale, first, lol!

ETA: You have to figure their mix is only $9.50 per 50#, too. If you bring your bags back, they give you a $.50 discount per bag - which I always forget.

 

[madamwlf]

So I got my feed today. I'm pretty happy with it. And it smells so good. Can't wait to give it the chicken test.

 

[Reyvaughn]

This may sound weird, but... Picture? Please?
How's the flock liking it so far?
Once they have it for a bit, I'd like to know if there is anything they are not eating?

 

[Chicks on DL]

My girls love their homemade feed and gobble it up. I have to give them the sunflowers as a daily treat because they will sift through the feed looking for the sunflowers. They also love the table scraps!

 

[Erica]

Great thread

I've been mixing my own for some time, aiming for only natural vitamins (and actually getting there). It's worth doing when you see terrific growth without fatty liver. I reckon the D,L methionine in vitamin mixes is a good reason to avoid them (look up 'methionine and fatty liver' or 'DL methionine and triglycerides').

The 3 things I do to add vitamins to a basic mix to make it complete (as far as my reading goes... I'm no expert but I've been doing it a while and am seeing good results) are:

1. sprout wheat, corn and peas (sometimes sunflower as well). Ratio is somewhere around 6 parts wheat, 2 parts corn, 1 part peas, 0.5 part sunflower. Soaked and sprouted, the vitamins are more accessible and some are enhanced.

2. fresh greens and sunlight. This kills a need to add K, D, and many others. Also adds calcium and enables its absorption. Tractoring will bring all these things, but so does hanging weed greens in an outdoor pen daily. Cod liver oil works for D if there's no sunlight.

3. for chicks and growers, sour milk e.g. kefir. I use cheap dried skim milk, reconstitute it then sour it overnight. It's a daily chore I can easily fit in around cooking for kiddies etc, so I figure it's not a time consumer in itself. Just strain, mix new batch, chuck kefir grains into the mix, then leave on top of the microwave. This adds lots of B vitamins, methionine and other goodies. Unlike brewer's yeast (which is the other easy way to add B vitamins), kefir contains B12, and has a coccidiostat benefit that lets me raise chicks entirely off medications (that, plus graduated exposure from day one).

Chick feeds are either blended in a kitchen whiz, or I might leave out the wheat sprouts, grind up the whole dry corn/sunflower/peas, then add pollard, bran, soy meal, alfalfa, salt, seaweed, and shell grit with kefir to make a daily chick mash. With sunlight and fresh greens like chickweed it's a complete diet and I'm getting early feathering, fast growth and increased muscle mass compared to raising them on commercial feed. Cost wise it's probably a little more expensive overall than commercial feed; the skim milk powder is $7 per kilo (2.4lb), and I use about a bag of this per week between 50 birds (the adult layers don't get much kefir, as milk may reduce shell quality).

You should smell it when I've mixed up the morning feed... If you make up a commercial mash, it smells terrible. When you make up a sprout-legume-kefir feed, it smells divine. The birds love it.

To all diets I also add alfalfa, kelp, salt, shell grit. To increase protein and balance some amino acids I use soy meal (not yet GM over here); if I couldn't use soy meal I'd use meat meal for growers and chicks, but probably raise worms for adult layers (as meat meal above 4% can harm shell quality) or else boil up some peas and sweet lupins. Soy meal makes up about 20% of the ration for chicks, slightly less for adults.

I'd agree with Chris to beware barley and flax with chicks. Follow inclusion ratios, which you can find on many feed company websites.

regards
Erica

 

[Chris09]

Great thread

I've been mixing my own for some time, aiming for only natural vitamins (and actually getting there). It's worth doing when you see terrific growth without fatty liver. I reckon the D,L methionine in vitamin mixes is a good reason to avoid them (look up 'methionine and fatty liver' or 'DL methionine and triglycerides').


regards
Erica

The one thing you have to remember is that the main cause of Fatty Liver Hemorrhagic Syndrome /Fatty Liver Diseases is a diet with high levels of dietary energy and the problem is more common in hens that are feed high levels of corn or other high energy feed stuff.

The other thing to keep in mind is that poultry need Methionine in there diet to grow properly and have proper feathering.



Quote: form Mississippi Agricultural and Forestry Experiment Station
Chris

 

[Chicks on DL]

I use barley and flax. My girls seem to be very healthy but forage as well. I am always looking for ways to improve their diet. What is wrong with barley? I use kelp but am afraid to use alfalfa or soy as much of it is GMO here.

 

[Chris09]

I use barley and flax. My girls seem to be very healthy but forage as well. I am always looking for ways to improve their diet. What is wrong with barley? I use kelp but am afraid to use alfalfa or soy as much of it is GMO here.

Two things,
One is that it can cause sticky droppings due to its high amounts of a non-starch polysaccharide (NSP). In barley, 70% of the endosperm walls are made up of NSPs and poultry are unable to digest these NSPs. The undigested NSPs bind with water in the intestinal tract, thus increasing the thickness of the intestinal contents. This results in gelatinous droppings, which cause fecal matter to stick to the bird’s vent or cloaca (a symptom known as ‘pasting’). As a result, eggs are overly dirty and skin infections can occur.

Second acording to the University of Kentucky poultry fed diets based in barley have been shown to be more susceptible to necrotic enteritis than those on corn-based diets.



Necrotic Enteritis
An acute or chronic enterotoxemia seen in chickens, turkeys and ducks worldwide, caused by Clostridium perfringensand characterised by a fibrino-necrotic enteritis, usually of the mid- small intestine. Mortality may be 5-50%, usually around 10%. Infection occurs by faecal-oral transmission. Spores of the causative organism are highly resistant. Predisposing factors include coccidiosis/coccidiasis, diet (high protein), in ducks possibly heavy strains, high viscosity diets (often associated with high rye and wheat inclusions in the diet), contaminated feed and/or water, other debilitating diseases.
Signs

• Depression.
• Ruffled feathers.
• Inappetance.
• Closed eyes.
• Immobility.
• Dark coloured diarrhoea.
• Sudden death in good condition (ducks).

Chris

 

[Chicks on DL]

Thanks Chris for the information. I have been considering changing and adding spelt as it contains more Methionine. I can decrease barley until it is gone and use some spelt instead. I have always kept an eye out for pasty buts and so far they are clear. They eat some greens that tend to give them diarrhea so this may have helped balance things out.

 

[Chris09]

Thanks Chris for the information. I have been considering changing and adding spelt as it contains more Methionine. I can decrease barley until it is gone and use some spelt instead. I have always kept an eye out for pasty buts and so far they are clear. They eat some greens that tend to give them diarrhea so this may have helped balance things out.

Try Millet or fish meal.


Chris