Feeding Corn

[Heritage Farmstead]

Ok feathered friend experts!! I'm totally new to all this.... and need your help please, and thank you!

My DH came home with several feed sacks of cracked corn. Do I need to mix it with anything? I know that they need layers ration eventually - but how does this compare, if it does. My red stars are only 7 wks old right now and still of course on chick growers. I knew you'd have the right advice here so...please be kind - I've still got a lot to learn

and I'm loving it here!

 

[Glenda L Heywood]

well in my opinon and studying feed recips
the most ingredient in most feeds is corn
that makes it about 9% protein in that amt in the feed
so if your feeding 16% protein to the chickens you will be depleting the feed of protein

like this
using a cereal bowl to dip feed

say 1 bowl of commercial feed= 16%
3 bowls of corn =27% [rotein
16 plus 27 equals 43% protein
then divide 4 into 43 equals 10.79% protein

the chickens will be eating when finishing off the 4 bowls of feed

so it will be penelizing the protein level given the chickens to feed that much corn
it will take longer for them to gain weight in flesh not fat
as corn is more fat than protein

they will lay later than they would if they had the pure 16% protein feed

Now you know how to fix the feed for your chickens

also BESURE AND BUY GRANITE GRIT as they will need it to grind the corn

also another thought on corn is that cracked corn is mostly fat as the heart of the corn kernel which is the best part is cracked out and the company sells the corn hearts to another company using the important part of corn kernels

Well you got s lot of corn to dispose of there
any questions email me

 

[rigagirl]

corn or too much of it over heats chickens in the summer

 

[NYREDS]

Quote:
This myth just won't go away will it?
Chickens, like humans & other warm blooded creatures, have biological mechanisms that controll body temperature. You don't over heat in the summer if you eat corn & neither will your chickens.

 

[chickenlittle32]

Is there anything that would be ok to mix with the feed to kinda help save on it? Hen scratch, broken rice....??

 

[Lazy J Farms Feed & Hay]

Quote:
NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO

Corn does not make an animal hot. The starch in corn is very digestible and the Heat Increment is low compared to protein and fiber feedstuffs.

Please stop sprading this lie/misinformation.

Jim

NO

 

[rigagirl]

i got that information from here not from personal experience

 

[Judy]

Quote:
Hen scratch is mostly corn. Don't know about rice but doubt it is much higher in protein.

If you mix anything with regular feed, it usually reduces the protein content, and standard feed is already minimum protein. I tried hunting up a recipe for homemade feed but did not come up with much, mostly organic feeds, but I know there are recipes on the web somewhere. I did find this site, which gives you an idea:

http://www.lionsgrip.com/protein.html

Most people on here say it is cheaper to buy regular feed than mix your own, unless you have hundreds of chickens and the ability to store the components in large quantities.

 

[Judy]

Quote:
Yes, I have read it here several times, too, along with a lot of other myths, some of which I also believed for a while.

Just goes to show ya.

 

[rigagirl]

this is the first time i have read that it is not true. and i think a couple weeks ago someone wrote that they believed a hen died because of it