Feeding my chickens I'm new to this

[Folly's place]

Feed store staffers are often inexperienced and not the best source for good information; they sell feed.
Mary

 

[Willowspirit]

You could wet their feed so they couldn't spread it around so easily.

But if you do wet it, do so in small batches so it doesn’t get moldy and you have to throw it out.

 

[S_Robnett]

I second the advice to butcher the meat birds. I'm assuming they're not cornish X, but something else since they've lived so long, but would think that most likely they're no longer growing fast enough to justify the continued feed expense. (I mean there's a point to butcher that's the most cost-effective, depending on the bird's growth rate). Similarly, I'd sell any of the layers you don't plan on keeping long-term, since at this point, I'd guess they won't start to lay until early -mid january, even later, depending on where you live.

I also looked into creating my own feed, and it was quite costly and involved. There'd need to be 1-2 supplements,whether it was something with kelp for trace minerals, and something else for regular vitamins and minerals. Then the idea of mashing it all up so you could make pellets out of it, so the birds would eat all the ingredients .... You can't just mix all of the involved list of ingredients and hope the birds would eat all of it up, they'd prefer certain ingredients no matter how hard it was for you to get each type of seed/grain/vitamin.

At 3 months, you could feed an all-flock but I agree, $17 for a big bag is about right for that food also.

I also found that I was wasting at least half of the food on the song birds at one point, so hopefully you'll be able to get a handle on that. I like the idea of the yellow hanging feeder in this thread, since I can't really have a feeder on the ground, due to the snakes I have nearby.

The actual are the cornish cross broiler chicken from tractor supply.

 

[DiYMama540]

the feed store advice...yikes!

You can shop online and get free ship to store from TSC and Rural King. They may have something that's a little cheaper.
I agree with the others that say the meat birds are probably consuming most of it. Do they look close to harvest size?
I'm not sure what your goals with having a flock are, but you may not need as many egg layers either if feed costs will be a concern. If you do keep a big flock, sell some of those eggs to help pay for feed!
Thanks for joining us at BYC!

 

[S_Robnett]

The actual are the cornish cross broiler chicken from tractor supply.

the feed store advice...yikes!

You can shop online and get free ship to store from TSC and Rural King. They may have something that's a little cheaper.
I agree with the others that say the meat birds are probably consuming most of it. Do they look close to harvest size?
I'm not sure what your goals with having a flock are, but you may not need as many egg layers either if feed costs will be a concern. If you do keep a big flock, sell some of those eggs to help pay for feed!
Thanks for joining us at BYC!

Well as I see I'm pretty stupid I guess because I was told at tractor supply that these meat bird will reproduce no problem so that's why I've kept them around so long and now seeing what I've been helped with on here and doing my own research i feel pretty stupid. I have a family of 8 and thought having a endless supply of healthy non store bought meat sounded great. I'm sure they had many great laughs on my account. well live and learn

 

[TooCheep]

We aren't laughing at all. We really want to help. You've stumbled, but have received good info and advice here. As noted above, if you goal is inexpensive food for your family, factory farms can produce cheaper than you can by using large scale production. However, if you want to produce better quality food, you can certainly do that.

Good luck, keep asking questions and learning.

 

[DiYMama540]

A good rule of thumb these days is to take what TSC employees as a grain of salt. Safer to consult with BYC!

 

[21hens-incharge]

Well as I see I'm pretty stupid I guess because I was told at tractor supply that these meat bird will reproduce no problem so that's why I've kept them around so long and now seeing what I've been helped with on here and doing my own research i feel pretty stupid. I have a family of 8 and thought having a endless supply of healthy non store bought meat sounded great. I'm sure they had many great laughs on my account. well live and learn

Everyone has been tripped up at some point in their lives.
BYC is a supportive and helpful bunch of great people.....that also have a tremendous amount of knowledge to share.

We aren't laughing at all. We really want to help. You've stumbled, but have received good info and advice here. As noted above, if you goal is inexpensive food for your family, factory farms can produce cheaper than you can by using large scale production. However, if you want to produce better quality food, you can certainly do that.

Good luck, keep asking questions and learning.

X2

Not laughing one little bit. Definitely wanting to help where I can.

At one point there were 9 in this house. Relatives had moved in.
I get it that feeding a large family is expensive.
Sell extra eggs, put that $ in a chicken jar. Try to buy the feed with just that cash. When things are rolling good here I can feed, provide shavings and a few treats with the chicken jar cash. It does not last the year through though since mine take winter off. It does last about half the year.
If you plant a garden....plant only what your family will actually use. I have found that I can grow some things in abundance while others take up to much space for what they yield or my family does not like them. Even though they said they would eat them.

 

[DiYMama540]

Agreed! We're not laughing or judging, everyone has to start somewhere! The community here really enjoys being able to help and advise...the best way to learn is to teach!

 

[ValerieJ]

They are three months old, I have been feeding them crumbles at 17 dollars a bag and that doesnt go to far with them their are 24 of them. 8 of them are the huge meat birds and 16 of them are egg layers.

For my 4 babies I expect one such bag to last 3 months+, so if you are going through more than that, then you are losing a lot of it. Perhaps it's the feeder you're using. When is it time to process the meat birds? I don't raise those so I'm not sure, but it seems my neighbor does it by month 3.

IMHO, DE would not make the best dust bath. I would just use a nice dirt with some sand mixed in.