Feeding your flock amidst of feed shortages

[U_Stormcrow]

Here's a good list of food for people to get selenium in their diet. You could probably garner some ideas for chickens from the list.
https://www.healthline.com/health/selenium-foods#chicken

Good idea.

Appears the answer is "meat scraps" (those chicken feed recipes pre-1950), cowpeas in the summer and cruciferous veggies (spinach, kale, etc) in the winter. and of course the beans (cowpeas ) and the greens need to be cooked. Got it.

 

[Crazy Maizie]

Here's a good list of food for people to get selenium in their diet. You could probably garner some ideas for chickens from the list.
https://www.healthline.com/health/selenium-foods#chicken

Also, they have selenium and vitamin e products for horses, do you think it could work for chickens if needed?

 

[U_Stormcrow]

Also, they have selenium and vitamin e products for horses, do you think it could work for chickens if needed?

Yes, but "the dosage is the poison" - you are back to figuring out how to convert a dose for an 800-1200# animal to a dose for some quantity of 4-6# animals. I'm not cutting that "horse pill" into 200 equal sized pieces...

 

[Crazy Maizie]

Yes, but "the dosage is the poison" - you are back to figuring out how to convert a dose for an 800-1200# animal to a dose for some quantity of 4-6# animals. I'm not cutting that "horse pill" into 200 equal sized pieces...

Lol. Right. I get that. And sometimes they flavor horse supplements with peppermint which could also pose a problem.
They have pellets and powders not just pills.

 

[saysfaa]

...How would you go about storing large bags of grain?

Dry, cool, and rodent proof is all that is needed for whole grain for at least several years. It is designed to be stable until growing conditions are adequate. Once the "skin" is broken, it won't last as long because the oils will oxidize. Either way, you run some risk of moths if it has oxygen and is stored above freezing. You can deal with that if you notice soon enough but it is a pain.

A lot of people use freezers that don't work. Five gallon buckets with sealable lids (gamma lids are worth it is you access it often; standard lids are adequate and a lot cheaper). Small farms around here used mostly wooden bins and accepted some loss by rodents. Better equipped farms used metal lined wooden bins. Large farms usually use grain elevators.

I would use 55 gallon drums salvaged from the food processing industry (lol, the last one I picked up had strawberry syrup in it). I prefer the steel ones but have a few plastic ones (the last ones I got had concentrated apple juice in them). You can ask for 5 gallon buckets from bakeries.

edit: added "would". I do use the barrels but not for storing food. I haven't stored that much. Yet, at least. I currently use 5 gallon buckets. Or mylar bags if I'm not worried about rodents.

 

[Allsfairinloveandbugs]

I've been reading this thread because the other day we went to our local feed mill to get feed and what we normally get "wasn't on the truck". The mill makes their own, but also offers other brands. I was kind of concerned, but we have many options in this area including buying in bulk if needed.
How would you go about storing large bags of grain?

I store mine in 55 gallon metal drums (the type used for burn barrels), and also emptied 100# chlorine buckets, which i get free at a pool supply store. The plastic used to contain chlorine tablets is much thicker than other buckets, thus more rodent-proof.

One metal drum holds 5 50# bags of unopened feed, and each 100# bucket holds an unopened 40# feed bag. You can store more if you pour the feed directly into the bucket, but it wont stay fresh as long. If needed, depending on climate and time of year you can put anti-moisture packets inside the buckets to help prevent mold.

 

[saysfaa]

Here's a good list of food for people to get selenium in their diet. You could probably garner some ideas for chickens from the list.
https://www.healthline.com/health/selenium-foods#chicken

This will work if the chickens and cows have adequate selenium in their diets and the plants are grown in soil with enough but not too much selenium. .

Maybe some good news is the last thing I read on it is it takes a relatively long time to shift from enough to deficient.

 

[U_Stormcrow]

This will work if the chickens and cows have adequate selenium in their diets and the plants are grown in soil with enough but not too much selenium. .

Maybe some good news is the last thing I read on it is it takes a relatively long time to shift from enough to deficient.

Another hint from the universe that I need to take some soil samples down to the Ag Extension office, now that they have re-opened.

 

[Banana01]

Another thing i do for my chickens, mainly for their entertainment because they eat plenty, I create microhabitats for cockroaches and crickets, and at least once a week I can feed the flock for a treat that day.

Cockroaches i grow using cardboard boxes, its as simple as stacking them in a corner for a couple weeks. A good harvest can yield maybe 50 cockroaches for my small scale operation. Crickets grow outside all over, but mainly under rocks or inside plastic tarps. They are much more plentiful, a single rock can house a dozen or two. I can fold a tarp up and grow a lot.

I don't think my chickens ever had oats or grains. I tried feeding them oatmeal and they arent interested. I can't understand the charts and numbers what they mean, i will ask around to see if i can buy oats and try it. Im always interested in variety, because corn makes up at least 40% of my flocks diet, i love adding variety because i know it is defiecient, but in a way it is sufficient supplement to free range. Also the corn greens that sprout are microgreens which are very healthy.

Microgreens is another option for this thread to consider as well. I grow onions and cilantro, but the chickens eat the sprouts, which are very healthy. You would have to set up an indoor hydroponic microgreen garden if winter was too cold to grow. A lot of people do grow hydroponic plants to feed animals, grass for example in very arid climates.

 

[saysfaa]

Another thing i do for my chickens, mainly for their entertainment because they eat plenty, I create microhabitats for cockroaches and crickets...
Microgreens is another option for this thread to consider as well. I grow onions and cilantro, but the chickens eat the sprouts, which are very healthy. You would have to set up an indoor hydroponic microgreen garden if winter was too cold to grow. A lot of people do grow hydroponic plants to feed animals, grass for example in very arid climates.

I like the microhabitats for insects for the chickens. Another version of that is planting for native pollinators.

I agree with you on the sprouts (except wouldn't do onions for chickens); there are several benefits to them for the chickens and people. There is quite a lot of info online about that under "fodder" for cattle that may help with larger scale sprouting; some people do stacks of fodder trays to make watering easier and take up less floor space. There was something about chemical signals released down to the lower trays but I don't remember if that was a benefit or a caution for some plant species.

I don't know how I can do hydroponics plants with the space/resources I have but it sounds worth looking into.