Food Mills

[Brooks_]

.44 cents per lb for feed right now which sounds like nothing but the reality is it's 10k per year,

Is my math close to correct that it's over 50#/day?

 

[jjaazzy]

Are you saying it is $7-8 or went up $7-8?

Feed has increased in my area terribly as I am sure it has everywhere but I pay more for feed for my location anyway, higher rent, higher taxes, higher everything.

 

[jjaazzy]

Is my math close to correct that it's over 50#/day?

Yes~!

 

[Brooks_]

Yes~!

I would look into the mill again. Maybe even consider a broker. Or raise your prices.

 

[jjaazzy]

Making your own feed is typically more expensive than buying feed, if you want to actually meet the needs of the chickens. The cheapest ingredients tend to be deficient in some way, or else be things that chickens do not digest.

I would start by making sure feed is not being wasted (spilled on the ground, eaten by wild animals, etc.) Buying feed for your birds to eat is good, but buying feed they do not eat is wasteful.

The next obvious way to reduce food costs is to reduce how many chickens you have (eat them, sell them, give them away.) Think about why you have chickens, and why you have each particular chicken, and decide if any can go.

Depending on how much food they are eating, you may be able to save money by buying the food in bulk (like a whole pallet full at once), or buying directly from a feed mill rather than from a store that has it neatly bagged.

You certainly can offer them other things to eat, like table scraps and vegetable trimmings, and they will balance their own diet (within reason, limited by what is available to them.) That can reduce how much of the purchased feed they eat. But for a large flock, it will not make very much difference unless you have a large area for them range in, or you bring home large amounts of other food.

Chickens like to scratch through compost piles and eat bugs & worms, so if you have a compost pile, letting the chickens have access to it can help a little on the feed bill too.

I've read of people who bring home large amounts of food waste from restaurants or grocery stores. They let the chickens eat what the chickens want, compost the rest, and let the chickens pick through the compost too. It apparently works for them, but I don't know the details. For many people, the work of doing that is more than the work of doing something else to earn money to buy chicken food. (Different things are best for different people, so I can't say what is "best" for you.)


If you have more eggs than you need, you might try selling the extras. Using that money to buy chicken food is probably a better financial choice than feeding the eggs directly to the chickens.

Hay is very bulky. Yes, chickens can eat some hay. But they are not able to eat ENOUGH hay each day to get the nutrients they need, even if the hay did contain all the right nutrients (it doesn't.)

Edit to add: you can sometimes save money by buying a "different" chicken food. The chickens do not care whether the label says chick starter, grower, layer, all-flock, flock-raiser, feather-fixer, game bird starter, duck chow, or something of the sort. If it has about the right amount of protein, and is based on grains & soy, it is probably fine to feed to the chickens. Do check the calcium level-- layer has too much calcium for young chicks, and laying hens need a separate source of calcium if they are eating foods that are not labeled "layer." But oyster shell is fairly cheap and does not go bad, so you can sometimes save money by putting out a dish of oyster shell and feeding whichever suitable feed is cheapest each time you buy. (But watch the bag sizes, and be sure you are comparing same-size bags or price-per-pound. You don't want to get tricked by smaller bags.)

NatJ thank you nicely said, and agree with everything you stated and we have reduced in years past. And aggressively went after the food waste as we had a rodent situation. That is on going maintence. Birds free range on 2 acres daily and have access to mulch piles, green grass and bugs (aka Florida). We have reduced the waste, reduced the roosters. You did spark a thought of restaurant waste, which I thought about before but didn't follow up on it. I know someone with a juice bar. I don't know if I want to approach them or not it is business relationship my husband has, I think that is why I didn't go after it before. I don't want to turn property into a stinky dump of old garbage. That's not worth it to me. Do you know if the by product of making beer has waste that could be used for chickens? I might look into that. Thank you for a well written post with positive things to say.

 

[jjaazzy]

I would look into the mill again. Maybe even consider a broker. Or raise your prices.

I did raise prices, but the feed has increased 3 or 4x and I am sure it's not over. I don't see things getting better. Before there was no problem going and getting what I need but now the stores are having issues keeping things in stock. Things are just a mess, but It will all work out I am sure in the long run. I am just trying to be proactive. I might make up some mashes rather then grinding it out. Doesn't seem to be a thing here.

 

[jjaazzy]

For what it's worth this is a video I watched.

 

[jjaazzy]

here is another

 

[U_Stormcrow]

So I am not sure if I posted this in the correct under heading or it should have gone under another but I shall start here. I recently saw a tick tock or some similar video on someone taking hay and an egg and making their own pelleted feed. Now I don't want to completely replace commercial feed as I know there is a science to the formula that they come up with. But, I free feed my birds and they free range daily. I don't want to change that. However I am going through so much of it and would like to supplement them for the adult feed. Not the chicks as I don't want to jeopardize their nutritional intake but I am about to scream uncle here with the prices. Ok who am I kidding I am screaming uncle. The feed has gone up 5.00 a bag and if the Nutrina is not available I have to go with the Purina and it's 7 or 8.00 per bag...... Yikes. Anyone grinding their own feed can point me to a direction. TIA

Around here, Nutrena is a 40# bag, Purina a 50# bag, so price per pound likely isn't as different as you might think.

Straw is a limited nutrition source, and eggs, while good (mostly), not only greatly cut into your production (assuming they are your own chicken's eggs), are best in moderation due to their high fat contents.

Recommend NOT getting feed information from YouTube.
/edit and I didn't watch the whole video - the noise set me on edge, but it looks like a homebrew feed mix with corn and BOSS as its first two ingredients.

 

[jjaazzy]

Around here, Nutrena is a 40# bag, Purina a 50# bag, so price per pound likely isn't as different as you might think.

Straw is a limited nutrition source, and eggs, while good (mostly), not only greatly cut into your production (assuming they are your own chicken's eggs), are best in moderation due to their high fat contents.

Recommend NOT getting feed information from YouTube.
/edit and I didn't watch the whole video - the noise set me on edge, but it looks like a homebrew feed mix with corn and BOSS as its first two ingredients.

Thank you for stopping and trying to offer some help. I never considered using straw as we don't use it here, there is no nutritional value in Straw. I did mentioned hay, as we have a couple kinds we use here. There are other things to add as well, a pretty long list of things, again not trying to re create the wheel just trying to stretch things. I did the math per lb. per bag per cost of bag thats basic calculation. We were using Mana Pro for a while, those are 40# bags nice as they are easier to move about, but they have gone up as well, equal to the other two brands which I prefer. The other brands are 50#. Thanks for your post looking for folks that have done or are doing their own milling. Again as I mentioned before NOT looking to replace commercial feed. I free feed my birds, they probably eat too much but I don't like being hungry, and I don't want to restrict their diet by limiting what I feed and have them turn my pasture into a dust bowl, or have the problem with some not getting enough.