I am looking for common, but good sources of protien for chickens. Meat, any grains or 'whole foods' type stuff I can find at Raleys? Anybody have any good tips?
I use pumpkin seeds, Black Oil Sunflower Seeds (BOSS), peanuts, safflower seeds, and thistle Nyjer (sp?) seeds. I mix my own feed, though. BOSS are very popular on this board- if you want you can do a search for that.
Haven't tried peanuts. My girls don't seem to like BOSS that much Most of the seeds I have thrown down are growing lol. What other sorts of seeds can they have? What about flaxseed? I will try the safflower seed as well. I am looking for more nutritional treats for them, and they LOVE scratch so I thought I could throw together some homemade "sugar free" scratch LoL
Quote:For my bantams I get the shelled sunflower seeds at the bulk section in the grocery store since I have never actually seen them eat the BOSS in the shell (or the pumpkin seeds). So I include the shelled ones too for them. (I don't know if those are black oil or not.) Some people feed flaxseed- that is common.
My chickens didn't seem to know what to do with sunflower seeds until I broke some of them up a little and threw them out there, and now they love them. Now I'm trying to convince them to eat them right out of the flower head, since I grew a bunch just for the chickens. I know they'll get it eventually, but right now they are WAY into grasshoppers.
Unless your feed is less than 16% protein you can add all the Black Oil Sunflower Seed (BOSS) you want and it will not raise the protein of you feed. Black Oil Sunflower Seed (BOSS) is on the average only around 16% protein its self (I have seen some bags that was as low as 14% protein) If you want to boost the protein of your feed you could use - Fish Meal, Austrian Peas, Maple Peas, Vetch Peas, Canadian Peas, Mug Beans, Cat Food, Floating Catfish Food. Meat Scraps *A Whole Boiled egg is around 13% protein in wont do much for boosting protein.* Chris
Thank you very much! That is a great list to have and I will be saving it. Everybody's tips have been helpful! My chickens won't touch BOSS, cracked or otherwise. Dang high matinence girls LOL! Chris where might I find fish meal, and some of the pea's you mentioned?
