Growing chicken & fowl feed?

[Rangergord]

Plant some scratch grain, greens like kale, and legumes like peas or clover. Make sure the chickens have access to new ground where they can get a good amount of insects. Get a protein, vitamin and mineral supplement like Fertrell ‘s for mixing your own poultry ration. Lots of organic producers do this. It will not be cheap because you have to buy fish or crab meal but you will learn how rations are formulated. I use a protein supplement for poultry and mix it with grain to make a custom ration. You could also feed a high protein ration of about 20% and add 30 -40% grain and end up with about a 16 % ration overall. Take it slow. You have to do some work to get there and you find out the ready made ration is a lot easier. Nevertheless I have learned a lot by doing some of it myself. This topic is not new . Check out the feed shortage thread that recently discussed all this.

 

[Joyfillednomads]

Plant some scratch grain, greens like kale, and legumes like peas or clover. Make sure the chickens have access to new ground where they can get a good amount of insects. Get a protein, vitamin and mineral supplement like Fertrell ‘s for mixing your own poultry ration. Lots of organic producers do this. It will not be cheap because you have to buy fish or crab meal but you will learn how rations are formulated. I use a protein supplement for poultry and mix it with grain to make a custom ration. You could also feed a high protein ration of about 20% and add 30 -40% grain and end up with about a 16 % ration overall. Take it slow. You have to do some work to get there and you find out the ready made ration is a lot easier. Nevertheless I have learned a lot by doing some of it myself. This topic is not new . Check out the feed shortage thread that recently discussed all this.

Thank you.
I believe it is entirely possible to scale down the feed mills recipe and make our own feed.
We have to be able to do it on our own if we have to.
Thank you

 

[Joyfillednomads]

We give away a lot of eggs but my wife sells probably 5 or 6 dozen a week for $3/doz. We have somewhere north of 50 hens, ten roosters (7 are in bachelor camp, getting fat for Freezer Day), eight BBW poults and about 25 chicks. An extra $15-20 a week comes in handy for all the feed we go through.

Cool. Yeah. 3-5 a dozen would be good. We are closer to 18-22 eggs a day thru winter. Production way down.

So the people getting eggs, some have given back in ways.
Now we have been able to borrow an hitch pull open trailer for free. Been given okra. And was able to buy our run roofing super cheap.
Might have hubby say, "My wife has been selling them." And see if that sparks any interest. Lol

Our hard boiled Thanksgiving deviled eggs

 

[3KillerBs]

Our hard boiled Thanksgiving deviled eggs

My pullets donated the deviled eggs too.

 

[Joyfillednomads]

My pullets donated the deviled eggs too.

Did a totally different flavoring this time. Soo good. Used my spicy garlic juice from the pickles I made and dill seed. Not sure if it was good. It got the picky husband seal of approval. Lol

 

[Joyfillednomads]

Consider talking to a local Mom n Pop restaurant about leaving a 5 gallon bucket for food scraps. Pick it up every day/every other day and exchange it with an empty one. It can't replace a healthy balanced feed but it could help defray feed costs. My chickens love leftovers from our meals, and we have a local donut shop who occasionally gives me a big box of leftover donuts for my chickens because we give them a dozen eggs now and again. The chickens love the donut treats.

Have you thought about selling extra eggs? That can help with net feed cost, too.

Thanks. Great idea.
We have discussed selling eggs. My hubby enjoys giving them away. We bought 50 or so Styrofoam cartons and people give us Styrofoam egg cartons that we clean and reuse.
We might have to rehash the discussion. Feed prices have about doubled in our area.