Help for a homemade chicken feed

[Dominique King]

I want to make a organic, wheat free, barley free, any gluten free chicken feed mix but don’t know how. I have a flock of 24 chickens and would like some help for this.

 

[Debbie292d]

Have you done any research on this? It's not as easy as it sounds, but more power to you!

First off, anyone who lives near a farmer that isn't organic, can't be organic.

Here's an article by @Perris with the first ingredient you're aiming to exclude. https://www.backyardchickens.com/ar...eat-tears-a-calculator-or-deep-pockets.78655/

Perris and @U_Stormcrow both know nutritional needs.

I wish you good luck!

 

[RedHillChicken]

I want to make a organic, wheat free, barley free, any gluten free chicken feed mix but don’t know how. I have a flock of 24 chickens and would like some help for this.

I would suggest you look at New Country Organics feed suppliers. I tried the organic mixing and realized that it's very expensive, time consuming, and hard to get a balanced nutritious feed for my chicks. Just ask Stormcrow. Good luck with your flock. NCO has fed my flock and they're very healthy.

 

[Logar]

I don't have much to add but it is going to be difficult and very expensive to create a proper feed. And if you have a mixed flock then it just makes it even harder. Good luck, I will be following.

 

[Perris]

I want to make a organic, wheat free, barley free, any gluten free chicken feed mix but don’t know how. I have a flock of 24 chickens and would like some help for this.

what is your problem with wheat?

 

[Dominique King]

My family has celiac disease and we can’t eat eggs that have been laid by chickens that eat gluten

 

[Perris]

But gluten is not passed on / present in eggs. Can you please provide a link to some reading where I can try to get my head round the issue?

 

[Penpal]

A chicken's favorite thing to seems to be meat. Worms, larvae, bugs, insects, ground pork. You could feed them meat and be completely grain free. But you don't have to since a bird's digestive system breaks down gluten.

For a more nutritions grain, grow you own of an old variety. The closer to wild, the higher the nutrition and lower carbohydrate.

 

[U_Stormcrow]

My family has celiac disease and we can’t eat eggs that have been laid by chickens that eat gluten

Numerous resources disagree with that assertion.

Gluten.org

Beyond Celiac

GlutenFreeSociety

Coeliak.UK

Johns Hopkins

Hundreds of others.

See also:
Science Direct study comparing taste and texture effects of egg whites and egg yolks in gluten free bread
Fleishmann's Yeast Gluten Free Egg bread recipe.
Gluten free Challah recipe

etc.


Now, if your allergy is so severe that it is potentially triggered from the gluten in dust while handling bags of gluten-containing feed, that's a completely different issue.

I am aware of no credible research suggesting that either meat or eggs from animals which consume gluten will themselves contain gluten as result.

 

[U_Stormcrow]

and as others have said in passing above, what you propose is both difficult and expensive (practically impossible for most), and will depend highly on ingredients available to you.

Gluten-free is possible - there are some reasonably priced commercial products in that space and LOTS of feed recipes don't contain barley or wheat.

Organic is possible - there are numerous organic feeds out there of passable to good nutritional value at various price points (none cheap).

As soon as you combine "organic" with "gluten-free" you have greatly constrained your available options of ingredients, and raised your associated cost. But yes, its possible with the right ingredients. Thank you for not adding "Vegan" or "Soy-free" to your list of requirements (though sourcing reasonably priced Organic Soy meal is "challenging", to say the least) - the link is to a product that's over $1.50/lb before shipping costs. I can buy 250# of feed for the cost of that bag, or 200# of my preferred local (likely GMO, gluten-containing) mix, for pricing reference.