So I live in a small town of probably 400 people or a bit more. The food suppliers no longer offer layers mesh or any chicken feed for that matter. We are almost out of layers mesh and we need some help on improvising, we have to travel 500km to get more feed and we can't until the second week of March so I was wondering what can we be feeding them and how much food do they need daily? Also I have 7 ducks, 6 chickens and 3 young chicks.
If you serve some of the food wet, they seem to waste it less--but you can't just mix up a lot and leave it out, or it will spoil. But if you are already short on feed, it might help stretch what you have left.
Does the feed store offer feed for any other kind of poultry? As long as it's not medicated, you could try duck feed, gamebird feed, turkey feed, etc. (If you find one that's extra-high in protein, you could give treats of something low-protein and cheap like corn, too.)
Might be a bit costly but you could order online for supplies until you have time to make a supply run. From what I understand a company like Amazon (and probably Chewy too) will literally ship anywhere.
I would definitely look into that.
Other ideas:
Maybe some dog or cat feed? Possibly with extra grains, like corn or even bread.
Chickens are usually expected to eat about 1/4 to 1/3 pound of food per day, each. Chicks would eat less, ducks probably more.
Feed meant for other animals might be more concentrated or diluted, so they might need more or less of it.
In a real pinch, I'd put out some of everything available (bread, corn, rice, birdseed, meat, cheese, dog food, vegetables/fruits, alfalfa hay or pellets, shelled nuts, etc), and let the birds make their own choices--but that would not be convenient or cheap to do for long, and of course they could easily eat a mix that is not nutritionally balanced. If they really love a particular thing, and it's easy to get, then research the nutrition of that particular thing, so you can offer something else that helps balance what it lacks. (Example: fish is high in protein, grains are low in protein, so some of each would be better than just one or the other.)
Make sure they have access to grit (small rocks/large sand) to grind up whatever they're eating. For laying hens, be sure they have calcium available: oyster shell, crushed eggshells, etc. Just the shells from their own eggs will not be enough, but you might ask neighbors to save shells from store-bought eggs if you have no other source available.
For the young chicks, consider giving them some cooked egg. It won't hurt the older birds either, but I'd be more worried about the chicks getting the right mix of nutrients, and egg is probably fairly close to what they need right at first.
