Help With Growing my Own Chicken Feed

[GlicksChicks]

As far as crops typically grain feed includes some mixture of corn, wheat, field peas, oats and/or barley but to make that viable to grow and harvest it to feed poultry and other animals you'd need proper climate, sufficient space, water and necessary farm equipment to plant/maintain/harvest = essentially a working farm which is quite an investment and a lot of work. You may want to check around the area and see if there are any farms in your area doing something similar to what you plan and reach out to them for practical advice for your area. As far as the bsfl @U_Stormcrow gave some good info.

I will look around and see if I can find any farms doing this. In the area I live there is a good bit of agriculture, so it could be possible someone is doing it.

 

[NatJ]

I was already planning on using their egg shells for a calcium source in the feed I mix for them.

If eggshells are the only calcium source, a hen who lays one egg each day will need about three egg shells each day.

So you will need an additional source of calcium. Oyster shell is pretty cheap to buy, compared with most other feed ingredients. If you live near an ocean you might be able to collect and crush it yourself. If you live in an area with limestone rock, that might be acceptable (do research first: I don't know enough to be sure either way.) I think snail shells contain calcium, but I don't know how much, or how feasible they are to raise (aquarium keepers often have too many snails, but an aquarium full of snails might be too few to be useful for chickens.) I have read that shrimp shells are mostly protein, so I wouldn't use them as a sole calcium source. I suspect most insects would be similar, with not enough calcium to be very useful, but I do not know for sure.

Many plants contain some calcium, but no combination of plant foods will give the whole amount of calcium needed by a laying hen. But all the little bits of calcium from plants or bugs do add up, so they can change how much calcium the hens need from other sources.

If you want easy, just buy a bag of oyster shell and keep some available, then provide as much calcium as you conveniently can from other sources. That will make sure the hens have enough (oyster shell all the time) but reduce how much oyster shell they eat (other sources filling part of their requirements.)

I see people talking about grains. You might also consider potatoes. They need cooking before feeding to chickens, but nutritionally they are more like grains than like most other "vegetables." I think they also have more protein than most of the common grains, if you are comparing protein to other calories. The water content means they have much less protein, energy, or anything else per actual pound of potatoes you dig, harvest, transport, or store.

Potatoes and grains have different requirements for growing and storing, and will typically use different kinds of equipment. Which is best will depend on your climate, growing conditions, and various other things. For small amounts, potatoes are probably easier to harvest than grains (shovel instead of scythe, no threshing, you already have a kitchen to cook them in), but if you do manage to produce dry grains they are much easier to store than potatoes (smaller bulk, longer storage life, do not turn green and become toxic if exposed to light) and the chickens can eat uncooked grains which is simpler than cooking potatoes regularly.

There are good reasons most chicken foods are based on grains instead of potatoes, but many of those reasons apply to large-scale production and making dry feed, not to actual chicken health or convenient production at a small scale.

 

[HollowOfWisps]

I just wanted to add that if you make your own feed watch the corn content. I am not against corn in feed, but I have seen it used in excess as a filler. I grew up in a poor rural farming community. Many if not most of the chickens in the area were fed homemade mixed feed from grains grown on their farms or purchased them from the local feed mill. People would add corn as a filler to the feed because everyone either grew corn or bought it from the feed mill cheap at 50lb bag for $5. As a kid I would often help out the farmers with different chores from bailing hay, milking, fixing fence and even some butchering. Every bird I butchered that had high levels of corn in their diet had a very thick layer of fat wrapped around their organs. So again corn is fine if balanced properly in their diet, but just be careful with how much you use if you do.

 

[GlicksChicks]

If eggshells are the only calcium source, a hen who lays one egg each day will need about three egg shells each day.

So you will need an additional source of calcium. Oyster shell is pretty cheap to buy, compared with most other feed ingredients. If you live near an ocean you might be able to collect and crush it yourself. If you live in an area with limestone rock, that might be acceptable (do research first: I don't know enough to be sure either way.) I think snail shells contain calcium, but I don't know how much, or how feasible they are to raise (aquarium keepers often have too many snails, but an aquarium full of snails might be too few to be useful for chickens.) I have read that shrimp shells are mostly protein, so I wouldn't use them as a sole calcium source. I suspect most insects would be similar, with not enough calcium to be very useful, but I do not know for sure.

Many plants contain some calcium, but no combination of plant foods will give the whole amount of calcium needed by a laying hen. But all the little bits of calcium from plants or bugs do add up, so they can change how much calcium the hens need from other sources.

If you want easy, just buy a bag of oyster shell and keep some available, then provide as much calcium as you conveniently can from other sources. That will make sure the hens have enough (oyster shell all the time) but reduce how much oyster shell they eat (other sources filling part of their requirements.)

I see people talking about grains. You might also consider potatoes. They need cooking before feeding to chickens, but nutritionally they are more like grains than like most other "vegetables." I think they also have more protein than most of the common grains, if you are comparing protein to other calories. The water content means they have much less protein, energy, or anything else per actual pound of potatoes you dig, harvest, transport, or store.

Potatoes and grains have different requirements for growing and storing, and will typically use different kinds of equipment. Which is best will depend on your climate, growing conditions, and various other things. For small amounts, potatoes are probably easier to harvest than grains (shovel instead of scythe, no threshing, you already have a kitchen to cook them in), but if you do manage to produce dry grains they are much easier to store than potatoes (smaller bulk, longer storage life, do not turn green and become toxic if exposed to light) and the chickens can eat uncooked grains which is simpler than cooking potatoes regularly.

There are good reasons most chicken foods are based on grains instead of potatoes, but many of those reasons apply to large-scale production and making dry feed, not to actual chicken health or convenient production at a small scale.

I also live near a lake with alot of mussels, so maybe I can use those as well. Snails are no problem here. We have snails called Decollate snails and their empty shells litter the ground around here alot. And I do believe that limestone is EVERYWHERE around here. I will do some research on that! I will also look into the oyster shells for calcium.

I have experience growing potatoes, so that could be good to try. I have also grown corn. I am trying to come up with a list of seeds/crops to obtain for growing. The place I buy feed from also sells seeds to farmers, while I don't know their variety, I want to have some sort of list of what I am looking for when I ask them.

Don't potatoes also have Niacin in them for ducks?

 

[U_Stormcrow]

I'm goign to come back to, and continue, this thought above when I have more time - since I lived int he Austin area, my wife has previously lived in the Dallas area, we have some experience with your climate.

At a high level, I agree with all of the above. I've said the same many times here on BYC. At a more granular level, I can probably offer a few practical suggestions, with significant caveats, of course.

OK, I don't have long to touch further on this - short lunch at work today, and was taking some pictures for one of my threads.

It is very difficult for the typical BYCer to grow, harvest, and store even a substantial portion of what is needed to make a nutritionally complete feed. Even those few that can can't truly compete with the economies of scale enjoyed by the big producers - in both volume and specialization. Being a generalist is great in survival situations, but means nothing will be as productive as potential.

Most of us don't have the equipment, the storage space, the climate, the soils, the acreage, and the geography to do otherwise. The best land is (largely) already used for farming, or has in past decades been converted to small lot subdivisions, leaving the rest of us with marginal soils, hilly, swampy, and/or rocky lands, etc

Dallas has high highs and moderately low lows (as in persistent hard freezes that last more than a few hours), occasional snowfall, periods of drought followed by torrential rains, and areas of clay soils that bake hard like pottery. Not exactly prime pasture.

From experience, corn will grow there, its easy, it will produce relatively densely in relatively small spaces, it requires little specialized equipment, and is pretty easy to dry for storage - if a bit labor intensive. Unfortunately, its also your cheapest bulk ingredient and of no particularly exceptional nutritional value. Its not bad - which is why its used to bulk out feed - its just not good.

TX also has some strains of hard red wheat adapted to the Dallas area. Its high protein for a grain, can also be dried and stored, relatively low in antinutritional factors, but benefits from specialized equipment to harvest and separate. CAN be done by hand, very labor intensive.

Sorghum, and Sorghum/Sudangrass hybrids both do well there. Essentially, a corn substitute in recipes. It has some quirks, but is largely interchangeable w/ corn. Doesn't require a lot of equipment, and I prefer it aesthetically to corn at all times when corn doesn't have full ears ripening. The rest of the plant has a little more value nutritionally than the corn stalks, though it can concentrate some things late season, when your birds will avoid it.

If you have very limited space, would recommend you focus on high value, small area crops which you can spend more time protecting against drought and drowning, and whose prices are much higher on the retail markets. That's clovers and similar legumes to the extent you can get them to take root (some of my soil would, most of my soil would not), "near-grains" like Amaranth which are also aesthetically pleasing to satisfy the HOA, but are relatively low yield - you don't want to be harvesting. Prairie grasses like Bluestem (andropogons gerardii, etc), and low nutrition, dual use herbs you also make use of in your own cooking. Methi (fenugreek), basil, oregano, mints - more for the bugs they attract than for the plants themselves (fenugreek seed is actually high value, but hard to establish).

Might also want to look at lab lab (hyacinth bean) - I'm trying it out in my soils and climate now, we share a lot in common, but not everything/Dallas is 7b/8a, and I'm more like 8b/8a on average - we are about 3/4 of a "grow zone" apart. I also have more sands, more rain, and lower elevation.

My thoughts anyways, running late from lunch, sorry I couldn't add more

 

[Kenya Mwangi]

I didn't know about heat causing too many issues! I will give it a try in the coolest place I can and see how it goes!

Hello BSF Larvae are simple for me so far and I am more south than Dallas. I just water hose them to cool them off. The bin has a drain. It was a simple solution to the heat. I have thousands from just 18 days. I put damp pig feed in a tub and the Black soldier flies came the first day. When my bin wasn't damp enough after the second day it didn't smell good, but when I got it wetter the larva began to thrive and it always smells sweet like some kind of peppermint tea or cinnomin tea or something. I did not put manure it yet, so I don't know how it would smell with that though.

 

[NatJ]

I also live near a lake with alot of mussels, so maybe I can use those as well. Snails are no problem here. We have snails called Decollate snails and their empty shells litter the ground around here alot. And I do believe that limestone is EVERYWHERE around here. I will do some research on that! I will also look into the oyster shells for calcium.

I have experience growing potatoes, so that could be good to try. I have also grown corn. I am trying to come up with a list of seeds/crops to obtain for growing. The place I buy feed from also sells seeds to farmers, while I don't know their variety, I want to have some sort of list of what I am looking for when I ask them.

Sounds good!

Don't potatoes also have Niacin in them for ducks?

I don't know enough about ducks to be sure, but you can probably look up how much niacin ducks need in a day, and how much niacin is in the amount of potato that a duck would eat in a day, to see if it would be enough.

 

[GlicksChicks]

Hello BSF Larvae are simple for me so far and I am more south than Dallas. I just water hose them to cool them off. The bin has a drain. It was a simple solution to the heat. I have thousands from just 18 days. I put damp pig feed in a tub and the Black soldier flies came the first day. When my bin wasn't damp enough after the second day it didn't smell good, but when I got it wetter the larva began to thrive and it always smells sweet like some kind of peppermint tea or cinnomin tea or something. I did not put manure it yet, so I don't know how it would smell with that though.

Do you think the method of putting coffee grounds in would work as well?

Good to know! I will be sure to hose them down! Could I see a picture of your setup?

 

[GlicksChicks]

Meal worms, high nutritional value

Do you know where I can buy a large amount of live mealworms for breeding?

 

[GodLovesU]

You can buy mealworms on a website called Dubia.com, they also sell Black soldier fly larvae.