Home Feeding Ideas and Solutions Discussion Thread

[cluckaway]

My 4 Orpingtons are 2.5 months old. They have been raised on medicated chick feed and now I am mixing Nutrena All flock 18% pellets. They don't seem to like the pellets. Any idea what I should do? Mix in ?? They eat hard boiled eggs with shell, watermelon, yogurt, ground grapes and oranges.
THANK YOU- Im a chicken nubie

 

[ocap]

go to the fermented feed thread and ask how to make pellets better, I ferment mine with "kefir"

 

[Mehjr10]

My 4 Orpingtons are 2.5 months old. They have been raised on medicated chick feed and now I am mixing Nutrena All flock 18% pellets. They don't seem to like the pellets. Any idea what I should do? Mix in ?? They eat hard boiled eggs with shell, watermelon, yogurt, ground grapes and oranges.
THANK YOU- Im a chicken nubie

Put a bit of crumbles in with the pellets, they will start to eat the pellets as they go along..

 

[suncatcher]

Good to know, I have never tired the pellets, thought they might not eat them as well, but will re think them and add them to my FF.

 

[jsliffe]

"man who say it can not be done, should not interupt man who is doing it."

Apply this to your beef of Salatin's chicken tractors. Not egg-mobiles but meat tractors. I do it. I know plenty of people who do it. Leave the chickens in the tractos day and night. Scoot them around every few days. Yet you had a imbecilic post on here bashing it. Classic.

 

[Kassaundra]

Ok...so all these "parts" were in pounds. So I basically have almost a 10 pound mix.

Now for adding animal proteins, vitamins, omega's, amino acids, minerals and other essential things....I am thinking of going with Farmers Helper Ultra Kibble. Its animal proteins come from fish, it contains probiotics, many nature vegetable products and is loaded with natural and added vitamins and minerals. I have used it before in their feed during molting and the birds seem to do well on it. It contains, I believe, 9% protein per ounce. (If this is incorrect, PLEASE let me know.) Here is a link to the product...I would love your opinion.

http://www.wildbirdsuets.com/foragecakes/kibble.htm

I added about 7 ounces of Kibble to this approx. 10 pound mix. (at 9% protein per ounce) My original question was, does this amount become a ".5" part in this mix? If so:
7x9=63 protein from the kibble. So...115+63=178 This sum divided by parts....178 divided by 9.5=18.7 total protein in this mix.

I grind all this down in a grain grinder. I add a tiny bit of water at feed time if the consistency is too fine.

Is any of this correct? Or am I way off? Is this enough to sustain my birds? They do not free range, but I do offer up salad greens and other table scraps once a day. They were diagnosed with MS several years ago and I have to say that it was one year of pure hell to work that out of them. But they seem to be quite healthy now and I do not want to put their immune systems in danger of slipping, should they still be carrying this bacteria. And I do not want to feed them the only feed that this county seems to be offering up, Layena.

Anything anyone can tell me about this mix will be much appreciated. I am still doing research and learning tons of things on mixing feed. But being that BYC is loaded with knowledgeable folks, this seems to be the best place to learn.

Thanks so much!

That sounds like lots of moving parts, and I can't speak to the completeness of this mix, but I did have a question about your math. I thought a percent of "protein" (or anything else for that matter) did not change w/ the amount you add. If you add 1 lb of 9% protein, it is still 9% protein if you add 10 lbs. I do not understand why you multiplied 9% by 7 (oz) to get 63% if you were going to use it as a 1/2 part and divide it out in your average protein????

I don't understand how adding a small % of protein product in a tiny amount has increased your protein % by so much??? I also don't understand how something called "ultra" and that has animal protein has such a small amount of actual protein?


I would be more apt to add floating catfish food, it has animal protein too, and has 30ish% protein and is not very expensive (around $15 per 50lb bag)

 

[ChickensAreSweet]

OK....All you feed mixing experts out there, I need more advice.

I am diving into this head first and I am not going back to processed bagged feed again. And while I am not ready for meal worm farms or growing flies, I am ready to start the road to making my own chicken feed. I ran this past another member here on BYC and was hoping for any other info that anyone might have for me. So here is where I am at. I am open to ALL opinions and information on how to better my mix here. Being that I live in the middle of no where, I do not have much available to me, so ingredients are all I have to deal with. Here it is....

Wheat: 11%
Hulled Sunflower seed: 20%
Millet: 13%
Corn: 7%
Oats: 9%
(these are the minimum protein percents)

I took:
3 parts Wheat
2 parts Sunflower
2 parts Millet
1 part Corn
1 part Oats

In order of parts:
3x1=33
2x20=40
2x13=26
1x7=7
1x9=9

Total protein: 115

115 divided by the parts, 9, =12.7% protein for this mix

I also added a handful of ground Flax, was not sure how much of this to add. Calcium powder as recommend on the packaging. (this I am not worried about. They have oyster shell on the side)

Now I also purchased a bag of alfalfa pellets at 16%, however I have not yet worked it into this mix, as I am not sure how much to add as well. Don't want to over do the fiber.

Ok...so all these "parts" were in pounds. So I basically have almost a 10 pound mix.

Now for adding animal proteins, vitamins, omega's, amino acids, minerals and other essential things....I am thinking of going with Farmers Helper Ultra Kibble. Its animal proteins come from fish, it contains probiotics, many nature vegetable products and is loaded with natural and added vitamins and minerals. I have used it before in their feed during molting and the birds seem to do well on it. It contains, I believe, 9% protein per ounce. (If this is incorrect, PLEASE let me know.) Here is a link to the product...I would love your opinion.

http://www.wildbirdsuets.com/foragecakes/kibble.htm

I added about 7 ounces of Kibble to this approx. 10 pound mix. (at 9% protein per ounce) My original question was, does this amount become a ".5" part in this mix? If so:
7x9=63 protein from the kibble. So...115+63=178 This sum divided by parts....178 divided by 9.5=18.7 total protein in this mix.

I grind all this down in a grain grinder. I add a tiny bit of water at feed time if the consistency is too fine.

Is any of this correct? Or am I way off? Is this enough to sustain my birds? They do not free range, but I do offer up salad greens and other table scraps once a day. They were diagnosed with MS several years ago and I have to say that it was one year of pure hell to work that out of them. But they seem to be quite healthy now and I do not want to put their immune systems in danger of slipping, should they still be carrying this bacteria. And I do not want to feed them the only feed that this county seems to be offering up, Layena.

Anything anyone can tell me about this mix will be much appreciated. I am still doing research and learning tons of things on mixing feed. But being that BYC is loaded with knowledgeable folks, this seems to be the best place to learn.

Thanks so much!

Don't grind it, or at least leave a lot of it whole for them, for entertainment, in my opinion.

You can add split peas in small quantities for some added protein (24.5%).
Also rolled barley is cheap and you can add that in along with small quantities of whole oats. If using whole oats keep in mind the hulls aren't especially good for them so keep it small. They do like rolled barley. They will like their feed much better if it isn't ground as Kassaundra said.

I like to keep flax seeds at around 4% myself if I use them. Too many and the eggs will taste bad...and they don't especially like them in large quantities.

I have to mix my oyster shell into the feed (flemingoutdoors.com has a recommendation for how much) or I get soft eggshells, even with mixing in powdered calcium carbonate!

If you can order some organic roasted soybean meal that would boost your protein very well. But it must be roasted (all commercial poultry ration has roasted soy if it includes soy).

Here is a protein calculator:
http://lionsgrip.com/protein.html
I use lb instead of parts since the protein % is calculated on mass not volume.

Congratulations on mixing your feed!

I purchase organic chick starter which I use as a base and add my grains and seeds to it to make my feed. They LOVE the variety!

http://www2.ca.uky.edu/smallflocks/feed_ingredients/proteins.html

http://www2.ca.uky.edu/smallflocks/Feed_ingredients/Grains.html

Two more links!

Also, I offer free choice Redmond Mineral Conditioner, which has salt and minerals, very important.
Green grass year round or greens is important if you aren't offering a vitamin supplement such as Fertrell.

Most poultry feeds have maybe 0.5% salt, and the Redmond I think is 5% salt, so I don't mix it in but I think the bag might have instructions on doing that. I actually put it in their dust bath with DE and they peck at it.

 

[cluckaway]

RATS!!!
Rats are burrowing under the pavers and bricks that surround the chicken run. I am putting out one bite one kill rat poison .. HOW can I keep them from going into the run. The coop is secure and well off the ground. WE have dogs and kids. BIG CONCERN for new chicken parents.

 

[Mehjr10]

I would use the bait bars like Tomcat, place in a bait box to keep all out... The pellets make it too easy for the chickens to accidentally get..

 

[Lacy Blues]

RATS!!!
Rats are burrowing under the pavers and bricks that surround the chicken run. I am putting out one bite one kill rat poison .. HOW can I keep them from going into the run. The coop is secure and well off the ground. WE have dogs and kids. BIG CONCERN for new chicken parents.

Here's an idea I have been toying with. I am in the process of building a feed barn which is elevated. In order to keep out the mice which I have an army of, I intend to wrap the legs of my elevated barn with thin sheet metal. It will be hammered flat so that it will stay tight to the posts so it cannot be subject to chewing to get underneath. I don't know what the metal is called but they have it at my local building supply and it is about 16" wide and comes in rolls of maybe 10 feet or so.

Just re-read your post. You asked about keeping them out of the run... sorry but I don't have an answer for that. They can dig long tunnels, right? If that wasn't the case, I'd suggest hardware cloth and maybe lots of sharp gravel that has been compacted.