Home made feed

[Brethechickenmom]

So I posted that I ran out of feed and needed some help in what to feed them till I get some more on Wednesday. I was told oats, rice, and beans. I grounded up some raw beans for ¿Grit? And put some rice and oats in a food processor and blended them. It came out sticky and I'm not sure if they know it's food.
I was also told to use boiled egg yolk but we don't have any eggs and my stores won't have any. I won't be going to get feed till Wednesday because that's when money comes in. I'm new to this, so I'm learning. I already feel horrible about running out of feed. I love these chicks with all of my heart and I want to do good by then.
That was a whole spill but can somebody help me. Tell me if the good is suppose to be sticky and what else I could do.

 

[hysop]

Have you tried feeding it to them? Was it cooked rice? How old are they? Sorry for the 21 questions

 

[ChickNanny13]

Hope the rice was cooked at least ... Raw rice will swell up in their crop when water is drank. Doesn't sound advisable ... What about letting them free range?

 

[JaeG]

Raw rice is fine to feed - it's a bit of an urban myth that it will swell up in their crops. Our girls love raw rice as a treat.

As long as you aren't feeding them chocolate, cupcakes/anything with lots of added sugar, avocado or green potatoes they can basically eat anything else. I think beans need to be cooked before being fed though.

 

[gtaus]

So I posted that I ran out of feed and needed some help in what to feed them till I get some more on Wednesday. I was told oats, rice, and beans. I grounded up some raw beans for ¿Grit? And put some rice and oats in a food processor and blended them. It came out sticky and I'm not sure if they know it's food.
I was also told to use boiled egg yolk but we don't have any eggs and my stores won't have any. I won't be going to get feed till Wednesday because that's when money comes in. I'm new to this, so I'm learning. I already feel horrible about running out of feed. I love these chicks with all of my heart and I want to do good by then.
That was a whole spill but can somebody help me. Tell me if the good is suppose to be sticky and what else I could do.

Grit would be small rocks, not beans, although uncooked beans are about as hard as rock. Depending on where you live, you might be able to let the chickens free range and/or gather grass/plants for them and dump it in their chicken run. Chickens will eat just about anything, so most kitchen scraps and leftovers could be fed to your birds. If you have to chop up food in a blender, just don't run it very long. All you really want to do is break it up a bit. Even if you run low on food, make sure you always have fresh water for the birds.

As to the sticky food, I'd leave it in their feeder. Chickens tend to eat what they know and like, but will try everything else when they get more hungry. My chickens love bread of any kind, so I might try to tear up some slices of bread and mix it in with the sticky food.

I don't know what your financial situation is, but if you have more birds than money, then a long term solution might be to reduce the number of birds in your flock. Better to have fewer, well fed birds, than lots of birds that are under fed. Unless you get feed for free, raising a small backyard flock will most likely cost you more money than buying eggs at the store. I think many of us raise backyard chickens for many reasons, but I have yet to hear of anyone doing it to save money on eggs.

Thinking ahead, maybe your local farm store has periodic sales on chicken feed. My local farm store has sales on feed about 3-4 months and it might be $1-$3 off per bag. That's when I stock up on extra bags of feed and save myself money. It's easy to run out of feed when you are new to raising animals and really don't know how much feed they will go through in a day, week, or month. If you keep a simple log of how much feed your birds go through each day, you can get an idea of how much feed you need to keep on hand until you can restock. Best wishes.

 

[Brethechickenmom]

Have you tried feeding it to them? Was it cooked rice? How old are they? Sorry for the 21 questions

They are at least a week old. They're adult feathers are coming in and my yellow ones are turning white. And yes it was cooked rice.

 

[Brethechickenmom]

Grit would be small rocks, not beans, although uncooked beans are about as hard as rock. Depending on where you live, you might be able to let the chickens free range and/or gather grass/plants for them and dump it in their chicken run. Chickens will eat just about anything, so most kitchen scraps and leftovers could be fed to your birds. If you have to chop up food in a blender, just don't run it very long. All you really want to do is break it up a bit. Even if you run low on food, make sure you always have fresh water for the birds.

As to the sticky food, I'd leave it in their feeder. Chickens tend to eat what they know and like, but will try everything else when they get more hungry. My chickens love bread of any kind, so I might try to tear up some slices of bread and mix it in with the sticky food.

I don't know what your financial situation is, but if you have more birds than money, then a long term solution might be to reduce the number of birds in your flock. Better to have fewer, well fed birds, than lots of birds that are under fed. Unless you get feed for free, raising a small backyard flock will most likely cost you more money than buying eggs at the store. I think many of us raise backyard chickens for many reasons, but I have yet to hear of anyone doing it to save money on eggs.

Thinking ahead, maybe your local farm store has periodic sales on chicken feed. My local farm store has sales on feed about 3-4 months and it might be $1-$3 off per bag. That's when I stock up on extra bags of feed and save myself money. It's easy to run out of feed when you are new to raising animals and really don't know how much feed they will go through in a day, week, or month. If you keep a simple log of how much feed your birds go through each day, you can get an idea of how much feed you need to keep on hand until you can restock. Best wishes.

The feed was given to us by some 16 year old. I don't think he knew how much feed they would need. When I go get more I plan on getting more than enough.
I was told bread kills birdw but I'll try it.
They did have a problem of kicking the food out, is there any reason why they do that and how I can stop them?

 

[NatJ]

I recommend cooking beans before feeding them to chickens.

LOTS of birds eat bread without dying. It's not a complete diet, but for short-term cases like yours, bread would be one of my first choices.

Chicks do kick their food out, because that's just what chickens do (all ages). But they also don't mind eating off the floor, so you can just leave it on the floor of their pen, and they might eat some of it.

Chickens (even baby ones) can probably eat rice and oats without blending--just offer a little bit and see if they eat it. Sticky or dry, chickens can eat food either way.

Of course, make sure they have water available at all times.

 

[gtaus]

OK. If your chicks are only weeks old, the grit you should be using is about the size of beach sand. In fact, I live on a lake and I just scoop up some sand for my baby chicks. They do not get real "grit" until they are older.

Baby chicks, and chickens in general, will kick out lots of feed from their feeders when eating. Since your food supply is short, I would suggest putting a larger pan under the feeder to catch some of that feed that gets scratched out. You might be able to collect that feed and put it back into the feeder. If you don't use some kind of pan to catch that feed, you risk losing it into the bedding litter and just wasted. But I use a deep litter bedding for my chicks, so maybe if you only have a thin layer of bedding it might be OK.

I have never heard of bread killing chickens. For the short term, I'd give them whatever bread you have, along with other kitchen scraps and leftovers, chopping up the food to an appropriate size for your chicks. I found my baby chicks did not eat very many different kinds of kitchen scraps, but they eat just about anything when older. Mix in your kitchen scraps with some pieces of bread and see what they eat. Remove uneaten food before it gets moldy. But don't be surprised if they only eat the bread first and leave other stuff. They might try out the other stuff later if they are still hungry.