Homemade chicken feed = later laying??

[FrankHomestead]

I'm wondering why my production birds are so much later than a lot of your heritage birds. I'm thinking maybe it's due to homemade feed vs commercial feed? I ferment their feed, provide grit and os free choice, and also give fodder once a week. they are isa brown 20 weeks 1 day old and look a lot like the pic, they look no where near ready to lay.

 

[FrankHomestead]

This is my feed recipe

 

[FrankHomestead]

Except instead of black rice I use millet, because the black rice was very expensive

 

[Folly's place]

Have you had your feed assayed? Where's the vitamin/ mineral mix? I wonder how complete this feed really is, and production birds need the best in a balanced feed in order to live up to their genetics. Wouldn't it be less expensive to buy fresh feed at the farm store? Mary

 

[FrankHomestead]

How do I add vitamins & minerals? my goal is to eventually grow all their feed myself, the goal is to be self sustainable. what would you change about the recipe?

 

[Folly's place]

You can buy a mix, which I've never done, because I buy those perfectly balanced bags of feed at the store. It's available in quantities that aren't practical for home use because of it's short shelf life, but maybe can be found in smaller bags somewhere? Have you contacted your state poultry experts, if there's a poultry science department at your state university? Poultry nutrition is a very understood field, lots of good information is available from experts. I'm not an expert!!! Poultry science and nutrition classes in college convinced me that buying feed was by far my best most economical choice. Mary

 

[FrankHomestead]

I may switch to an organic commercial feed. that's what I started them on until I did lots of reading up on homemade feed, and I'm the type of person that wants to do everything myself lol hence my hobbies of cheese making and soap making but if it's impossible to make a feed mix as good as commercial then I suppose I need to give in.

 

[Folly's place]

I know enough to know that I don't know enough!!! As small flock owners, we can't possibly buy ingredients as cheaply as the folks who literally feed millions of hens at a time, or who make feed in batches of many tons. And I'm not motivated enough to do it at home, and spend more. If you can grow your own grains and harvest them for less actual cost, and have a recipe that works, and buy the vitamin/ mineral mix in small quantities, good for you. I can't. BTW, ingredients are measured by weight, not volume, in any good recipe. Mary

 

[FrankHomestead]

I know enough to know that I don't know enough!!! As small flock owners, we can't possibly buy ingredients as cheaply as the folks who literally feed millions of hens at a time, or who make feed in batches of many tons. And I'm not motivated enough to do it at home, and spend more. If you can grow your own grains and harvest them for less actual cost, and have a recipe that works, and buy the vitamin/ mineral mix in small quantities, good for you. I can't. BTW, ingredients are measured by weight, not volume, in any good recipe. Mary

I know but I don't have a scale yet lol I'm very new to this and I really appreciate your feedback!

 

[Fairview01]

I'm curious as to how you get to 18% protein. I'm seeing a couple of ingredients such as the split peas and flax seeds that chickens do not hold in high regard.

I also disagree that fermenting feed increases overall protein. The yeasts and bacteria responsible for the fermentation process themselves may posses protein but they also consume sugars and protein to ferment the feed. Saying that non fermented feed with a 18% protein contains more protein after being consumed by decomposers in the food chain is something I can't buy into. Poultry feed is not unique. It can not have more value at the end than at the beginning.

Production poultry are bred to churn out eggs. Chickens are not vegetarians. They are omnivores. A significant portion of their diet in a free range environment would come from animal proteins.

There are some tasks we have a cost advantage on and some we don't. We can't make a balanced feed as cheaply and we don't have the research staff and equipment to determine if the feed consumed is a balanced one.

I would suggest purchasing a commercial feed and then supplementing it with your own scratch. The scratch contributes to a larger more muscular gizzard which in turns allows the chickens to extract more nutrients from their mash or pellet feed.

I have close to 50 chickens in my flock. One fifty pound bag of commercial feed lasts 10 days when supplemented with my own scratch. I have marans and meat birds mixed. The marans start laying on schedule off and on right at 22 weeks. I'm starting to butcher the heritage meat birds (roosters) this weekend.

I have a pdf on my laptop that lists poultry feeds and protein content. I will post it when I get back there this evening.