Homemade chicken feed recipes please

[BelleInBoots]

Hey guys! I know some of you make your own chicken feed mixes. In an effort to be as economical as possible, while trying to eliminate GMOs & soy & be as close as possible to organic I would like to make my own. I am also interested in how you use supplements with it and or fermented feed and fodder in their diet. I currently have a cpl layers, 18 6 wk old laying breed chicks in the brooder and am planing on getting a batch of meaties, probably cornish x rocks in january, so both perspectives would be appreciated. I have started experimenting with growing wheat fodder for my chickens and goats and am looking into fermenting. but My ultimate goal is to determine the most affordable way to feed my family with wholesome home grown eggs and meat. thanks for you thoughts!

Christie

 

[Ozarkhomesteader]

Subscribing...i want to know the same thing

 

[BelleInBoots]

No one has any, really?

 

[pdirt]

There are several very good threads that go into great detail on those very topics. If you want to go soy free and organic, know that your eggs are likely to cost you $6/dozen, or more. I recommend 4-8% fish meal, in addition to other plant proteins. Fertrell has a good fish meal preserved with a rosemary extract instead of the typical toxic ethynoxquin. We calculated between the number of birds we had at first and the amount of organic feed we were buying a month that initially our costs were about $12/dozen! But they are the best eggs around, as far as I'm concerned.

You will also need to buy in bulk from a feed store to keep costs down and might have to special order from them things like the fish meal and Nutribalancer. I also highly recommend a mineral and vitamin supplement like Nutri-Balancer. I figured it would be about $400 to buy all the ingredients up front in bulk to mix my own. I finally decided against it and decided instead to just fortify my current feed with additional nutrition.

 

[ChickenCanoe]

X2

Just the grains and legumes which is the bulk of chicken feed cost me more than a bag of conventional feed per 50#. By the time I could get all the additives (vitamins, minerals, trace nutrients, fats, amino acids) in the right ratios into the feed, I can buy bags of organic feed much cheaper. Not to mention that I don't have the means to analyze the finished product to assure I'm not missing something or have too much of something.
Some things like crude protein (irrespective of amino acid levels), calcium, phosphorus are fairly simple but the vitamins and trace minerals are tougher.

 

[BelleInBoots]

okay thanks guys. I know a lot of ppl feed fodder or sprouted grain exclusively besides oyster shells and grit and I am curious about that being a more affordable as well as highly nutritious option. either of you have any thoughts on how that compares nutritionally and whether its as balanced as i am hearing?

 

[matt44644]

50 parts corn x8% protein 400
14 roasted soy x37 518
10 pea x24.5 245
10 wheat x12.5 125
8 w. germ x25 200
8 oat x14 112
1600 divide by 100 parts = 16%
$45.38/100 lb not including Fertrell poultry balancer

 

[ChickenCanoe]

okay thanks guys. I know a lot of ppl feed fodder or sprouted grain exclusively besides oyster shells and grit and I am curious about that being a more affordable as well as highly nutritious option. either of you have any thoughts on how that compares nutritionally and whether its as balanced as i am hearing?

Sprouted grain will have a little higher vitamin content than the base grain but protein and minerals won't be enhanced. By the time it hits the fodder stage, crude protein will be lower. Unless they're sprouting some type of pea or other legume, it will be very unbalanced in amino acids and even then, IMO one would need more lysine and methionine. Some animal protein or synthetic amino acids would probably be necessary.
Still, unless you do a grain by grain analysis of mineral content, you won't know what you're missing. Sprouting/fodder don't produce minerals.

http://www.ag.auburn.edu/~chibale/an12poultryfeeding.pdf

 

[Nitecrawler]

Hello and hi, to my fellow backyard chicken family. I have 6 hens and I am not a big fan of GMO so over the last several years and with some old days common since lol I've come up with a very sound chicken feed.
First of all I did awsy with buying "grit"
Many items work just as well such as raw rice or regular everyday bugs consumed over time.
Every state in america has a feed store, you might have to drive a small distance but it is worth the trip.
The mix is not rocket science, mixing the right amount is based on what the chickens like
Any left over bread works as well
My basic feed:
Sorghum(Milo)
Whole oats
Wheat
Yeast(optional)
Black oil sunflower (optional)
Flax seed (optional)

 

[Chris09]

In order to get a proper mix you need to know what you are doing if you don't then your going to end you with problems.
Just mixing grains together with out the proper proteins, fat, energy, vitamins, minerals etc. is not making a feed. It is however a very expensive scratch grain.

Just example,
If you have mix that is high in energy your will eat less but they my not be getting all the nutrients they need, on the other hand a feed that is low in energy leads to over eating.

Your birds will be far better off on a commercial type feed if you do not know what you are doing and or cant get the proper ingredients.