Homemade Chicken Feed?

[rjohns39]

Feed is a very complex subject. But if you have the ingredients you need near you it can be done. I am a huge fan of fertrell, their nutri-balancer is the vitamin base used by many feed mills. A 10lbs bag is $40 on their on-line store. But if you can find a local dealer you can eliminate freight. Most recipes call for 60lbs to a ton. A five gallon bucket is about 25lbs. That said, fertrell customers have access to their nutritionists. I trust their products and things like fish or crab meal are what I consider to be high risk products.

Premier 1 sells a nice back yard hammer mill for small scale production (not cheap). A cheap electric cement mixer will do a fairly nice job of mixing feed.

The polyface farms recipes call for nutribalancer, oats, corn, whole roasted soy fish meal and limestone.

I would not recommend monkeying with a commercial feed unless you know exactly what's in it and in what quantities. Different ingredients have limits that if exceeded will prevent the birds from being able to absorb the nutrients in the feed. There are simply too many variables that can cause issues. In the scraps and what not you give them, the general rule of thumb is not more than 10% of their diet. What they forage while they're free ranging doesn't count.

 

[rjohns39]

This is what I do... I add split peas, seeds, oats, barley, and a few other things then I stir it all up. My chickens and chicks love it, they are very healthy too. I give their egg shells with oyster shell on the side for a calcium supplement. They also get scraps at dinner time, but that's after they've eaten their feed and foraged all day.

Be careful with Oats and barley. They (in combination) should not exceed 15% in total volume of their basic feed. They are an awesome feed source, but too much of a good thing is bad.

 

[Parront]

I think that the best thing is what you are doing, let them have lots of pasture and find their own food along with getting plenty of exercise and sunshine. The protein is the expensive part of the feed from the store, and they are able to get that from ranging. You might find your feed bill is lower in summer if you have enough range for them. Put a dish of oyster out with the layer pellets, so that they can get that calcium if they do not eat enough pellets.

 

[Sweetmisery85]

This is what I do... I add split peas, seeds, oats, barley, and a few other things then I stir it all up. My chickens and chicks love it, they are very healthy too. I give their egg shells with oyster shell on the side for a calcium supplement. They also get scraps at dinner time, but that's after they've eaten their feed and foraged all day.

Could you please give me a ratio that you follow please?

 

[Acre4Me]

Could you please give me a ratio that you follow please?

That poster hasn’t been on since January. You can click on a posters name to see when last on. Try searching this forum for homemade feed-there have been several posts with formulas in the past.

 

[user581227]

I don’t make my feed homemade, but I use my layer crumbles and mix in the DE and oyster shell, I also use whole oat, and black sunflower seed. But I rely heavily on the store bought layer crumbled because it is formulated for everything my babies need. I also like to offer scratch, fresh fruit/veggies, and boonworms. These girls are spoiled rotten idk if you can see everything in their bowl, but 4 of them heard me in the coop one morning and were fighting to get out and see what I had! Excuse the poo as you all know, with more than half a dozen birds, it gets messy FAST!