Homemade Chicken Feed

[Cardi B]

I am thinking about creating my own chicken feed. Im not sure how sustainable it is but curious what others would think about it. First Off, I do not eat soy or corn for a lot of reasons so I don't really want to feed my animals corn or soy either. Here's my idea.

Rolled Oats
Ground Flax
Black Oil Sunflower seeds
Safflower seeds
Meal Worms or Black Soldier fly grubs

Plus all of our table scraps
thoughts?

 

[Weeg]

@U_Stormcrow
Hmm, so far I do not think that is a balanced diet. The member I tagged knows a lot about making chicken feed by hand. Remember in most cases, it is very difficult to formulate a diet that meets the needs of todays chickens. If you have access to a commercial feed, it will likely be more conventional and cost affective to purchase it.

 

[U_Stormcrow]

@U_Stormcrow
Hmm, so far I do not think that is a balanced diet. The member I tagged knows a lot about making chicken feed by hand. Remember in most cases, it is very difficult to formulate a diet that meets the needs of todays chickens. If you have access to a commercial feed, it will likely be more conventional and cost affective to purchase it.

^^^ Is correct.

The ingredients listed are good for creating poultry with pasty butts and fatty liver disease, not much else.

@Cardi B welcome to BYC. STRONGLY recommend you not begin your chicken keeping journey by trying to craft feed for them. Its relatively easy to find feed (albeit more expensive) which is corn-free. Its much more difficult to find soy-free feeds (though they are made and can be ordered online, or stocked in larger feed stores).

Corn is a bulk "filler", but a useful one - it provides needed energy and is somewhat deficient in almost everything a bird needs to thrive, but its not so deficient as to make compensating for its weaknesses particularly difficult. Its also very cheap (compared to many other grains). For that reason it serves, and has served, as the basis for many chicken feed recipes for decades, if not centuries.

Soy is a legume, and the commonly harvested legume whose amino acid profile is closest to what a chicken actually needs. Not only is it high protein, but its relatively high in methionine, the first limiting amino acid critical to poultry development and maintenance. Methionine is responsible for connective tissue development and a well functioning digestive system. Birds raised on lower levels will never reach their full potential. Absent Soy, your feed will need another methionine source - a legume like alfalfa meal is sometimes seen as substitute, meat proteins (menhaden fish meal, crab meal, porcine blood meal), and/or a synthetic source (appears as "dl-Methionine" on the feed label). Methionine is so important to poultry development, and good plant sources are so few, that synthetic Methionine is allowed to be added to certified "Organic" feeds. But the total amount of synthetic methionine that can be added is limited by law - and is not enough to reach optimum targets in most cases without either soy or an animal protein source.

Unfortunately, feed which is both soy-free and corn-free likely has a bunch of other trendy words associated with it - Organic, non-GMO, whole grain, vegetarian, etc - all of which, in combination, tend to result in a feed which is expensive, nutritionally deficient, and potentially problematic in feeding (many users of whole grain feeds complain that their chickens, in accordance with pecking order, pick out their "favorites" and leave the rest for flock mates lower on the proverbial ladder, further aggravating nutritional deficiencies). To say I am "not a fan" probably undersells my feeling s on the matter - though there are steps you can take to compensate in part.

Target numbers for most chickens, for most of their lives, are 18-20% protein, 3.5% fat +/-, 3.5% fiber +/-, .3-.5% Methionine (younger chickens need more), .65-1.1% Lysine (younger chickens need more), around 1.5% calcium (more for hens while laying, amounts vary by egg size and frequency), about .5-.6% non-phytate phosphorus.

Oats are low protein, high fiber, high fat. They contain large amounts of beta glucans, which slow digestion and contribute to pasty butt. Decent sources of Lysine and Threonine, low in Methione, a bit lacking in Tryptophan.

Flax is good protein, high fiber, and massive fat. Its amino acid profile is one of the best in the seed family. Unfortunately, its fat content is TEN TIMES the recommended level for poultry. Its about as healthy in quantity as you taking a multivitamin in a stick of butter each day.

Compared to flax, BOSS is lower protein, higher fiber, and even more massive fat. Its amino acid ratio is tolerable, but not superior in any fashion. Think of it as a generic multivitamin, served in deep fried butter.

Safflower seeds are more expensive than BOSS as they usually come dehulled, which lowers their fiber to more reasonable ranges. Their amino acid profile is across the board inferior to BOSS, though they have similar total protein levels, and their fat levels are (like flax) only about ten times the levels recommended for a healthy chicken.

BSFL. Dried or live? Live, they have good protein levels with an excellent AA balance, good fiber levels, and they are only 4-5x more fatty than recommended for a chicken. Dried, they have exceptional protein, but about 10x the desired fat content. Similar numbers with mealworms - useful, perhaps, in small quantity, but so nutritionally dense they easily imbalance a complete diet due to their fat content.

Without knowing your table scraps, I can't speak to their nutritonal values.

That's my off the cuff thoughts. Hope you find it helpful.

 

[Cardi B]

@U_Stormcrow
Thank you for your detailed message. I greatly appreciate your comments and knowledge.

Which feed do you think is appropriate for my needs? I will have meat chickens and layers and because I will be eating their bi-products, I can not have the soy or corn. Do you have a brand or suggestion?

Table scraps will be mostly vegetables if there are any left. Thanks

 

[U_Stormcrow]

@U_Stormcrow
Thank you for your detailed message. I greatly appreciate your comments and knowledge.

Which feed do you think is appropriate for my needs? I will have meat chickens and layers and because I will be eating their bi-products, I can not have the soy or corn. Do you have a brand or suggestion?

Table scraps will be mostly vegetables if there are any left. Thanks

The table scraps are fine. For the typical backyard owner, of the typical backyard flock, with typical backyard management practices, I recommend an all flock or flock raiser type crumble for all their birds, all the time, with free choice oyster shell and grit in separate containers. Which, unfortunately is hard to find with your other requirements.

Where are you located, you may have local options, apart from the national chain brands? How many birds do you intend to have? Will you have facilities to raise your eggers and meaties seperately (so they can be fed seperately?) or not?

 

[Sally PB]

Its about as healthy in quantity as you taking a multivitamin in a stick of butter each day.

Think of it as a generic multivitamin, served in deep fried butter.

Wow, this visual says it all.

 

[Weeg]

@U_Stormcrow
Thank you for your detailed message. I greatly appreciate your comments and knowledge.

Which feed do you think is appropriate for my needs? I will have meat chickens and layers and because I will be eating their bi-products, I can not have the soy or corn. Do you have a brand or suggestion?

Table scraps will be mostly vegetables if there are any left. Thanks

I like Scratch and Peck. Its a very quality brand without corn or soy, and its organic, and non-GMO. Do note that most of their feeds are whole grain like U_Stormcrow mentioned in his post. Their grub layer is a pelleted feed, but it wont be high enough protein for you meat birds.
You will have to soak the feed, or ferment it before feeding, or else they will pick through it and there will be a lot of waste. I would use the starter for the meat birds. Its 20% protein and you can feed that their whole lives.
To soak it, simply fill a bucket with feed, and add water and stir. Once the water is mixed with the feed, then fill it so theres about an inch of water on top of it. The next morning all or most of the water should be absorbed. You can feed them twice daily, and you'll figure out how much they eat as you go.

 

[Cardi B]

The table scraps are fine. For the typical backyard owner, of the typical backyard flock, with typical backyard management practices, I recommend an all flock or flock raiser type crumble for all their birds, all the time, with free choice oyster shell and grit in separate containers. Which, unfortunately is hard to find with your other requirements.

Where are you located, you may have local options, apart from the national chain brands? How many birds do you intend to have? Will you have facilities to raise your eggers and meaties seperately (so they can be fed seperately?) or not?

Thank you- Meat birds will be housed and raised separately from the layers. I will have about 10-12 layers and 70 meat birds in total this summer. The meat birds will be on grass in a large enclosure with grain and such. Do meat birds need grit too?

Layers have a large coop with a separate container of crumble and grit.

 

[JacinLarkwell]

Thank you- Meat birds will be housed and raised separately from the layers. I will have about 10-12 layers and 70 meat birds in total this summer. The meat birds will be on grass in a large enclosure with grain and such. Do meat birds need grit too?

Layers have a large coop with a separate container of crumble and grit.

All birds need grit if they eat something besides pellets or crumbles

 

[U_Stormcrow]

Thank you- Meat birds will be housed and raised separately from the layers. I will have about 10-12 layers and 70 meat birds in total this summer. The meat birds will be on grass in a large enclosure with grain and such. Do meat birds need grit too?

Layers have a large coop with a separate container of crumble and grit.

If the bird can eat greens, it needs grit - you don't want to see a crop full of impacted grass and no way to grind it up.

That does give you options. You can feed a higher protein feed to your meaties, to speed weight gain, and a lower protein feed to your layers, after they reach point of lay (if desired). Or you can keep them all on the same 18-20% protein all flock type feed. If you had lots of layers, and few meaties, it would probably be worth the cost savings to do seperate feeds. With mostly meaties and a dozen layers, probably not worth the hassle.

and @Weeg 's Scratch and Peck recomend isn't a bad one. They have corn-free, soy-free options, they are national in scope, stocked some places, can be ordered elsewhere, and are decent quality. Because most of their feeds are whole grain, you will want to soak them for hours to days before use, to help deter birds from picking favorites and leaving the rest for those lower in the pecking order. It is hard to find higher protein (20%+) Scratch and Peck options, but you might consider supplimenting their feed with a measured, SMALL amount of flax seed (not more than 10% by weight) - meaties can take a slightly higher fat diet, since they aren't intended to live long - the bet is that you gain more in table weight on average, and more rapid weight gain over all, than you lose to diet related morbidities. Targets for CX are 20-24% protein, with fat from 4-6.5%, as compared with 18-20%, 3.5% +/- (respectively) for the "typical" chicken.