homemade feed and herb blend

[Kristinanne80]

I have been reading about the benefits feeding dried herbs. I was wondering at what age I can start to do this? I cant seem to find this info anywhere? the blend I believe I am going to do is:

2 part nettle
2 part alfalfa
2 part marjoram
1 part dandelion
1 part chickweed
1 part fennel seed
1/2 part minced garlic
1/2 part comfrey
4-5 cups per 10-12lbs of feed or 10 cups to 25 lbs feed. by volume

im also thinking of doing my own feed:

4 cup yellow split peas
4 cup barley feed
4 cup whole oat feed
1 cup flax seed
1 cup chia seed
1 cup kelp
I will prob grind this blend up a bit so they can eat it when they are so small.

and a sep. bowl kept out with oyster shell

is there any thing else you could recommend adding to these blends?

 

[TwoCrows]

Welcome to BYC!

Great that you want to make your own feed! I make my own as well and I can tell you that my birds are far more healthy now than they were on bagged feed. I experimented for one full year with all kinds of grains and seeds. Some mixes they refused to eat, others caused health issues, and others were too good and they stuffed themselves like pigs!

I not an expert on feeds, however from my own experimenting, I can tell you that you have too much of a few things, and not enough of others. For the herbs at the tops, that is way too much alfalfa. Too much fiber. I am not sure about fennel, but that may be too much for them as well. I think you have a great mix of herbs, but I would keep these down to about 2% of the feed mix. Not in weight, but volume.

As for the grains, Barley is hard to digest and the split peas will really slow the digestion down to a crawl to the point of slow crops. You can add these two things, but I would cut back on them a bit. I see you have no corn or wheat. Corn is a great carbohydrate that they can readily use in the body, and wheat is a great protein grain. If I were you, I would add some corn and wheat to the top of that list, being the higher percentage of grains, however if you don't want to use wheat or corn, you can use millet or milo for carbohydrates, hulled sunflower or even safflower seed for extra protein.

They are also going to need a supplement added to this mix for all those vitamins and minerals that they need for proper health, feather growth and egg laying. I use Calf Manna Performance pellets. You can get these at most feed stores and even walmart carries it. It has lots of protein and all the essential vitamins, minerals, fatty acids, amino acids and things that the birds will need.

You can even ferment your own grains too. I have never tried it, but it is a big hit in the Feeding and Watering your flock section here on BYC. You might want to do some posting in this section for more help on this subject....

https://www.backyardchickens.com/f/12/feeding-watering-your-flock

Good luck with your flock and feeding them! I certainly hope you continue on with feeding your flock with whole grains and herbs. They will really benefit from a holistic diet far better than bagged feed.

 

[Kristinanne80]

Thank you so much for your input im glad im sorting this all out before they get here lol.
would you mind sharing what your blends are for feed and herbs?

 

[TwoCrows]

My feed mix consists of:

Whole Wheat
Cracked Corn
Scratch
Steel Cut Oats
Hulled Sunflower Seed
Millet
Safflower Seed
Quinoa
Hog Feed Pellets
Alfalfa Pellets
Flax Seed
Alfalfa Pellets
Calf Manna Pellets
Ground Oyster Shell

This is my mix for layers . It comes to around 16% protein, and 3.5% calcium. Babies need a bit more protein and a lot less calcium. So you would need to adjust and figure out about 2% more protein and omit the oystershell completely. The Calf Manna Pellets have about 1% calcium and that is fine for babies.

The first 8 ingredients are added in about equal portions. I got some of this in the wild bird seed section, some of it at the feed store and the rest of it other areas of the stores. But it is all readily available. From the Flax seed on down, they are the least added products. The oyster shell is the only item that I always measure out exactly as I don't want any laying issues. (3 tablespoons ground Oyster Shell per 2 pounds of feed)

I used to grind all this up in a grain grinder for the birds. But I found that it was causing some of my birds intestinal distress because they all don't always need to eat the vitamin pellets, or maybe they don't need as much wheat as another bird, or maybe they need more carbohydrates one day and not the next. So I let them pick and choose. They will eat what they need out of the mix.

Sometimes I can't get some of these ingredients, but that is ok. They have been on this mix for quite a while now and are doing well on it.

 

[1muttsfan]

Hi and welcome to BYC from northern Michigan

It is extremely difficult to balance all the nutritional requirements of birds with a whole grain diet. Most are unbalanced in important nutrients such as protein, calcium and micronutrients. I would encourage you to do a lot of research before feeding a homemade diet. Many people combine a home mix with some formulated chicken feed to help provide a good diet.

 

[Kelsie2290]

Hello and Welcome To BYC!

 

[Kristinanne80]

I came across this site? Has anyone tried this recipie before? I may give it a shot. What are your thoughts. She also has a link to different dried/fresh herbs to add to the feed and what they are good for.
http://www.fresh-eggs-daily.com/2012/07/new-and-improved-breakfast-of-champion.html?m=1

 

[gander007]

 

[ChickensAreSweet]

I have been reading about the benefits feeding dried herbs. I was wondering at what age I can start to do this? I cant seem to find this info anywhere? the blend I believe I am going to do is:

2 part nettle
2 part alfalfa
2 part marjoram
1 part dandelion
1 part chickweed
1 part fennel seed
1/2 part minced garlic
1/2 part comfrey
4-5 cups per 10-12lbs of feed or 10 cups to 25 lbs feed. by volume

im also thinking of doing my own feed:

4 cup yellow split peas
4 cup barley feed
4 cup whole oat feed
1 cup flax seed

1 cup chia seed
1 cup kelp
I will prob grind this blend up a bit so they can eat it when they are so small.

and a sep. bowl kept out with oyster shell

is there any thing else you could recommend adding to these blends?

http://umm.edu/health/medical/altmed/herb/comfrey
http://livertox.nih.gov/Comfrey.htm
comfrey isn't good

Nettle can cause diarrhea (personal experience) and is a diuretic.

Alfalfa is good for chickens. Dandelion is good also.

Too much garlic and flax seed will make your eggs taste bad. I wouldn't go over about 4% of the feed in flax, personally. They aren't really wild about them anyway.

Too much barley and oats can lead to sticky droppings, so you want to keep an eye on that (esp. barley).
http://www2.ca.uky.edu/smallflocks/Nutrition-Barley.html

http://www2.ca.uky.edu/smallflocks/Nutrition.html

http://www.mofga.org/Publications/M...r/Summer2003/Chickens/tabid/1481/Default.aspx

Some of my fav. links for you!
http://www.lionsgrip.com/protein.html

 

[ChickensAreSweet]

So I would personally think about adding the following:
millet 11% protein (in birdseed)
organic cracked or whole corn 7-9% protein
wheat 12-14% protein
Black oil sun seeds 16% protein


Kelp is high in salt and you won't want to go over maybe 1% or so.
http://www.countrysideorganics.com/product-faqs/thorvin™-kelp/
1-2% of feed ration it says

You can add lentils in smallish quantities (more tannins than peas) but still OK raw.