Homemade feed: what portion of each ingredient

[ChickenCanoe]

I considered it years ago but to do so properly was prohibitively expensive.
I do tinker some like adding fishmeal for chicks, increasing grain content for roosters and even doing a blend of all flock, grain and milk for finishing cockerels for slaughter.

 

[annageckos]

I do not currently have chickens, nor have I ever made homemade chicken food. But I've been raw feeding my carnivores for over a decade, probably coming up onto two now. I've also made rodent food and parrot food. I've gotten the 'you can't do it', 'you don't know what to do', 'you'll harm/kill your animals' and a lot more. I will say that feeding carnivores is a lot more straight forward than feeding omnivores or herbivores. I manage to feed myself without nutritional deficiencies just fine.

It is easier to just buy commercial feed, and sometimes cheaper. If you are set on homemade food do a lot of research, learn what your birds need and in what percentage. Learn about the nutritional makeup of different foods. Not all foods are equal even if the percent of a given nutrient is the same. Remember that chickens are not vegetarians, they need complete protein. And while you can get away with the right mix of plants for it IMO it is not the same. Add some animal and/or insect protein into your mix. Depending on the number of birds you have this could be pretty easy or take a lot more work. Ex, I have omnivore reptiles so I raise my own feeder insects for them. It is super simple, but if I had to upscale it, it could end up taking up a lot of time and space.

People tend to over complicate feeding and nutrition. It is doable, but takes some research. I'm still reading up on nutrition and learning new things. Sometimes I try something that doesn't work, so I change it. Sometimes I learn that something isn't necessary. I do have a theory too about feeding animals. I think sticking more closely to the recommended percentages is more important for high production breeds of animals. Their bodies are on the verge of some key nutrients due to using them them in making whatever it is. I don't know if this is true, but it makes sense to me. Maybe on a homemade diet your birds will produce a few less eggs or grow a little more slowly. Maybe not.

I'm not sure where I am going with all this, I just wanted to jump in seeing all the negatives I see about making homemade diets. It is possible, it's a matter of if it is something you are willing to put the time and money in to.

 

[StaffordshireLady]

I wasn't asking what ingredients to use I was asking HOW MUCH OF EACH INGREDIENT. Also if I should include anything else in addition to what I already have listed. And besides: If I knew enough about the subject I wouldn't be asking. Did you even READ what I was asking?

Lets stay nice.

 

[ChickenCanoe]

I do not currently have chickens, nor have I ever made homemade chicken food. But I've been raw feeding my carnivores for over a decade, probably coming up onto two now. I've also made rodent food and parrot food. I've gotten the 'you can't do it', 'you don't know what to do', 'you'll harm/kill your animals' and a lot more. I will say that feeding carnivores is a lot more straight forward than feeding omnivores or herbivores. I manage to feed myself without nutritional deficiencies just fine.

It is easier to just buy commercial feed, and sometimes cheaper. If you are set on homemade food do a lot of research, learn what your birds need and in what percentage. Learn about the nutritional makeup of different foods. Not all foods are equal even if the percent of a given nutrient is the same. Remember that chickens are not vegetarians, they need complete protein. And while you can get away with the right mix of plants for it IMO it is not the same. Add some animal and/or insect protein into your mix. Depending on the number of birds you have this could be pretty easy or take a lot more work. Ex, I have omnivore reptiles so I raise my own feeder insects for them. It is super simple, but if I had to upscale it, it could end up taking up a lot of time and space.

People tend to over complicate feeding and nutrition. It is doable, but takes some research. I'm still reading up on nutrition and learning new things. Sometimes I try something that doesn't work, so I change it. Sometimes I learn that something isn't necessary. I do have a theory too about feeding animals. I think sticking more closely to the recommended percentages is more important for high production breeds of animals. Their bodies are on the verge of some key nutrients due to using them them in making whatever it is. I don't know if this is true, but it makes sense to me. Maybe on a homemade diet your birds will produce a few less eggs or grow a little more slowly. Maybe not.

I'm not sure where I am going with all this, I just wanted to jump in seeing all the negatives I see about making homemade diets. It is possible, it's a matter of if it is something you are willing to put the time and money in to.

Very well said.
I just think most people won't take the time to do the research. As noted, it isn't as simple as 10 lbs. of this, 3 lbs. of that and 1 lb of the other. Not only would a grain/legume diet be deficient in some amino acids, Vitamin, mineral, fat and fiber content needs to be specific for growth, production, and immunity in poultry and normally need to be added as supplements.

One of the main things that impacts cost for the home producer is the economy of scale. The home producer would be buying vitamins and minerals by the pound while feed companies are buying by the ton. We would buy grains and legumes by the 50# bag while feed mills are buying by the trainload.
In addition, buying vitamin supplements to add to a feed mix lose potency quickly.
Small feed mills I know have ceased making their own feed because the supplements go bad before they can be used. If a feed mill can't make the feed in a timely manner, I doubt an individual without a proper hammer mill, mixer and an assay lab could do any better for less.

As you said, feeding raw to carnivores is a much simpler process. A friend of mine has been feeding raw to carnivores for decades as well.
I worked doing maintenance, feeding and caring for a scarlet and great green macaw breeding program. The biologists in charge of the program would have much preferred a pelleted feed but we had to scrape together things that would provide the correct nutrition. It was a daunting and time consuming process to feed 400 of these avian giants. We would buy fruits, vegetable, and root crops cheaply on the brink of spoilage at the market. Supplemented with gallo pinto (cooked rice, beans) and a vitamin and mineral blend meant over 25 man hours each day just to prepare the food.
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On the OP's list was whole black oil sunflower seed. While it has a fairly good amino acid profile, it is way too high in fiber. Chickens need about 5% fiber. BOSS contains over 20% fiber. The 18% protein and 30% fat are absorbed by and used to process the fiber. Whole oats is also mentioned. They are to be avoided since they are over 10% fiber.
The OP has 25 chickens. I don't think that is enough to use the Nutri balancer before the vitamins are lost in it. Nutri balancer comes in 60# bags that is to be mixed with a ton of grains/legumes. That's another $75 added to the price of the grains and any sources of protein. I don't see 25 chickens eating a ton of grain within 6 months.

 

[Shadrach]

I wasn't asking what ingredients to use I was asking HOW MUCH OF EACH INGREDIENT. Also if I should include anything else in addition to what I already have listed. And besides: If I knew enough about the subject I wouldn't be asking. Did you even READ what I was asking?

I did read your post. It's why I wrote the response I did.
If you had posted as an example, I want to supply these amino acids in these proportions and listed between 7 and 11 amino acids and asked what would supply them, and then listed the proportion of fat, salt, calcium vitamins and minerals you were thinking of giving then I might have answered differently.
It seems to me you have read a list of ingredients from somewhere and decided this is what you need, but don't know why.
If you post on any forum, more or less, you will get a range of opinions and statements about what people feed their chickens and you will be assured that it's fine. Most of these cobbled together recipes are not fine, but you don't find out until your chickens are sick.
I am trying to save you a lot of wasted time, money and hopefully your chickens health, with this advice, buy a good quality commercial feed and supplement with some fish, or meat which have all the essential nutrients for your chickens health.

 

[Rooapalooza]

How do people who are totally self-sufficient feed their chickens though? Surely in the past, chickens ate whatever was grown on the farm?

 

[annageckos]

How do people who are totally self-sufficient feed their chickens though? Surely in the past, chickens ate whatever was grown on the farm?

I'm going to assume that most of these chickens had a large area to range over. More access to bugs and other natural foods. Birds had more land to find the food they needed, supplemented with whole foods(table scraps). Things today are also geared towards the most efficient and quickest. Look at cornish X and egg hybrids. This is really just my best guess as I haven't looked into it.

 

[Shadrach]

How do people who are totally self-sufficient feed their chickens though? Surely in the past, chickens ate whatever was grown on the farm?

I think for most their chickens free ranged in the past. This makes an enormous difference. A correct and balanced diet becomes less important if a chicken has access to forage. Often even poor forage will supple what the scraps and local crops don't.
Feed composition becomes critical for chickens kept in coops and runs. Many where I live don't feed their chickens commercial feed but allow them to roam over a number of acres of mixed woodland and grass.

 

[21hens-incharge]

Not to mention being self sufficient also means harvesting the animals while fairly young.....young enough that they are not ill.

 

[Kusanar]

How do people who are totally self-sufficient feed their chickens though? Surely in the past, chickens ate whatever was grown on the farm?

As well as the other 2 answers you have gotten, have you ever kicked over a pile of manure that a horse or cow has made? They are almost always full of bugs of all sorts. If you don't feed horses a pelleted feed, a good bit of the feed comes out the other end and chickens will scratch through the manure and collect all of the grains and bugs that they find there. They also graze a very little and will collect random herbs and stuff as they go looking for food. If given a wide variety, an active animal will typically eat what it needs (as opposed to a caged one who will sort through a feed bowl and pick what it WANTS rather than what it needs).

Plus, on a typical self sustaining farm, you will have veggies and fruit that were grown that got bugs or rotted either in the field or in storage. Those go to the animals if they are of no use to the humans. Also, chickens likely go through the gut piles left when animals are processed for dinner which would supply more protein mostly in the fall and winter when bugs would be scarce.