Homemade organic feed?

[Little-Farmer]

Ok all, I'm on a mission!

I need organic feed. It's a necessity for us. But it's costing me a fortune to ship bags of organic turkey starter feed in because no around me sells it. I'm paying over $70 with shipping for a 40lb. bag. (Gasp!) That's not including adding the quinoa and chia seed to bring up the protein from 26% to 28-30%! My birds are laying like crazy right now but considering I have no idea how to proportion this stuff, I may be feeding them 45% protein for all I know!

So here's what I"m thinking. I've seen organic chicken feed at the store. It is possible to supplement quinoa, flax seed, chia seed etc. to make it the right nutrients for my quail that would be cheaper?

Please don't just tell me yes. I'm a "follow the recipe to a tea" kinda gal. If you know how to do this can you give me an idea of the amounts so I know what to do.

I know there are way to add protein through things like bug and meal worms but I have no idea how much of anything. Is it once a month? Once a day?!

There's gotta be a cheaper way!

Thanks for your HELP.

 

[dc3085]

That high of protein can kill them, which sort of lends credit to my opinion on the subject.

Considering all that goes into miling feed for proper vitamin/mineral/protein distribution youre only real option is finding a mill and either ordering by their minimum quanitity or starting a co-op with others in your area. My opinion on the subject isnt very popular but its hard to fault, a person at their home cannot properly "make" feed for their birds. First is that at home how would you calculate the actual percentages of your feed? And how would you test it to verify the accuracy of those percentages? The hardest part though is theyre very picky eaters, they will eat the most of what they like and will ignore things that they dont, so youd have to find a way to perfectly mix your feed the way crumbles are so the birds are actually get the nutrition they need. Uniform distribution of vitamins and minerals is pretty much impossible to achieve without a milled crumble or pellet.

If you search there are many threads where people swear theyll accomplish formulating their own feed successfully (many of them telling me where to get off for my opinion), but the fact remains that those threads are all dead with nary a success story to them.

 

[Little-Farmer]

Ok. Mission aborted.

This is what I figured all along. I thought it was more than just protein that made their diet different from chickens. Thanks for your thoughts.

But are you saying I'm giving them too much protein right now?? I'm using ranchway turkey starter feed at 26% protein. From what I've read, it's not enough. So I was adding chia seed and quinoa to their feed to bring it up to 28-30% but I don't have any idea how much I'm raising it. I also add grit and oyster shell.

My hens are laying like crazy right now. We've gotten up to 11 eggs in 24 hours with our 8 hens. Their food is the only thing I can see that could be impacting their laying habits.