How to feed my chickens on a budget? Issues with roosters?

[Chelsa'sChicks]

I have 18 chickens, but I safe a lot of money by free ranging them. They have access to foliage and bugs. I offer them their egg shells crushed and will fry them up an egg if I have too many. The only things I buy are seeds and meal worms as treats and crushed corn as a daily. I spend around $50.00 a month on food, but the 50 lb bag of corn lasts longer. I also save money by giving them anything they can have out of my kitchen as a "treat". I picked tomatoes and cucumbers from the garden and they got the insides and seeds, old bread, left over spaghetti, old lettuce, etc. I have also gotten older food items from friends/family cause they know I have chickens who will devour it.

 

[333113]

This reminds me of the French village of Pince and how some years back they gave a free chicken to each household in order to reduce their garbage bills. Evidently it worked, and some households moved up to 2 chickens.

Edited to add, my friend has three backyard chickens in a nearby suburb, and has modified her coop so that her compost pile is part of their "range." All her yard clippings and garden trimmings go into the compost along with food scraps. She kept a bale of straw to cover over in early days, but now uses straw in the compost pile only occasionally in the winter.

I have 18 chickens, but I safe a lot of money by free ranging them. They have access to foliage and bugs. I offer them their egg shells crushed and will fry them up an egg if I have too many. The only things I buy are seeds and meal worms as treats and crushed corn as a daily. I spend around $50.00 a month on food, but the 50 lb bag of corn lasts longer. I also save money by giving them anything they can have out of my kitchen as a "treat". I picked tomatoes and cucumbers from the garden and they got the insides and seeds, old bread, left over spaghetti, old lettuce, etc. I have also gotten older food items from friends/family cause they know I have chickens who will devour it.

 

[Ladies-Eight]

There are excellent tutorials on the internet on raising black soldier flies, and mealworms. I knew a woman who raised mealworms in relatively shallow bins, stacked, and raise a LOT of them, for hedgehogs. They were in her (clean) basement. Excellent protein. Raised on bran?

I raise my own mealworms. I got a 10 gallon aquarium and started with a thousand worms that I bought. I them in bran and supplement them with carrots. Not hard to raise. It is fun to watch them.

 

[Kiwibird]

Barley and oats are the most affordable of the cover crops around here. I buy a 50 pound bag for $19-22. The seed grains have a tested sprout rate of 80-90 percent, as opposed to my experience with the whole feed grain of 40-45 percent. I use this to sprout for fodder, especially in the winter when there are few or no greens growing. This greatly amplifies the food value of the bag of grain. I grow my fodder in a cardboard box sitting on a metal tray (for support when I carry it), and put the entire box into the run. The cardboard disintegrates into the deep litter, and whatever doesn't disintegrate in the run I take out and add to the compost pile. I use half as much feed per bird in the winter as in the summer. I should do this all year, but I am usually too busy in the summer to set up and maintain the sprouting cycle.

@gtaus, cover crop oats may sprout better.

 

[Kiwibird]

A few people on the thread have said that their birds flick mash out of the feeder or pick through it, only eating what they like. Wetting the mash solves both of these problems, so if mash is cheaper where you live, that is another option.
I have found some helpful ideas on the thread. Thanks to all.