There's a used book from back in the mid 70's called Grow It! by Richard W Langer. I've had two copies now because I literally wore the first one out. This has a recipe for chicken feeds, but they still take grains people have to buy. Chickens are resourceful just not completely self sufficient. If you can't get premade chicken feed there are recipes for making it so it is well balanced in nutrition. The book is a real back to basics old style of farming. Since my mom was a farmers daughter she knew most of these old time ways of making do. In 3rd world nations I saw a guy take his newborn chicks and fed them chopped up canned corn and tiny minced leafy greens and something that looked like dead bugs in a can that he chopped up. I can't read anything but English and it may have been some sort of strange looking vegetation but I'll never know. I think if I was in a situation where I could not get any feed that I would feed them split peas or corn or chopped up veggies, and there seems to be tons of pesky bugs around here that I am sure they wouldn't lack for protein. If push came to shove with not much for resources they could wind up in a cooking pot themself. Growing sunflower seeds can be an awesome treat but it'd take a few acres to feed a good sized flock for the long term. Mom used to grow them for a tasty snack for her chickens, but not as a full meal deal. She'd also grow pea vines around the coop so they could pick at them. I'm growing trumpet vines because I love them and they are not toxic to chickens. I want to have a worm farm but what the worms eat can also be additional nutrition for chickens. So maybe no worms. The other day I saw a video on youtube where a gal gave the recipe for scratch grains and it made months of feed at a lower cost. She used 50 pounds of corn (calories) 50 pounds of red wheat ( white if red is not available) and 50 pound of oats (minerals) and added a third of a 50 pound bag of soybean meal for the extra proteins. This is a 30-35% protein mix and good for egg layers. Adding beans and peas helps add proteins too if you have it. Just before feeding she'd mix this with a little bit of black-strap molasses if they needed a quick boost to their nutrition. When feeding smaller chicks she cracked the corn herself. She said oyster shells supplements calcium and should be available at all times. If there is a rooster they don't need as much calcium so separate calcium makes it available as needed for those who do. A small amount of extra corn is okay for helping chickens stay warmer in winter months. And also adding black sunflower seeds (for proteins) and flax for minerals is good but harder to get in large quantities Another recipe (the analysis of it shows it is higher in proteins too): 1. 2 (40 lb) bags of black oil sunflower seeds 2. 2 (40 lb) bags of whole corn 3. 2 (40 lb) bags of whole oats 4. 10 lbs whole flax seed 5. 10 lbs white millet Protein Analysis: Black Oil Sunflower Seeds - 26% protein (40 lbs = 10.4% protein) Whole Corn - 9% protein (40 lbs = 3.6% protein) Whole Oats - 15% protein (40 lbs = 6% protein) Flax Seed - 37% protein (5 lbs = 1.85% protein) Millet - 9% protein (5 lbs = .45% protein) =22.3% protein. Both of these recipes are good for increasing egg production, but the first recipes has the highest amount of available proteins and it is just as cheap if not less than bulk feeds except it has more nutrition.
