HOW TO FEED YOUR CHICKENS if there is no scratch or pellets?

[eastereggfan]

I am interested in this topic also and will definitely follow. My husband went to tractor supply and they had no pine shavings. I may need to rethink that as well. We did find some at another TS store. but what happens when there is none. I do grow things for my chickens. I grow sunflowers, but need to plant a lot more. Also kale, pumpkins, squash and herbs. I utilize my greenhouse in winter. I like the composting idea as well. My chickens dont free range but they might have to in the near future. Can someone give a more indepth, on how and more what to put in your compost.
thank you

Is it possible to use shredded paper as litter in the coop? I've also read sand is good.

 

[U_Stormcrow]

Is it possible to use shredded paper as litter in the coop? I've also read sand is good.

Sand either really works, or really doesn't. Depending in no small part on your climate and your coop design, but also on the sand being used.

I have too much clay in my soils, and an inch+ of rainfall weekly (on average) - so my sand packs hard, then stinks when wet. My ducks don't aid the situation. I don't use it in the coop. Other with much drier environments, and more coarse sands, are able to use it much like a cat litter box, scooping or raking the droppings periodically.

I haven't any experience with shredded paper, but suspect it will have a tendency to mat down, which is a negative if you deep litter (as I do).

 

[Brigitt]

This is a great thread. In my rural area the availability of the most balanced chicken feed I can find is fluctuating significantly. I do not like to store feed too long because of mold due in our humid climate (summer and winter the humidity is quite high).
So to continue having 20-50 chickens I need a back up food supply that is convenient, healthy and independent.

same problem here
Cajanus cajan might take care of 10-15% of the feed, Gandul called in Mexico, or here kumanda yvyra'i which survived the last extreme dry spell (climate also being a more and more uncertain criteria in growing food)

Kumanda yvyra'i​

 

[Doodle doodle]

I've been thinking about this lately as I have been having trouble finding cat food occasionally. I think it's a great topic.

I was thinking of a small fodder system but not sure what to grow.

We got winter wheat, which the hens love and I use a large plastic container to cover a layer of the seeds with water and put in a sunny place checking the seeds are moist every day and we get a good return with the smaller containers and they are easier to handle when moving as well as easy to keep in your kitchen window.

 

[Brigitt]

I am practicing it for a few years now. The local dry fish shop sells the scraps, we get corn grounded in the neighborhood mill. Of course kitchen vegetable scrap and sweet potato leaves from the garden act as fillers. For calcium supplement, Lime powder is mixed with water and left to settle, daily add a handful of water to the chicken drinker.

I'm interested in the lime-part of your post. Could you specify what kind of lime this is: the one to paint with or agricultural lime? I'm always looking for surplus calcium apart from saved eggshells, which is not available here. Right now I'm grinding up cow's bones which I found by the roadside. Sorry for going offtopic...

 

[LisaVMN13]

I recently stocked up on pellets and that should last me a few months. As for falling back after a grain outage, it will likely be birdseed and local plant fiber mixed in to make what ever I have last longer (in hopes that grain comes back to normal). Then if things get really bad, culling to make sure they don't suffer.

I really need to start turning my property into farmland. Currently have ~3 acres of land that gets good sun and is currently just grass. About .5 acres is over a septic leach field which would be a prime plot to grow chicken feed as the area wouldn't be good for human-consumed food anyway.

We placed double raised beds over our leach field as that is basically our only open sunny spot. Roots never get down to the drainage area. Going to use grow bags along driveway to grow amaranth, sunflowers, etc. Started watching videos too! Edible Acres has some good ideas on gardening with chickens.

 

[Tennessee Great Granny]

With the current events and talk of no fertilizer. The fear of losing animal feed is real. So I've been researching going through all of my homesteading books trying to find ways to feed my chickens and keep them healthy and producing with no layer pellets and no grains. I have found a few amazing videos as well, on composting with chickens which I've been doing since I've got my chickens. (Last spring) That was one reason I was really thrilled to have my own so I didn't have to go to my friend's house and beg poop from them.

What I'm finding is that composting and letting your chickens pick through compost, they eat the bugs they turn the compost and they leave their own little nuggets of nutrients behind. Is an excellent way to grow my crops.
Also there are crops you can grow just to feed your chickens which I was doing last year to supplement but now know, that there are ways to feed and I don't have to grow an entire crop of corn for the girls, which I have been failing miserably at, just trying to grow for our own table.
Hoping that my chicken poop would help me yield a better crop of corn for our family plus all my other veggies. But I do not have to grow another crop just for my chickens?
Which I just do not have the room.

So I thought I would start sharing some of the things that I am learning on how to feed your girls and boys, if there is no rural King to supply you with your chicken feed.
Anyone else interested in this? Anyone else have their own advice to give an ideas to share? I'd be happy to hear.
Just for fun, this is fluffy. Who's not so fluffy at the moment. She's molting. Lol

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.

 

[Gammas Bearded Babies]

There is a book available , " Feeds and Feeding " by Frank Morrison that will cover the needs of many live stock categories . It is a compilation of information from the land grant universities in the U.S.A. Something it probably won't mention is table scraps .

Great thank u!

 

[Yvette In California]

This is a great question and honestly my son's GF mentioned her concern about this a couple of weeks ago. I've been trying to be strategic about what we're stocking up on.

One thing that came to mind that is worth sharing comes from before I actually had my own flock. Yes, it was the "inspiration flock" that I'm thinking about. My hubby and I went to an Air B&B several years ago in the central coast of California (we're in southern California). It was an eclectic place - actually converted/restored old Airstream trailers off the beaten path, overlooking hills and a lake, and it was pure heaven for us. The host had a huge chicken enclosure, and we loved the fresh eggs for our breakfasts. To be honest, I never once saw chicken feed there - but admittedly I wasn't looking for it. What I did see, however, is that her husband went down to the local grocery store in the morning and picked up the produce that was going to be thrown out. He'd arranged this with them, and they'd put several boxes of what wasn't ok for being sold or attractive, but was still completely edible. He'd feed that to the girls and they loved it, and it was clear they were all insanely healthy. No scraps were left behind.

This could be a good solution for those of you that aren't super remote. Though I am in a housing tract, my entire front yard is a victory garden and since having the girls, I'm trying to be even more deliberate about what I'm growing so that it supports their livelihood, too. It's a work in progress, but every bit counts. I want to hit up our local market and see if they'd do this with me, though.

Thank you everyone for the fantastic information and wisdom you all share. I'm super grateful.

 

[EliteTempleton]

I recently got feeder pigs for the first time. They came early with only a weeks notice to us so I just filled the feeder with farm store starter. Called a feed mill about ordering 1,000+ lbs of feed I could put in steel barrels and keep dry, learned that it will go stale and they won't eat it so we shouldn't get more than a months supply at a time. Dang it. I thought it was just about humidity which I have a good spot to solve that issue. But it makes sense it's more that feed is after the seeds (whole corn being seed) so the nutrient protective hills are crushed and that stale clock starts. Now we know why our grand parents all had home mills and such. Hope the chickens are less picky because I started a new flock after being out of it for a few years and bought 3 months of starter and a bag of layer when I got them last month. At least the pellets last longer than the crushed they're pecking on now.

Also realized to have a catfish in the little pond you'd have to feed that too vs something like the minnows you mentioned might live off algae and mesquito larve.

Going to be an interesting year...