How to save money on chicken feed?

[Chicks and Bees]

anyone near Harrisburg want to go in on buying feed? or tracking down somewhere with wholesale?

 

[BirdsOfAnarchy]

anyone near Harrisburg want to go in on buying feed? or tracking down somewhere with wholesale?

You might have better luck posting here:

https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/248345/pennsylvania-unite/30#post_3129003

 

[Chicks and Bees]

anyone live in Harrisburg to share feed?

 

[BirdsOfAnarchy]

anyone live in Harrisburg to share feed?

Did you check out the link I posted for pennsylvania residents? That might be of some help to you.

 

[Davaroo]

Be wary of "free ranging" as a sole source of nutrition. Many people have the old, flawed notion that chickens can just fend for themselves. Turn them suckers loose and forget about them. To a degree this is so, but it is also lacking in a couple of crucial ways.
- forage foods are seasonal. In spring everything is green, jumping and yummy. But by summer things are picked over, dried out and toughened up.
- while chickens are out roaming, eyes are on them... Predators.
It's best to keep range foraging to a managed plot of sown plantings: deer forage, clover, vetch, greens beets, kale, etc. Rotate them around in a kind modified pasturing plan, and let them out to aimlessly roam under your supervision. Remain watchful for the preds.

Meanwhile, continue to feed them morning and evening, what they can clean up in 15 minutes. A feeding of dampened mash or grain as last meal will help them sleep, add weight and encourage them to get to roost at the end of the day.

 

[heartsizedfarm]

Haven't read the whole thread so someone else may have suggested this, apologies. But it's very inexpensive to plant food for chickens. I use animal water tanks that have become too leaky over time for their original purpose, put then by the coop, fill them with old bedding then a few inches of topsoil or good broken down compost, then plant them with seeds.

I try to keep the veg spread over the season so in one tank I would mix parsley, beans, lettuce, cherry tomatoes, kale, borage, corn, squash. Each seed packet cost $2 but provides a huge amount of chicken feed and entertainment, even if they eat it before its time.

 

[oldnewtimer]

I don't know if this aids anyone but my hens eat whatever there given.. I don't like to see any food go to waste and I like to save a few quid along the way,
Stale bread,
Veg peelings,
Old fruit,
Duckweed,
Weeds/grass cuttings,
Leftover food,
I feed all of my girls on this kinda stuff, however I refuse to give them meat, I don't know if other people feel the same but I just don't thinks it's right!
If you can, ask your family and friends to save there peelings and left overs!
I am lucky in the respect that I have a friend who can get me my chicken feed cheap but there are so many ways to keep your animal food bills down! Most pellets have a grit built in to aid the chickens digestion, but if they don't, use your egg shells from your eggs and crush them up to make grit! It's cheaper than buying grit and so they say it puts in more nutrients to the hens and there eggs! Just sit and have a think about what you can feed your chickens and you'll save money! What is there to loose? And if your unsure on anything there's hundreds of us on here who can give you a yes and no as to wether it's edible or not! Good luck!!!

 

[cibula11]

Us too. Why no meat? I certainly don't feed them a lot, but every once in awhile there will be a couple bits of leftover hamburger from our kids and they gobble it right up. Now chicken...that's a different story. I can't get myself to do that. Chickens are omnivores and while they won't kill a cow and eat it, you better believe if they came across something dead or meat in the wild free for taking, they'd eat it.

 

[oldnewtimer]

Well like I say some people might think differently as you obviously do. I couldn't agree more that they'd pick on Anything in the wild but I just don't feed mymgirks meat

 

[fleedo]

you could try fermenting the chicken food
http://blueyurtfarms.com/fermenting-your-chicken-food-101/
a good link with good info

or you could start a sprouting fodder system
http://fmicrofarm.com/diyprojects/
this is a good link too