I want to buy some bulk grains at the grocery store for this winter.

[janelle18]

We feed all our chickens a mix of feed. We feed them pullet layer feed from the feed store. Then mix in millet, cracked corn and wheat in with the grain and feed that to them. My girls recently started laying so i gave them a little container of oyster shells and they gobbled them up right away, the roosters included! I wanted to make sure there eggs shells were hard enough, but today I ate my first eggs from the new layers and the shells were SO HARD. So i think they must be getting plenty of calcium from their feed. For some strange reason i had it in my head that sunflower seeds were bad, but now that i know differently I am going to include it in the mix!!!

 

[evam]

Yes, they can eat it. Not too much, though. Here's what the University of Kentucky has to say: Sorghum (Sorghum bicolor) is similar in composition to corn...

Thank you! That is an excellent resource!

 

[ChickensAreSweet]

It is cheaper to just buy organic feed at the feed store than it is for me to mix in all my grains/seeds in with my organic feed that I buy.

However, if I am going to pay shipping costs on the organic feed, then it probably would be cheaper to continue buying my "base" of organic chick starter and mixing my grains/seeds in. But please keep in mind that the only organic thing I mix in is organic corn. All other ingredients are conventionally grown.

IF all my ingredients were organic that I was mixing in, I don't know which would be cheaper.

I mix rolled oats, rolled barley, millet, black oil sunflower seeds, split peas (Austrian peas currently but not a repeat), wheat, and organic cracked corn. I also add grit and oyster shell to their diet. I use a base of organic chick starter (20% protein) and bring the protein level down to around 15% with all my add-ons.

My feeling is that it is quite a commitment to mix your own feed, and generally most people will benefit from buying bagged feed. Thus, you are rendering a nice service!

Do any of you have opinions (good or bad) about ordering organic feed online? Second question... is it a money-saving exercise to make your own organic feed, or is it less expensive in the end just to buy it?

I'm curious because I have a small website focused on do-it-yourself chicken topics. We started out selling DIY chicken coop plans. And recently, we started shipping organic feed to our customers because many could not find organic chicken feed locally.

Part of me thinks the right approach is to teach customers about making their own feed like we do with chicken coops... but I am not sure if the juice is worth the squeeze

Thanks in advance for your opinions!
Rich

 

[ChickensAreSweet]

They will grab screws right out of your hand too, as you try to assemble something with your screwdriver in the chicken yard!

Unfortunately i smoke and one of my chicken snatched a ciggy out of my hand so quick, i had to chase her, i managed to get it, very very lucky. Now i am very careful

 

[aoxa]

They will grab screws right out of your hand too, as you try to assemble something with your screwdriver in the chicken yard! 

Savages, aren't they?

I once dropped an elastic that I use to tie up my hair. They played keep away for a good 10 minutes before I got it back.. I have very long hair, and I needed it

 

[chick-n-pigs]

They will grab screws right out of your hand too, as you try to assemble something with your screwdriver in the chicken yard!

I had this happen with a short pencil that I was using to mark measurements during the final coop construction "punch list". The "bossy" one (Amelia) grabbed it by the eraser end and was very proud of herself for making me chase her around the run for a good game of "keep away from the human". When I was done, I was laughing and I got a little bit of a workout as well. Boy are they fun!

 

[n8ivetxn]

funny stories! (and good info!)

 

[countrygoddess]

What grains do you feed and do you ferment, sprout or just feed them straight as they are? Right now I am feeding whole foods for my chickens and they are doing well with it. I am very fed up with the feeds that are available here since they seem to be nutritionally lacking.

I am going to be sprouting some grains but other than that my girls will primarily be eating whole foods the way that they were fed in the old days.

I feed oats, wheat, cracked corn, field peas, black oil sunflower seeds (in the shell), and sesame seeds, along with the supplements: fish meal, kelp meal, active yeast, vitamin/mineral supplement, calcium, and salt. For the winter I will be adding alfalfa meal. I ferment/sprout for 24 hours in a mixture of water/cultured milk (as often as I can afford it, I use raw milk--it's what my family drinks). I get my grains/seeds from Butterworks farm, up in the Kingdom. You know what I was thinking about today, Lily? How does one start a feed business? I know nothing about starting businesses, but I would love to be able to provide soy-free feed in Vermont.

 

[ChickensAreSweet]

Quote: What kind of calcium do you use and where can you buy it? I would like an alternative to oyster shell one day, I think.

 

[cheeka]

I use spinach and carrots to supplement the calcium along with oyster shell... carrots have 4x the calcium of a glass of milk (for example, not that I give milk to chickens...) and spinach has 10x... good stuff, and they like it.