Making Homemade Scratch?

[MareeZoCool]

My hen's fave treat is an ear of corn, the complete ear,(after cooking) no salt, no butter, she's VERY SPOILED! She cleans that cob better than any person can! ~ ~ faster too, depending on her appetite.
Raw oatmeal really gets her cooing that satisfied hen's "purr" Homemade mac 'n cheese, even my roo gobbles those noodles.

 

[fiberart57]

My recipe for scratch is one part race horse oats, one part hard wheat, and 1/2 part BOSS. In the winter I mix in a little cracked corn for them but corn isn't really good for them and now that it's getting hot outside, I'll take the corn out. Besides one of the ingredients in their feed is corn.

It's a good, healthy recipe and I give about one cup shared between six standards before they go to roost so they have a full crop. Once and a while they'll get a little handful of a safflower seed/ sunflower chip mix. The BOSS in the scratch has the shells, the safflower/sunflower mix doesn't.

Mary

 

[eagleriver24]

Feed them Barley. We buy it for .12 per pound and the hens love it. Plus it makes the eggs taste a lot better. Your feed costs will go down by almost half if you have a barley out for them at all times.

 

[A.T. Hagan]

Scatch can be just about anything you can throw down for the birds to scratch for.

I use two parts whole corn, 1 part feed wheat, and one-half part of alfalfa pellets myself.

.....Alan.

 

[jojo54]

I got grain from the grain elevator near my parents in Sask. I shovelled up the grain that was on the ground that got spilled loading and unloading. It was a mixture of grains. I also dried corn that I picked from the neighbour who had too much and it was too overripe to eat. I dried it on the cobs and then rubbed off the kernels. I was also given some BOSS mix that someones birds don't like. So the girls have a variety of stuff that was all FREE!

 

[cococrisp]

Quote:
Where can you get barley for .12/pound?

 

[Chris09]

Barley is not all that good for poultry used to produce eggs a far better grain would be Wheat..

This is a Quote from--
POULTRY FOODS AND FEEDING By DUNCAN FORBES LAURIE

Barley is generally lower in protein than wheat,
but the starch content is about equal to that of an average
soft wheat. The fat content is low, and there is, in most
samples, a high percentage of fibre, which is indigestible
and of little food value to poultry. Wheat and rye
kernels have smooth, thin skins, or outer coats, but
barley kernels are enclosed in hard fibrous sheaths mainly cellulose..
As regards cost barley is a cheap food in most countries.
It is not a good egg-producing food, but is largely used
in fatting poultry. It may be given as a change of
food, and with advantage in cold weather. The mineral
content is low and, as in other cereals, is acid.

Wheat.—I have always regarded wheat as the best
staple grain food for poultry. In many countries maize
(com), rye, oats, and barley are chiefly used, as they
are often cheaper than wheat. The value of wheat,
however, is now more generally recognised, and, where
egg production is the main object, it is undoubtedly of
first importance.


Chris

 

[eagleriver24]

We have a local farmer here in Palmer, AK that grows the barley and sells it from his house. I mix if with 20% layer and the hens have been doing fine. I switched them over a few months ago and haven't noticed any changes in egg production. I have friends that feed their hens straight barley and get decent egg production.

 

[hoppy]

Quote:
skip the raisins if you have dogs. they can kill your dog if the chickens miss them (same with grapes because dried grapes become raisins and grapes could be toxic)

 

[bosoxbratt]

What exactly is BOSS? I have seen it on here several times and was just curious as we are fairly new to the chicks

How do you know how much to mix of different ingredients together? like i read you can give the chicks bird seed and corn and pretty much anything does that mean just to toss them what ever you have on hand as a treat? Can they over eat? TY