Making my own chicken feed

[Atomiccarebear]

I've been looking up recipes for homemade chicken feed. I was wondering where to buy the ingredients. It all looks really expensive. Is there something I'm missing here? Has anyone found a cheaper way to make their own feed?

 

[UlmerChickens]

One Way of making your own nutritious feed is to grow fodder.
Another is to buy deer feed and crush it (perhaps in a nutribullet for chicks)
Also you can start a worm farm buy looking for worms in your garden or buying them pretty cheap online or at your local pet store
You can also crush eggshells very finely to give them a high calcium diet to enrich the quality of the eggs
Sunflower seeds are cheap (but make sure they're not salted or have any seasoning on them)
You can also ferment grains by soaking them

FEED RECIPE:
Dried mealworms
Crushed eggshells
Crushed corn
Dried Oats
Wheat
Flaxseed

This will not break the bank and provide chickens with the nutrients they need to lay amazing eggs. Enjoy!

Learn more by clicking this link

 

[Folly's place]

Making a balanced nutritious feed in small batches at home will be more expensive than buying something good at the feed store. Try for cost savings somewhere else, and enjoy the ease of opening bags of quality balanced feed! Mary

 

[meetthebubus]

I hear co-ops could be a good place, I've thought the same thing but in the end I went with commercial feed, at least they like it (they hated the "organic" brand)

 

[Atomiccarebear]

I hear co-ops could be a good place, I've thought the same thing but in the end I went with commercial feed, at least they like it (they hated the "organic" brand)

so far they like the organic starter so I'm hoping they will like the organic pellets. *fingers crossed*

 

[Half-Acre-Home]

I've looked at doing this for years. I've came real close to buying a mixer grinder. My only problem is if I buy all the ingredients its a break even or even lose not counting my time. I go through a lot of feed also. I drive about an hour away to get cheap feed directly from a feed mill. Now if I had more time, land and money I'd probably grow most of the ingredients and store in bulk bins and mix as needed.

They make a nutri-balancer that has a lot of the necessary vitamins and minerals which is pricey. Its one of those things where you'd have to decide if it was worth it, if your making organic feed maybe it would. I'd love to but can't right now.

 

[Atomiccarebear]

I've looked at doing this for years. I've came real close to buying a mixer grinder. My only problem is if I buy all the ingredients its a break even or even lose not counting my time. I go through a lot of feed also. I drive about an hour away to get cheap feed directly from a feed mill. Now if I had more time, land and money I'd probably grow most of the ingredients and store in bulk bins and mix as needed.

They make a nutri-balancer that has a lot of the necessary vitamins and minerals which is pricey. Its one of those things where you'd have to decide if it was worth it, if your making organic feed maybe it would. I'd love to but can't right now.

Yeah, it's really expensive for because I don't live in a rural enough area. I don't have a feed mill near me. I started looking the ingredients up on amazon and feed mills online but it's just too expensive. We want to feed our chickens organically also. I've settled for the organic feed I can get from my local Tractor Supply. It's $22 for a 40lb bag which is cheaper than my dog food so I can't really complain. I just worry about the other ingredients on the bag that I can't pronounce. I'll add some other things to it to give them more of the vitamins and minerals that they need like crushed eggs shells, yogurt and other things.