Mix feed for all fowl

[SportTees]

I'm posting this in feed and here since it deals with other fowl than just chickens

O.k, I'm going to try a new feed mix that's a little cheaper for the winter. Here's what I have come up with to feed my chickens, ducks and quail:

-40% co-op egg ration
-40% co-op gamebird booster
-15% Chicken starter ( the 24% variety)
-5% Purina gamebird maintence

I'am also planning to use sweet feed like scratch for the chickens and maybe ducks

The protien levels for the different foods are in order - 15%,14%,24%,12.5% and the sweet feed is 10%

Good idea or Bad idea???

 

[pkeeler]

-40% co-op egg ration
-40% co-op gamebird booster
-15% Chicken starter ( the 24% variety)
-5% Purina gamebird maintence

I'am also planning to use sweet feed like scratch for the chickens and maybe ducks

The protien levels for the different foods are in order - 15%,14%,24%,12.5% and the sweet feed is 10%

A quick calculation shows your mixture will have a ~16% protein content. Are you trying to avoid feeding the 15% egg ration to everyone because of the calcium content? I guess if that has a 5% calcium content, you would knock it down to 2%.

Why not just feed the gamebird booster and chick starter in a 1:4 ratio and offer free choice of oyster shell?​

 

[SportTees]

Quote:
A quick calculation shows your mixture will have a ~16% protein content. Are you trying to avoid feeding the 15% egg ration to everyone because of the calcium content? I guess if that has a 5% calcium content, you would knock it down to 2%.

Why not just feed the game bird booster and chick starter in a 1:4 ratio and offer free choice of oyster shell?

How do you come up with the protein content? Its a little cheaper using the egg ratio here than chick starter (about $4 more). I may try the 1:4 later though because I hadn't thought of that. I was also considering using a 50/50 mix of gamebird booster/co0op egg ration but I didn't know if the protein would be high enough . I was thinking the protien needed to stay between 16-18 to satisfy all fowl but I'm also new to this?

 

[pkeeler]

How do you come up with the protein content?

Just take you percentage and multiply that by the protein content. Then add up all the results.

I don't know what non-chickens need for protein content. Since, all the sources you have but the starter are under 16-18%, you would have to add the starter to any of the other rations to get that level of protein. So, I don't know how you could do it cheaper. But it would certainly be easier to mix two then four feeds.

The egg ration probably has a lot of calcium. I don't know if that would bother ducks, geese, turkeys, etc.​

 

[RoyalHillsLLC]

Ducks and geee need much less protein than chickens. High protein mixes give them angel wing.

 

[the1much]

i have chickens,2 kinds of pheasants,and peafowl,oh,, and guineas ,, i feed all mine
game conditioner,game maintenance, scratch,all mixed together, then once a week they all get chickstart, or turkey starter. i dont seem to have any problems with any of my birds,,,,,,that said,,, just cause this works great for me,, it may not be right for you,, or at all

EDIT: ta say,,, they also get table scraps from 2 households EVERY night.

 

[SportTees]

Quote:
Good point- I almost forgot about that... I assume 16% would work for duck

 

[sweetshoplady]

What's angel wing?

 

[Omniskies]

Angel Wing is when the wing feathers grow out at odd angles. High protein levels in food either cause Angel Wing, or exposes individuals who carry the Angel Wing gene. No one really knows for sure.

I'd be leery about feeding geese a protein higher than 16%. Right now I'm playing around with different horse feeds for my geese this winter. A sweet feed mixture that has oats, corn, molassass and pellets has a 12% protein and 3% crude fat. I'm supplementing that with free oyster shell and a little extra corn/oats.

We started raising our own red worms and plan on drying out a bunch of those for the ducks and chickens to eat all winter for a protein boost. The geese are getting winter wheat sprouts, among others, that we're growing in our solarium.

Worms and grass/hay sprouts are a bit more time consuming, but tons cheaper and greatly appreciated by the birds.

 

[the1much]

phewwww ,,, i thought angel wings meant it would kill them. :|