I have been doing some research on mixing my own whole grain chicken feed. Here is the recipe I came up with:
50lbs wheat
50lb cracked corn
25lb oats
20lbs sunflower seed
10lb alfalfa meal
Any thoughts? Should I add/take away any ingredients?
What does your protein content come out to be? If those sunflower seeds are unhulled, they will add a lot of hard-to-digest fiber. Not sure what the protein content of hulled vs unhulled sunflower seeds is, but it will make a huge difference in your protein. Oats are also hard to digest, IIRC, you might want to check in on that one. Amino acid profile is also important, this is why soy is used to often. I'm not sure if a vitamin supplement will balance this or not. But adding some soy or animal protein (I used about 7% of fish meal) will help. Without complete essential amino acids, the protein can not be fully utilized and can lead to deficiencies over time.
I'd also second looking into adding a vitamin supplement. Fertrell Nutri Balancer is one such. You will also need to add some calcium, less for non-laying birds, more for layers. The amounts are listed on the Nutri Balancer product. If you want your birds to lay eggs, you need methionine or kelp, the amounts I am unclear of, but ample amounts of both in Nutri Balancer.
I am this winter supplementing my feed with some of these products, but I don't think I will do it again next winter. Mixing is not easy, both in measuring and oiling the feed so the pre-mix vitamins stick to the grains and get eaten. Bagged feed never looked so good! If you have the proper set-up, with a drum roller or something like that, it would be much easier, but mixing in a bucket is for the birds!
