Mixing Grains for Feed verses Buying Corporate Crumbles...

[Timothy Menezes]

So I feed a 18% layer mix in the birds main feeder, and a gamebird whole seed mix on the side. They have 5 acres of land to forage on for wild seeds and tons of insects year round.

Unfortunately it never gets cold here so bugs are available 24/7 all year. The chickens are actually the only thing that helps keep their population in check.

 

[Chef JimmyJ]

The whole idea of Spend Brewers Grains is an interesting option. While it can be a very cheap or a free option, there are some pitfalls. High in Protein, the Grains are a great source, but with the cooking process, some Vitamins are degraded and others are soluble and are in the resultant Wort and Beer. Good for us, not so much for the birds. Other issues, how much are you wanting, verses how much does the Brewer Expect you to take and how frequently. The Grains are wet, if you don't use them with in a few days, they have to be refrigerated or mold can become an issue. What if you have 6 Birds and the Brewer wants you to take a 55 Gallon Drum full, twice a week? Some clever entrepreneurs are now contracting for large quantities, Drying them and making Bank, selling as Chicken and other animal feeds. As mentioned above, Hog operations are snapping up all the Spent Grain they can get. The high Protein and some residual Sugar makes for fast growth at low cost.

While the initial outlay, $69 for 60 pounds of Fertrell's Nutri-Balancer is High, compared to $7 to $20 for 50 pounds of other feed grains. The Fertrell's is added at 3% by weight. For a 175 pound batch of 50 pounds Non-GMO Corn, 50 pounds Organic Wheat, 50 pounds Organic Oats, 5 pounds BOSS, 5 pounds Organic Field Peas and 10 pounds Non-GMO Roasted Soy, the Fertrell's Nutri-Balancer is added at 5 pounds per batch for a total of 175 pounds of Feed. Feeding 9 Chicken at 4oz per, that's 2.25 pounds of feed a day. That 175 pound full batch will feed 9 birds, 78 days. The Fertrell's cost $1.15 per pound, the Batch cost is $5.75, divided over 78 days, the Fertrell's cost me $0.07 per Days Ration! That can't really be considered Too Expensive to add even on my monthly Social Security check...JJ

 

[Folly's place]

Making a balanced ration for home use is expensive, and tricky, and I'm not interested in doing it. I had poultry and livestock nutrition classes in college, and home made isn't happening here.
Our modern chickens aren't the same as wild jungle fowl, who do fine in SE Asia, lay maybe 30 eggs each year, and are small. As others mentioned, our 'free range' opportunities aren't jungle, or 19th century land either.
Mixing whole grains and offering this is a great way to have nutritional deficiencies, in some birds at least, because they will pick out the yummy stuff and not eat everything uniformly. That ration balancer will sift to the bottom of the container too.
Zillions has been spent to discover what birds of different species, and life stages, need to do well and thrive, and it's all at the store, ready to feed, in bags. Love it!
I buy a good all-flock feed for my chickens, with oyster shell separately offered for the laying hens, and then some other stuff, and they free range on my farm.
I spend time and effort on their coop, run, and other things, and it's worked well here for decades.
Mary

 

[gtaus]

Should I Mix my own Feed or Buy Corporate Crumbles?

Not every person raising Chickens has the land or time to Free Range. Even tossing the Girls lawn weeds and some grass, garden trim and seasonal leftovers or wilted greens and people food is good. But for these Chicken Fans, it's Feed that makes the bulk of their Chickens diet. What to do?

I looked into this subject myself, not for three years, but for a few weeks searching through the internet and YouTube videos. What I concluded from others was that for my small flock of 10 chicks, I was just better off buying corporate crumbles knowing exactly what I was getting. The YouTube videos I saw mentioned that they could not mix feed any cheaper than buying premixed from a feed store. Also, if you have to buy 50# sacks of grain to mix, the grain might get a little "not fresh" by the time you eventually use it all up. They suggested it was better to buy a fresh bag of food, as needed, rather than trying to store up sacks of grains to mix. Currently, my chicks go through a 50# sack of feed in about 6-8 weeks, so I don't want to stock up on anything. If I had a larger flock, maybe it would be worth it.

As to free range chickens in the wild, I just read a nice story about some feral chickens on an island. The joke there is that if you catch a chicken, you put it in a pot with some rocks to cook. A few hours later, the rocks will be tender and you throw out the chicken! I think there is something to be said about our domesticated chickens fed with commercial feed to be nice and tender.

 

[Folly's place]

Home grown chickens, either heritage breeds or 'Freedom Ranger' types, taste way better than store bought Cornish x birds! And they eat commercial crumbles, with some free ranging. Home grown eggs are also way nicer.
Commercial birds don't have good lives, as most home raised birds can have.
Almost all Americans are city dwellers, and food grows in Styrofoam at the grocery store, so price is the most important factor, not flavor, because they've never had home grown.
It's not possible to produce meat or eggs at home on a small scale, and compete on price!
Mary

 

[gtaus]

It's not possible to produce meat or eggs at home on a small scale, and compete on price!

Yeah, our local supermarket is selling Grade A Large eggs for 88 cents per dozen this week. You just can't compete on price.

The other day my brother and I were out fishing. He asked me why I was raising chickens when I can buy eggs at less than a dollar per dozen. Great point, I conceded, but then asked him why we were out fishing when it costs us about $75 per pound for the number of fish we caught! And that was before the carb went out on the pontoon and cost us another $300 in marine repairs.... FYI, the Dollar Store sells fish sticks for $1 a box.

 

[Folly's place]

Fishing is like deer hunting, same price conversion. But fresh fish, yummy!
Mary

 

[Chef JimmyJ]

See! This is exactly what I was hoping for...A Civil Discussion of ALL the Options and why each of you has chosen your feed source. Good stuff thanks to all that participated...JJ

 

[gtaus]

Another concept to think about...

Love the thread and thinking about this stuff. Years ago I raised 50 Cornish X chickens. They ate good food, lived on a fenced in pasture for 8 weeks, and were harvested. Everyone said that chickens tasted better than store bought. Well, maybe. I could not honestly say I could tell the difference. I do know that the cost per pound of my home raised was a lot more than what I could have bought chicken at the market. And that did not count the time and effort of feeding, caring for, and then butchering the chickens.

My chicks this time are laying hens and they get good commercial feed, but not organic at 2x or 3x the price. They are in a spacious coop with a grass covered chicken run. They get kitchen scraps and other food I find for them. They are treated very well and I hope that will translate to richer eggs. I don't feel the need for expensive organic feed, but don't mind others that chose to go that way. It's all good to me and I can enjoy hearing about how others care for their birds.

 

[21hens-incharge]

Reading along and one other thing I was reminded of.....

Although the laws where I am read that I can have "as many chickens as can be properly housed and cared for without creating a health hazard or nuisance".
It also says absolutely no processing of poultry and carries a $1000 fine. While I COULD take them to be processed there are zero butcher's here that will do poultry.
I did find ONE private citizen that provides this service out in the country. They are very very busy processing birds for themselves and others ALL summer. It has to be difficult spending 3 full days a week processing birds while still having all the regular farm duties.

The bottom line.... There are a lot of laws that make growing/raising our own food difficult and at times impossible.