A 100# bag of feed went up 50 cents in 3 days. Now I am looking into mixing my own feed. Already have corn from the field and barley. Can get supplement from the local co-op. My question is for those who mix their own feed. What is your set up like. Do you mix a large batch at a time, do you grind and what type of grinder do you have. Do you have a special area set up for mixing your feed? If anyone has pictures of their set up I would love to see those. Since we are in the middle of the coldest Dec I am trying to find the best place to mix the feed. It's very cold in the barn to spend a lot of time over there grinding and mixing. Any suggestions would be appreciated. FYI: I go thru 200# feed a week. We have around 200 chickens. Thanks for your help.
Here is a thread on mixing your own feed. https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=4477 Corn and barley will not be a balanced diet. It is the Protein that costs $$$ 200 birds will require a large grinder you could pick up one on ebay or at an auction for a couple hundred dollars. I buy in bulk and do not really save money over purchased feed, however I do it for quality reasons. See my byc page for what I feed. I am 80% organic and around $16 per 50lbs ON
I still buy a Layer mix, because it has all the proteins, vitamins, minerals that they need, but I supplement heavily with home made scratch and free ranging. They eat far less of the layer mix now. I have about 70 chickens; I made a feed run and got 400 pounds of layer mash, and that has lasted nearly 3 months and its only halfway gone. I mix oats, corn, sunflower seeds, all kinds of wild bird seed...white and red millet, safflower seed, and throw them a couple of scoops of that a day.....and they are laying like crazy now. It can't be the free ranging because there just isnt that much out there right now.
