Need advice on my homemade feed

[Marsale]

Hi everyone, I started mixing my own feed for my chickens back in November but now lots of my chickens are losing lots of feathers including a group without a rooster their saddle feathers are gone, I have 2 groups one group with rooster and 1 group without but even the roosters have bare areas on their tail and necks please help. The Chickens with Rooster are 7 months old.
This is what I am feeding them.
Equal parts of
Whole Corn
whole Oats
Whole Wheat
Milo
Black Oil Sunflowers Seeds and
a Bale of Alfalfa on the run
High Protein Scratch as Treat and every once in a while Live Mealworms when I get enough to feed them some (Growing my own Mealworms)
Plus Grits and Oyster Shells available for when they need it.

Am I feeding them the wrong things?

 

[ChickenCanoe]

That's the problem with mixing your own. You don't have a means to assay the resulting mix so you don't know the levels of amino acids, vitamins, minerals, fats and energy in the mix. Obviously there is a problem. What are the grits for?
Corn, oats, wheat and milo won't be more than 8 or 9% protein and woefully low in some essential amino acids.
What is the protein % of the 'high protein' scratch?
While sunflower seeds contain a good amount of protein, they are way too high in fiber and fat to be of benefit. The protein will be negated in the process of digesting that fiber.
How is the egg production? How long have they been fed your mix?
Water soluble vitamins like B complex will be lost early on. Fat soluble vitamins like A, D, E will remain in their system a bit longer but will still become deficient.
It is possible to buy a vitamin and mineral mix to boost the nutrients in the feed but you still have to come up with a means to boost essential amino acids.
Perhaps fishmeal or porcine meal can be added to the mix.
You'll need to analyze nutritional makeup of each of your ingredients and the percentages of each in the mix and compare them to the nutrient requirements in table 2 in the following link.

https://extension.missouri.edu/publications/g8352

A deficiency of vitamins A, D3, B12, Niacin, Pantothenic acid and Folic acid can all cause poor feathering, as will insufficient levels of essential amino acids.

All those issues are resolved by feeding a complete chicken feed which is assayed to contain adequate levels of all nutrients.
And it is usually much cheaper than trying to make your own.

 

[Cecisflock]

What are the grits for?

I think they mean GRIT, insoluble crushed granite

 

[ChickenCanoe]

I think they mean GRIT, insoluble crushed granite

We need a slaps head emoji.

 

[Chicalina]

That's the problem with mixing your own. You don't have a means to assay the resulting mix so you don't know the levels of amino acids, vitamins, minerals, fats and energy in the mix. Obviously there is a problem. What are the grits for?
Corn, oats, wheat and milo won't be more than 8 or 9% protein and woefully low in some essential amino acids.
What is the protein % of the 'high protein' scratch?
While sunflower seeds contain a good amount of protein, they are way too high in fiber and fat to be of benefit. The protein will be negated in the process of digesting that fiber.
How is the egg production? How long have they been fed your mix?
Water soluble vitamins like B complex will be lost early on. Fat soluble vitamins like A, D, E will remain in their system a bit longer but will still become deficient.
It is possible to buy a vitamin and mineral mix to boost the nutrients in the feed but you still have to come up with a means to boost essential amino acids.
Perhaps fishmeal or porcine meal can be added to the mix.
You'll need to analyze nutritional makeup of each of your ingredients and the percentages of each in the mix and compare them to the nutrient requirements in table 2 in the following link.

https://extension.missouri.edu/publications/g8352

A deficiency of vitamins A, D3, B12, Niacin, Pantothenic acid and Folic acid can all cause poor feathering, as will insufficient levels of essential amino acids.

All those issues are resolved by feeding a complete chicken feed which is assayed to contain adequate levels of all nutrients.
And it is usually much cheaper than trying to make your own.

 

[Marsale]

That's the problem with mixing your own. You don't have a means to assay the resulting mix so you don't know the levels of amino acids, vitamins, minerals, fats and energy in the mix. Obviously there is a problem. What are the grits for?
Corn, oats, wheat and milo won't be more than 8 or 9% protein and woefully low in some essential amino acids.
What is the protein % of the 'high protein' scratch?
While sunflower seeds contain a good amount of protein, they are way too high in fiber and fat to be of benefit. The protein will be negated in the process of digesting that fiber.
How is the egg production? How long have they been fed your mix?
Water soluble vitamins like B complex will be lost early on. Fat soluble vitamins like A, D, E will remain in their system a bit longer but will still become deficient.
It is possible to buy a vitamin and mineral mix to boost the nutrients in the feed but you still have to come up with a means to boost essential amino acids.
Perhaps fishmeal or porcine meal can be added to the mix.
You'll need to analyze nutritional makeup of each of your ingredients and the percentages of each in the mix and compare them to the nutrient requirements in table 2 in the following link.

https://extension.missouri.edu/publications/g8352

A deficiency of vitamins A, D3, B12, Niacin, Pantothenic acid and Folic acid can all cause poor feathering, as will insufficient levels of essential amino acids.

All those issues are resolved by feeding a complete chicken feed which is assayed to contain adequate levels of all nutrients.
And it is usually much cheaper than trying to make your own.

Thank you for your input and yes it is GRIT and oyster shell.

That's the problem with mixing your own. You don't have a means to assay the resulting mix so you don't know the levels of amino acids, vitamins, minerals, fats and energy in the mix. Obviously there is a problem. What are the grits for?
Corn, oats, wheat and milo won't be more than 8 or 9% protein and woefully low in some essential amino acids.
What is the protein % of the 'high protein' scratch?
While sunflower seeds contain a good amount of protein, they are way too high in fiber and fat to be of benefit. The protein will be negated in the process of digesting that fiber.
How is the egg production? How long have they been fed your mix?
Water soluble vitamins like B complex will be lost early on. Fat soluble vitamins like A, D, E will remain in their system a bit longer but will still become deficient.
It is possible to buy a vitamin and mineral mix to boost the nutrients in the feed but you still have to come up with a means to boost essential amino acids.
Perhaps fishmeal or porcine meal can be added to the mix.
You'll need to analyze nutritional makeup of each of your ingredients and the percentages of each in the mix and compare them to the nutrient requirements in table 2 in the following link.

https://extension.missouri.edu/publications/g8352

A deficiency of vitamins A, D3, B12, Niacin, Pantothenic acid and Folic acid can all cause poor feathering, as will insufficient levels of essential amino acids.

All those issues are resolved by feeding a complete chicken feed which is assayed to contain adequate levels of all nutrients.
And it is usually much cheaper than trying to make your own.

Thank you for your input and yes it is GRIT and oyster shell. I will try very hard to find out what I need to do.

 

[TOR]

Hi everyone, I started mixing my own feed for my chickens back in November but now lots of my chickens are losing lots of feathers including a group without a rooster their saddle feathers are gone, I have 2 groups one group with rooster and 1 group without but even the roosters have bare areas on their tail and necks please help. The Chickens with Rooster are 7 months old.
This is what I am feeding them.
Equal parts of
Whole Corn
whole Oats
Whole Wheat
Milo
Black Oil Sunflowers Seeds and
a Bale of Alfalfa on the run
High Protein Scratch as Treat and every once in a while Live Mealworms when I get enough to feed them some (Growing my own Mealworms)
Plus Grits and Oyster Shells available for when they need it.

Am I feeding them the wrong things?

With the price of grain going up your prolly better off just buying the premade mix. It is hard to give a complete ration and compete with the price of feed at the store.
I kinda been doing the same as you, but I got about 800 lbs of corn free last fall which some got hot on me this spring i dumped 200 lbs of it. I am starting to run low on corn, but corn now 7.00 bushel, soy beans 15.00 and the other grains are up to. Oats are up 2.00 for 50 lb bag.
I feed more corn soy diet with other additives mixed with store bought feed. In the winter I give them a vitamin supplement. Is it perfect prolly not .My chickens also free range.
Looking at your mix your protein is way low, and carbs , fat is high .Chicken canoe has a excellent post.
When I run out corn not sure if I will even still make my own for awhile, grain prices are so high. Glad I did not buy any feeder pigs this year.

 

[Dinoroar]

I’m not seeing A protein source high enough to bring your percentages up. If your Committed to mixing your own bs buying pre made I’d say first step is to up your protein and add in a yeast supplement (kalmbach or diamond v)

I don’t mix my own so haven’t tried this but for reference this is from ‘The chicken hand Book’ by Vivian Head

 

[Kiki]

What exactly did you feed your birds before you started feeding them all this stuff?

 

[TOR]

I’m not seeing A protein source high enough to bring your percentages up. If your Committed to mixing your own bs buying pre made I’d say first step is to up your protein and add in a yeast supplement (kalmbach or diamond v)

I don’t mix my own so haven’t tried this but for reference this is from ‘The chicken hand Book’ by Vivian Head
View attachment 2638909

Field peas, soy beans, fish meal are high in protein.