Need help making homemade chicken feed - rye, oats, and barley

[onelitwonder]

Hi! This is my first post.

My boyfriend came into a large amount of rye, oats, and barley through his work. We'd like to make our own chicken feed for our adult laying chickens based on this. We also plan to free-feed oyster shells.

Can anyone help with ratios, and what we'd need to supplement in order to get proper nutrition?

 

[pibb]

Here is what you need to figure it up:

Ingredient	Protein	Fat
2 lbs hulled barley	12.5%	2.3%
1 lb yellow corn	9.4%	4.7%
3 lbs raw lentils	25.8%	1.1%
1 lb oats	16.9%	6.9%
1/4 lb peanuts	25.8%	49.2%
3.5 lbs peas	24.6%	1.2%
2.75 lbs quinoa	14.1%	6.1%
1/4 lb sesame seeds	17.7%	49.7%
1 lb wheat bran	15.5%	4.3%
3 lbs durum	13.7%	2.5%
2 lbs spring wheat	15.4%	1.9%
1/4 lb brewers yeast	53.5%	0.0%

Weighted avg calculator
By the way that recipe equals 20 lbs not 20.25 lbs.

Total Weight	Total Protein	Total Fat
20 lbs	18.26%	4.08%

As far as the vitamins and minerals goes. I'll let you tally all that up since it has taken me 45 min to figure up what you see. So yes it does appear someone knew what they were doing when they figured up that recipe at least for the protein and fat. Keep in mind that when you mix all this stuff it is going to variate to some degree, meaning it may actually be 17% protein the next time you fix it.

 

[Flockincrazy]

We came up with this i make my own someone said I didn't have enough of protein I think so this is what we came up with my flock loves it

 

[Folly's place]

Google 'Poultry nutrition' and look at expert information, charts, and 'recipes'. It's actually complicated and difficult to get right at home!
Mary

 

[Flockincrazy]

Read the entire thing its all there

 

[Morrigan]

Are the seeds whole? If so, you could sprout them as a supplement and, in that manner, at least partially replace some of their regular feed. Every time I've looked into making my own feed mix, I realize it's a lot more ingredients than is economical or practical for me to deal with.

 

[Folly's place]

Brewers yeast is not a complete vitamin/ mineral mix! What else?
Mary

 

[pibb]

We came up with this i make my own someone said I didn't have enough of protein I think so this is what we came up with my flock loves it

Read the entire thing its all there

You said you made this? How did you calculate the total protein percentage and fat content?

Each and every ingredient has protein, fats, vitamins, minerals and it changes whether the ingredient is dried, boiled, deep fried, sprouted, etc. This isnt something you can throw together and just calculate in a minute and call it good. This is the reason you should have a detailed list of the ingredients specs to figure up the end result.

 

[Folly's place]

Also, the vitamin/ mineral mix won't keep forever, so pay attention to that part of the story too. Using stuff that's lost vitamins won't be better.
Mary

 

[SapphireFeather]

Kind of late, but I thought I could be helpful on this topic. Using only these three ingredients, I've done some math and and figured out where the nutrients are particularly deficient. Barley is the best of these three grains in terms of ratios of protein and nutrient density.

For a mix with the proportions of:
Barley: 75%
Oats: 15%
Rye: 10%

The resulting levels of vitamins and minerals are:
Protein: 61.119%
Fat: 109.433%
Calcium Ca: 0.921%
Copper Cu: 44.17%
Iron Fe: 56.86%
Magnesium Mg: 193.6%
Manganese Mn: 66.140%
Phosphorus P: 110.96%
Potassium K: 216.9%
Sodium Na: 4.833%
Zinc Zn: 70.357%
Vitamin A: 5.866%
Vitamin D: 0%
Vitamin E: 20%
Vitamin B12: 0%
Thiamin: 421.214%
Riboflavin: 50.240%
Pantothenic acid: 276.05%
Niacin: 403%
Folate: 117.8%
Arginine: 59.628%
Histidine: 109.5%
Isoleucine: 44.969%
Leucine: 70.131%
Lysine: 43.621%
Methionine: 52.600%
Phenylalanine: 92.100%
Threonine: 56.330%
Tryptophan: 84.937%
Valine: 56.600%

As you can see, it's impossible to create a mix that's balanced out of only these three grains. You'll need to provide a source of calcium and protein for sure. If you're able to feed fish of fishmeal pellets at a rate of 15% of their diet by weight, that would bring the protein content to 18% and provide a variety of vitamins that are difficult to obtain from vegetarian sources, such as Vitamin D. I've calculated a much more balanced feed using ingredients that should be readily available to most people:

Barley, raw, pearled: 50%
Rye: 15%
Oats: 10%
Fishmeal (or other protein source): 15%
Leafy greens: 5%
Oyster Shell: 5%
Basil: 1%
Ginger: 1%
Cilantro: 0.5%
Brewer's yeast: 0.5%
Cayenne, pepper: 0.5%
Spearmint, dried: 0.5%

With the above mix, the resulting vitamin and mineral levels are:
Protein: 103.447%
Fat: 130.536%
Calcium Ca: 69.726%
Copper Cu: 55.555%
Iron Fe: 193.653%
Magnesium Mg: 316.929%
Manganese Mn: 78.156%
Phosphorus P: 257.951%
Potassium K: 330.446%
Sodium Na: 161.633%
Zinc Zn: 102.549%
Vitamin A: 259.518%
Vitamin D: 109.999%
Vitamin E: 116.7%
Vitamin B12: 125%
Thiamin: 361.857%
Riboflavin: 114.576%
Pantothenic acid: 353.257%
Niacin: 524.108%
Folate: 157.44%
Arginine: 140.975%
Histidine: 240.676%
Isoleucine: 101.947%
Leucine: 149.598%
Lysine: 148.571%
Methionine: 135.498%
Phenylalanine: 152.430%
Threonine: 131.708%
Tryptophan: 128.874%
Valine: 118.677%

Let me know if there are certain ingredients you want or needed to include, or could not gain access to. I can recalculate the nutrient levels. I'm a programmer and wrote a script that allows me to calculate it easily. I can also explain how I calculated all of these numbers, if you were curious.

Hope it helps