New Homemade Chicken Feed

[Shazmn]

Hi all,

I am relatively new to backyard chickens and we have a small flock of 3 girls. Laying everyday one egg each.

We have been feeding them "Peter's Free Range Poultry Food" from day one, however my husband is currently working a grain export company and has bought home bags and bags of human grade grains. I have put together a recipe for the girl's seed feed and I was wanting your feedback as to whether its contents are adequate:

1. Wheat
2. Red Wheat
3. Barley
4. Lentils
5. Canola Seed
6. Whole Corn Kernels

I have made up feed with all the above with the exception of the canola seed which I believe is not good for chickens. I have also added black sunflower seeds, laying pellets and 1/4 cup of kelp granules. Can you give me some feedback as to whether this is adequate or whether I should be adding anything else.

Also, on another note, lately the girls have been totally disgusting in that they follow our Border Collie around waiting for her to poop and then they gobble it up. It has put me off eating the eggs. Has anyone had any experience with this and if so, has it affected the taste or smell of the eggs in any way.

In addition to their seed mix they also receive table scraps and other vegies. They love strawberry tops, celery, pretty much anything.

Any advice or feedback would be greatly appreciated.

Shazmn

 

[Yorkshire Coop]

Hi I am sure if you post a thread in the feeding watering section on the forum you will receive some good responses to your questions. I have found this site both very informative and friendly.

 

[Shazmn]

Thanks Yorkshire Coop I will do that

 

[TwoCrows]

Hello there and welcome to BYC!

I tried making a homemade feed mix for a while. And while the birds did well in some areas of health, there were other areas that lacked greatly. There are so many needed essential minerals, amino acids and such that it is hard to make a home brew perfect. Definitely post in our Feeding and Watering Your Flock section for more input...https://www.backyardchickens.com/f/12/feeding-watering-your-flock

Good luck and welcome to our flock!

 

[Kelsie2290]

Hello and Welcome To BYC! You've gotten some good suggestions and links above, there are quite a few threads on home made feed, if you check with your feed store there are a number of vitamin/mineral mixes made to add to feeds you might want to consider, here is a link to a website that has collected quite a few recipes from universities etc, most have where they came from http://www.birdfarm.bravepages.com/eggsx.html

 

[Mountain Peeps]

Welcome to BYC! Please make yourself at home and we are here to help.

X2 on all the advice given above.

 

[BayBay Peepers]

Welcome to BYC!

 

[Michael OShay]

Welcome to BYC! Glad you decided to join our flock. I would reserve your homemade feed for occasional treats (less than 10 % of their total diet). Commercial feeds are specially formulated to meet all of the nutritional needs of your birds, and with homemade feeds as their main diet, they are likely to have some (perhaps even serious) nutritional deficiencies. Please feel free to ask any other questions you may have. We are here to help in any way we can. Good luck with your flock.

 

[drumstick diva]

maybe it would be worth the trouble to makeup feed if you had a very large flock but, for 3 chickens I wouldn't bother.

 

[drumstick diva]

in re: your chickens cleaning up after the border collie - a lot of chickens do that and a lot of dogs follow the chickens around.

I think taste of eggs is affected more by strong tasting extras the birds may get like celery, garlic cabbage, etc. Though the mental picture of them following the dog would probably put me off eggs too for while at least.

The only thing I could advise is maybe keeping the dog in a run until it has done it's business and cleaning that up right away.