Producing your own chicken feed

[Demidog]

I want to know what is best to grow for chicken feed. Just now we've got corn and sunflower in the field, what else is suitable? Do i need to add anything else - extra vitamins etc? I'm incubating my first batch of eggs at the moment, I'm new to chickens so need all the advice i can get! We're trying to be as self sufficient as possible and need to keep costs down so we really want to make up our own feed if we can. The chickens will be kept on grass in a tractor and also let out to roam in the garden, and i'm going to give them all the FRESH fruit and veg trimmings making sure they are not cross contaminated with meat or other kitchen scraps (they all go to the dog anyway). Also is there anything that they shouldn't eat? Can i give them the left over veg plants at the end of the growing season? I'm guessing they'd like to eat the leaves etc. These are hens for eggs, i don't know what breed because the guy couldn't tell me.

 

[Den in Penn]

You could try other grains like wheat, oats and millet. Soybeans for more protein. Starting a mealworm farm for protein as well. They are omnivores they can eat just about anything you can. So they would love the meat in your scraps as well. In fact some have been know to raid their dogs dish. Since you plan to free range they should be able to meet their needs for things like vitamins and grit.