S*yb**ns

[KansasQuailer]

First post here, but i have been reading this forum for a couple years. Today i wanted to pick everyone's brains about something I'm sure we have all thought about. Growing your chickens feed. I'm not trying to grow all of their feed, just some staples that i can supplement their diet with. I was leaning toward mainly soy beans, although it seems like a dirty word around here . I know that there is processing required as far as the soybeans go. I was thinking about using a slow cooker to bring them up to the required temperature for the required time frame, but am also looking into fermentation.

I don't have a ton of land to grow on, its more like a huge garden than anything you could shake a stick at. I'm leaning toward just growing a ton of soy beans but maybe some corn too. Any suggestions as far as storage, anything i should do to help the beans keep longer? my growing area is about 50 feet by 100 feet. i could just buy them but i have a ton of water i can use, as well as the land. Just trying to bounce some ideas before planting time gets too close. I really appreciate the forum, and the community. Thanks for all the help over the years!

 

[Seniah]

Do your chickens free range?
Do they have access to the area around the garden?
Do you garden for your own food?
What grows easily where you live?
What produces a lot of nutritious bulk.
I would not add the chore of processing soybeans to my to do list. Or grow that much of one food.
I would grow a varied selection of all the easy to grow vegetables and seed bearing flowers for my area. Throw them over the fence to the chickens as available.Or start compost piles in their runs, if they don't free range. After the season let the chickens in the garden to clean up and fertilize and eat bugs.

 

[ChickenCanoe]

Welcome! Glad you joined.
Yes, we probably all have considered it at one time.
I just think it is so much simpler and less expensive to buy feed.
Corn and soybeans take up a lot of space.
I guess it matters how many chickens you will be feeding and how closely you want to provide the 40 disparate nutrients that chickens need and in the correct ratios.
https://extension2.missouri.edu/g8352
I find it better to provide good pristine forage for free ranging chickens and provide feed all day.
In spring and summer, they eat about 1/3 the feed they do in winter.
That would probably depend on the breeds of chickens one has. Some breeds are great foragers, some not so much.

 

[sourland]

Welcome to BYC. I agree with both previous posters. Lot/garden could be better used for growing forage rather than grains.

 

[centrarchid]

50' x 100' = 5,000 feet^2 = 0.11 acres

Average bushels per acre ~ 40. See link below.
https://quickstats.nass.usda.gov/re...344A9FEA#1C0960DD-FF16-3479-B2A4-39E956BD1B56

40 bushels x 0.11 acre = 4.4 bushels

Average ~60 lbs soybean / bushel. See link below.
ftp://www.ilga.gov/jcar/admincode/008/00800600ZZ9998bR.html

4.4 bushels x 60 lbs = 264 lbs


I would assume soybeans will represent between 1/3 and 1/2 of the feed consumed assuming you make balanced diets using feedstuffs you "import".


High range of feed = 264 / 0.33 = 800 lbs feed

Low range of feed = 264 / 0.5 = 528 lbs feed

 

[centrarchid]

The only way I have harvest grain on a bushel basis involved a combine. Major labor saver.

 

[PirateGirl]

There is some wheat that grows where I live naturally, and I live in a harsh environment. I'd expect you could grow a patch of wheat and they'd be happy with the greens and the seeds both. This past year I grew lots of assorted salad greens and the girls loved all of them. I would make salads for the family and give them the scraps or give them the heads that got infested with bugs and the girls gobbled them up bugs and all. I wanted to look into growing amaranth as well. I have not tried growing soybeans. Also sunflowers, then you can save the heads and throw them in the run for a treat in the winter. There are many gardening threads on here that you can get some ideas from. Good luck. Have fun with it. Chickens are not picky eaters, you'll find something that works both for your environment and for the chickens.

 

[Kasilofchrisn]

I would focus more on gardening for yourself and give the chickens some of what you grow plus scraps.
That's what I do.
My girls love the big outter cabbage leaves and other garden cast offs.
Had some cabbages the slugs destroyed so my chickens got those as well.
You could grow corn and dry the cobs with the corn still on them then toss them some Cobb's every now and then as treats.
I put netting around my garden after harvest time and let them clean it up.
Worked out great!

 

[KansasQuailer]

Do your chickens free range?
Do they have access to the area around the garden?
They do but i was thinking about fencing it off from them if i do soybeans.

Do you garden for your own food?
I do but i have a raised bed i use for my stuff.

What grows easily where you live?
I live in western Kansas so anything will grow if you give it enough water. That being said there is a lot of limestone in the soil here

What produces a lot of nutritious bulk.
This is why i was leaning towards growing soybeans and corn to a lesser extent, a lot of feed corn is grown here and that and soybeans make up a large percentage of any affordable chicken feed.

I grew pumpkins there this last year but they quickly grew sick of pumpkin, there were also a ton of squash bugs. They didn't seem to care for them though, i imagine they taste awful. Just looking for something nutritious to grow and feed them, not to replace the pellets i feed but to supplement them. I was thinking about growing some sort of millet as well but cant decide what kind, looking for more of a staple than a treat.
Thanks for the reply!

 

[KansasQuailer]

Welcome! Glad you joined.
Yes, we probably all have considered it at one time.
I just think it is so much simpler and less expensive to buy feed.
Corn and soybeans take up a lot of space.
I guess it matters how many chickens you will be feeding and how closely you want to provide the 40 disparate nutrients that chickens need and in the correct ratios.
https://extension2.missouri.edu/g8352
I find it better to provide good pristine forage for free ranging chickens and provide feed all day.
In spring and summer, they eat about 1/3 the feed they do in winter.
That would probably depend on the breeds of chickens one has. Some breeds are great foragers, some not so much.

I'm not a chicken scientist, but i don't think it takes a nutritionist to add homegrown grains or soy beans to a feed regimen without hurting them. As far as the space goes, we have a pretty large feed shed to store whatever we manage to grow in.
We only have about 16 chickens and we aren't planning to stop feeding pellets, just try to feed them what we can grow for cheap first. They aren't free range but we let them out about an hour a day to run around a pretty large secluded lot.

I appreciate the reply!