Saving Money

[Cameron_8]

Anyone have good ways to save money when it comes to feeding your flock. Right now I'm going through 4 50lb bags of feed per month. For around 65-70 chickens (all different ages) who free range all day in a giant area. I've began fermenting the feed and that's going good. But would love to hear everyone's ideas and techniques of saving money.

 

[ChloeSilkie08]

Anyone have good ways to save money when it comes to feeding your flock. Right now I'm going through 4 50lb bags of feed per month. For around 65-70 chickens (all different ages) who free range all day in a giant area. I've began fermenting the feed and that's going good. But would love to hear everyone's ideas and techniques of saving money.

For us, we had to forget about the organic or non-gmo. We're saving $3 for 15 pounds more of feed.

 

[Acre4Me]

You are doing well with 200 lbs of feed per month. An adult chicken eats approx 1/4 lb per day. So 65 chickens would exceed 400lbs a month, so you don’t have much waste, and they are successfully foraging.

fermenting feed, or even just mixing with water, is a good step, so that has been good for the budget.

some people plant good forage for the chickens in the field or garden, but no idea where you are located, nor if you have space for that.

some people grow fodder indoors for fresh greens for the chickens.

some people will feed cheap corn and/or leftovers. However, the health can suffer or egg laying if things get too unbalanced.

some people supplement with dry cat food - as it can be around 30% protein. However, you should never make this a significant part of the diet.

 

[Kirkwooder]

I buy grain straight from local farmers. Wheat, barley, soy, corn, sunflower, oats, buckwheat, even weed seeds, cleaned from hay seed harvest and processing, corn chaff cleaned up from around dryer bins. I have fed all of these with varying success.

Of course range/pasture is best. Good quality green stuff seems to be the best, and its free. When my hens have access to grass in the yard, nettle in the verges around the garden, weeds and excess thinning's pulled from the garden, they eat almost no pellet feed. If you have the area to get them on fresh green stuff every day, they seem to eat way less commercial feed. Even this time of the year, I will plow snow off strips of the yard to get down to the grass. My hens will scratch through any thin snow to get to the frozen grass below.

At $12-$15 a 50# bag for the cheap stuff at the feed store chicken feed can ad up. I feed the grains above fermented. Most can be bought by the bushel for around $6-$8 straight out of the field. A bushel of wheat weighs 54-56 lbs and is 16% protein. Substantial savings. Soy, sunflower and the like tend to be two times that, but should be feed sparingly anyhow.

 

[WallyG74]

I’d say you’re doing pretty good for that many birds. Keep it up!

 

[Cameron_8]

I’d say you’re doing pretty good for that many birds. Keep it
I think letting them free range all day really helps the feed cost. I wonder how much I would be going through if they didn't free range?

 

[Cameron_8]

You are doing well with 200 lbs of feed per month. An adult chicken eats approx 1/4 lb per day. So 65 chickens would exceed 400lbs a month, so you don’t have much waste, and they are successfully foraging.

fermenting feed, or even just mixing with water, is a good step, so that has been good for the budget.

some people plant good forage for the chickens in the field or garden, but no idea where you are located, nor if you have space for that.

some people grow fodder indoors for fresh greens for the chickens.

some people will feed cheap corn and/or leftovers. However, the health can suffer or egg laying if things get too unbalanced.

some people supplement with dry cat food - as it can be around 30% protein. However, you should never make this a significant part of the diet.

I have alot of silkies and younger chickens too so I definitely think free ranging helps the feed bill stay down. Probaly around a 100lbs a month being saved at least!

 

[JessesChickens101]

In Australia I go to the local supermarket and ask for any old vegetable scraps that they cant sell and I get a bucket load for FREE! I don't know if this allowed in USA or UK But its worth a try!

 

[Kirkwooder]

If you have a queasy stomach you might not want to read any further.

Insect larvae are a great feed source and can be produced for free feed as well. Growing maggots at home in warm weather is so incredibly simple that it amazes me that more poultry fanciers don't do it. I take all my meat scrap from my kitchen, fish carcass from my fishing excursions, all my poultry processing scraps, and even rodents trapped around the homestead and use them to produce, free, protein rich, food for my poultry.

Here's how I do it. I use a 5 gallon bucket with several 1/4" holes drilled in the bottom. I put a couple inches of sawdust in the bottom of the bucket. I then put the meat scrap in the bucket and cover it with saw dust. Then I put a lid with just one 1/4" hole drilled in the top. I then hang the bucket about 5 feet off the ground in my chicken run. Flies will find the decaying material and lay their eggs through the hole in the top of the bucket, the maggots will grow and attempt to find their way out the bottom. I put a box, roughly 3'x3'x1', half full of sawdust under the bucket to catch the larva as they drop out. The larva fall into the sawdust and think they are safe. It doesn't take long for the hens to find the little wigglers in the saw dust and scratch them out and gobble them up. The sawdust will need to be replenished almost daily during heavy use. The hens will aggressively scratch in it, throwing it out of the box. Just scoop up what you can and toss it back in.

I have even used road kill for fodder for the bucket. The sawdust tends to keep the smell down, but does not eliminate it. Also be forewarned that other critters, including large black ones, will be attracted to the odor of decaying flesh. Electric fencers tend to teach them fairly quickly to keep out though.

I have done meal worms also, though they are much more labor intensive.

 

[MissE]

How did you get in contact with local grocery stores and convince them to give you the leftovers?

In the past, when we had pigs, we just asked them to save what was gonna get tossed and then made the commitment to pick it up twice a week. We supplied our own buckets, and picked up the full ones while leaving freshly washed ones behind. Anything that didn't fit in the buckets, they threw in the garbage. Probably works better in a town of 1,500 than 100,000.