Simple, home made, natural chick starter and feed

[Jacqdiva]

I have to admit some of these posts sound like commercials for chicken feed.

But what if you live somewhere where this prepackaged chicken feed is simply not available? What are you supposed to do? Saying that the formula feeds are easiest is not helpful when they aren't even available to you.

And while I agree people today have a more scientifically based idea of what chickens need to eat than 100 years ago, the fact is chickens have been fed by man for 1000s of years and it isn't as if the ability to feed them is some sort of modern discovery. People had to be feeding chickens SOMETHING before big business got involved.

I'm not going to be able to stop into the local feed store and pick up a bag of feed when I start with my chickens so I really would appreciate some sort of practical advice here about how to meet the nutritional needs of chickens from scratch, so to speak.

I agree! The title of this thread should encourage help here, not ad campaigns. This is a very valid topic. There are people out there doing this with success. It may be difficult. It may take research, but that is why we are on this page. Is it not??? Knowledge. We all want to learn. Don't we? Maybe!
People are told that chick starter is something mysterious, so magical and secret that couldn't be recreated. Even telling us it dangerous, or ill advised to do so. However mother chickens don't teach their babies to eat chick starter. They find nutritious things while free ranging or in the coop, and teach their chicks "This is good". It's been like that for thousands of years. I am searching for answers I guess, that reach outside this brainwashing of the general public, and ultimately money making rackets for big feed companies. Feeds with lots of ingredients I don't necessarily want to feed my poultry. Wish me luck on this quest. All opinions and advice welcome. Feel free to also to tell me:
a. I'm crazy
b. I'm misinformed
c. Foolish
d. Just wrong.
e. All of the above

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

A recipe from the book Grow It by Richard W. Langer, 1972

Chick and growing mash

20# yellow corn meal
20# wheat bran
20# pulverized oats
10# fish meal or 15# meat scraps
10# alfalfa meal
2# oyster shell meal
1# cod liver oil
1# Salt

Never feed it, just repeating an old recipe used before premixed foods

 

[Jacqdiva]

A recipe from the book Grow It by Richard W. Langer, 1972

Chick and growing mash

20# yellow corn meal
20# wheat bran
20# pulverized oats
10# fish meal or 15# meat scraps
10# alfalfa meal
2# oyster shell meal
1# cod liver oil
1# Salt

Never feed it, just repeating an old recipe used before premixed foods

Thanks for sharing this. What does # mean? Is that meant to be % ???

 

[TalkALittle]

Before it was "hash tag", # meant pounds.

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

That's how you can tell who's old, # will always mean pound to me

 

[SoCalClucker]

I share philosophies with the original poster. We mix all our feed despite having access to commercial feeds simply because I like to have that knowledge/control of what is in it, because I use only human grade ingredients and don't know if many commercial brands can say the same, and because once we started doing it it really wasn't that hard. There are a lot of resources online that are helpful, such as various recipes and what others use, and we source most of the ingredients from Azure Standard or the grocery store. Our birds flourish and we get more eggs than the breeds supposedly "typically" produce. I can adjust the recipe if they are moulting so need more protein, if it is hot so corn is left out, or just to vary their diet as they would in nature. They get lots of garden and kitchen scraps, and I have never seen any indication that they have any nutritional deficiencies at all. You can do it!

As far as the actual recipe, sorry I don't have it in front of me, but the ingredients for my laying hens are typically (all organic if at all possible) wheat, oats, peas, lentils, sunflower seeds, flaxseed, barley, kelp, nutritional yeast, sesame seeds, alfalfa, millet, blackstrap molasses, and olive or coconut oil. I don't always use all of them, they get scraps and greens to supplement, and I vary the ratios if I need to to account for weather, moulting, etc. Will be using some variation of this for the chicks expected to arrive tomorrow I calculate the total protein percentage but don't get into it more than that. It all sounds like a lot of work but once we got started, it is super easy now. Good luck!

 

[Fraggle Rock]

Try this for a simple feed.

Ingredients:

Alpo dry dog food, whole oats or steel cut oats and whole corn.

The dog food is for extra protien. The corn gives good energy and nutrients. The oats give good amino acids nesesary. All three ingredients are cheap and make for an effective chick starter. Grows your chicks fast and is perfectly safe to give..

Method of Creation.

Put all the ingredients in a couple old blenders. An even amount of corn to oat ratio. Use less dog food though. Only a little bit is needed. My usual recipe i go by is -1 cup dog food 2 cups oats 2 cups corn. This has worked for me just fine. Whole Corn is cheap so is whole oats and the alpo dog food. The corn and oats come in a 50lb bag.

If you have leftovers of the corn oats and dog food the corn and oats can still be used as a scratch feed for winter for adult birds or as a fodder vegetation source. The dog food no longer Is nessesary. At that point you can just use pellets for layers unless you want meat birds that combination is still fine until processing.

 

[Folly's place]

I'd also suggest that you select your chickens carefully, and that means getting 'old style' breeds, like games, who are able to range, lay fewer eggs, and manage better than higher producing more modern birds.
Mary

 

[Sequel]

Well! I think it’s very interesting and would like to know how these flocks do! It’s all I can do energy and time wise to choose human foods. HaHa! I’m glad to not have to formulate chicken feed, but to those who want to you go! Any skills we can keep alive for our own survival are valuable and you are probably doing all of us a great service! Between natural disasters and such we are only a short time away from being really hungry! Rant over! Good luck!

 

[wekesa]

I think you would really like Scratch and Peck feeds. Visit their website and take a look at the ingredient list for their chick starter.

While it might seem contrary to reason, the simplest way for small homesteaders and backyard chicken keepers to be sure of providing a complete balanced feed is to purchase a prepared feed.

ok