Stretching Out Commercial Feed

[minus10gmt]

I have 14 birds, 16 wks old. Been feeding them a nutrionally complete organic grower, fermented. Started adding sprouted oats and BOSS on the side and they love it.

They’re happy and healthy but my budget is straining a bit so I am looking for ways to stretch that feed out more by adding in things like more sprouted grains and seeds. Would love to hear experience of others and pros/cons of doing it this way. I’ve also found a few recipes for making my own feed mix but the challenge for me is the cost and shipping of some of the ingredients, in bulk.

We don’t have a huge amount of kitchen scraps for them, but occasionally will get meat and veggies scraps we can put out for them. It’s just not consistent. They have a lovely grassy area year round so plenty of greens, no need for fodder.

Thanks for all you experience and help.

 

[rosemarythyme]

Are you really set on feeding organic? I feed organic too but that'd be the biggest cost factor right there.

Feeding straight up feed should work out to be cheaper than feed + other add ins. Mixing your own feed would be the most expensive option as you can't get ingredients at a bulk price like the feed mills can.

 

[minus10gmt]

Are you really set on feeding organic? I feed organic too but that'd be the biggest cost factor right there.

Feeding straight up feed should work out to be cheaper than feed + other add ins. Mixing your own feed would be the most expensive option as you can't get ingredients at a bulk price like the feed mills can.

I'd definitely prefer to feed organic but more than likely, it will be a mix. It's just too expensive here. The straight-up feed comes out to about .95 cents per pound, for me. I wasn't really considering add-ins on top of the organic feed, per se, but as a partial replacement, if that makes sense. Thanks!

 

[Folly's place]

Adding stuff to your balanced feed, organic or not, will add to the cost, and very likely unbalance the nutritional value of the base feed. Some extra goodies are fine, but won't help with cost a lot. Having outside range space, with mixed plantings of edible stuff, and the bugs and worms available out there, will help, without additional costs. No herbicides or insecticides, just weeds and green plants, non-toxic varieties.
Here we have snow and dirt all winter, so foraging time is much more limited.
Mary

 

[minus10gmt]

Adding stuff to your balanced feed, organic or not, will add to the cost, and very likely unbalance the nutritional value of the base feed. Some extra goodies are fine, but won't help with cost a lot. Having outside range space, with mixed plantings of edible stuff, and the bugs and worms available out there, will help, without additional costs. No herbicides or insecticides, just weeds and green plants, non-toxic varieties.
Here we have snow and dirt all winter, so foraging time is much more limited.
Mary

Thanks Mary. They do have some outside range space, about 700 sq ft of fenced-in grassy space - very healthy grass/weeds. I haven't added plantings there, I figured they'd just demolish them before they could grow big enough to be of any value to them. There are lots of bugs and worms for them. I had a small bag of oats I tried for fodder, they loved it as sprouts. Also tried sprouting BOSS and they love that, too. But I guess that stuff shouldn't be a replacement, just an added "goody" every now and then, not a quantity of it on a daily basis. I may be throwing them off already, with this stuff. I talk to many people that really don't seem to care about their chicken's diets too much - they throw them scraps and give them feed 2x per day, and they seem to think it's sufficient. I wonder if I'm really overthinking it sometimes!

 

[Folly's place]

It's easy to overthink it, and make things unnecessarily complicated, and also spend time and money for no really good reasons.
I like things to be easy and cost effective here! Building safe housing for them, easy to clean and manage, and feed an appropriate diet, and enjoy your birds!
Because of the extra cost, and because we don't eat organic food exclusively ourselves, I buy that 'regular' feed instead of the more expensive organic feed.
It's going to be more difficult for you to get fresh feed, but do the best you can. Always check the mill date on each bag of feed before buying it. Here I can buy feed within one month of milling always, and use it up within another month, before some of the vitamins 'age out' or it gets rancid, or buggy. Pay attention, and buy feed that's as fresh as possible.
Mary

 

[minus10gmt]

It's easy to overthink it, and make things unnecessarily complicated, and also spend time and money for no really good reasons.
I like things to be easy and cost effective here! Building safe housing for them, easy to clean and manage, and feed an appropriate diet, and enjoy your birds!
Because of the extra cost, and because we don't eat organic food exclusively ourselves, I buy that 'regular' feed instead of the more expensive organic feed.
It's going to be more difficult for you to get fresh feed, but do the best you can. Always check the mill date on each bag of feed before buying it. Here I can buy feed within one month of milling always, and use it up within another month, before some of the vitamins 'age out' or it gets rancid, or buggy. Pay attention, and buy feed that's as fresh as possible.
Mary

You're a wise one! Good solid advice. Last thing I need to do is add complications or added expenses. They have great housing. I'm not going to be able to feed the best organic feed all the time, it seems, so I'll have to mix that up, but I'll stick to the feed formula. Guaranteed my feed is not as fresh as yours, but I'll do the best I can with the freshness dates for sure!

I've been a little concerned that I'm almost out of Grower and have to start adding in some Layer feed, and transition to it a little earlier than the recommended 20 weeks (they're 16 weeks), but, I think it'll be okay.

 

[Folly's place]

Again, your choices will likely be different than mine, but many of us never feed layer feed, but rather an all-flock feed, with oyster shell in a separate container for the actively laying birds. An unmedicated grower feed would be similar, probably. See what's available for your flock.
Mary

 

[minus10gmt]

Again, your choices will likely be different than mine, but many of us never feed layer feed, but rather an all-flock feed, with oyster shell in a separate container for the actively laying birds. An unmedicated grower feed would be similar, probably. See what's available for your flock.
Mary

My current choices here are Scratch & Peck, or Costco's Country Life Organic Poultry Feed "for laying hens." The batch of Costco stuff I have now was mixed (not by me) with some cracked corn and some bird seed, so I'm not so crazy about using it but I guess we have to for now. Scratch & Peck says to go from their "Grower" formula to a "Layer" formula at 20 weeks. I'll check with the local feed stores to find out about the non-organic options too. Most of the time the only thing I see there is chick starter and lay pellets. Anyway, thanks for the info, I don't want to drive you nuts. You're a great resource here, I see! I sure appreciate all that!