Suggestions for a wheat/barley-free mix?

[NanaRose]

I have been researching now for hours. My brain is about to explode. I am certainly not to only gluten-intolerant person with this chicken-feed problem. I believe I can manage to feed the chicks commercial starter, or just leave that to my husband. I really do not want to go to great lengths of time and energy.

Have read a number of chicken raisers who suggest that wheat is not the best thing to have in chicken feed period. This would line up with what I know about wheat. In the past 60 years wheat has been modified to contain 50% more protein. This is believed to be one reason for the rise in gluten-intolerance. Just because the protein is in the grain does not mean the animal body absorbs it. Then there's all that soy. Soy and wheat are cheap proteins and for the past 60 years makers have been sticking it into everything.

I have so much to learn, I would let go of this chicken raising endeavor, but dear hubby is almost finished with the coop. It has been suggested that we could just get pullets and skip the chicks.

Thanks again for all info.

 

[boysmom]

Last year I just waited until later in the spring, when the weather was warmer, and kept them outside. Didn't work out so well since we ended up losing most of them to a predator that found a way to get into my chicken house. Late in the summer, I found a source for dried meal worms, so I'm thinking I'll use those as a portion of my protein source this year. I need to look over the links that were just shared with you and see what information I can glean out of that to use, too. Virtually all the recipes I've seen so far depend on wheat, so I may just have to tackle it by trial and error unless I find more in these recent links.

Please share if you find a good recipe in the meantime!

 

[boysmom]

Thank you for sharing your expertise! I'll be going through your links to see what I can dig up that will be helpful



Luanne

 

[NanaRose]

Thanks so much for your reply. There are many recipes for chick and chicken food. My head was about to explode reading all of it. I have decided to view my chicken raising as an experiment in how to raise chickens without wheat, which will take awhile. I know you understand about the difficulty of celiac. We have for 10 years of recovering health kept a total gf home. I read a suggestion of just getting pullets, and thus be able to feed a mixture of wheat & barley-free scratch. Maybe, but I'm so new I don't know where to buy them.

So far our plan has become to put the chicks in a spare room, which will be away from my elderly mother (celiac & COPD), has a wood floor, and safe. Husband can feed them, but you know that feed will be everywhere, and I'll have to clean.

A gluten-intolerant friend has raised chickens for many years. She uses the medicated crumbles for the chicks, and later feeds pellets. The dust from the bottom of her pellet bin bothers her, so husband and children feed when the pellets get down to the bottom of the bin. She says the wheat straw she has in her barn is the worst for her. I won't have that.

Last year I just waited until later in the spring, when the weather was warmer, and kept them outside. Didn't work out so well since we ended up losing most of them to a predator that found a way to get into my chicken house. Late in the summer, I found a source for dried meal worms, so I'm thinking I'll use those as a portion of my protein source this year. I need to look over the links that were just shared with you and see what information I can glean out of that to use, too. Virtually all the recipes I've seen so far depend on wheat, so I may just have to tackle it by trial and error unless I find more in these recent links.

Please share if you find a good recipe in the meantime!

 

[ChickensAreSweet]

You might buy your chicks when it is warm outside so you can do an outside brooder hutch instead of inside the house. I know that after 3 days of chicks in the mud room they are out in the garage due to the horrible dust.

They are incredibly dusty. The dust will coat the walls and everything in the room if they remain in there long enough. A lot of folks do brood chicks in the house but the resultant dust and smell becomes intolerable after awhile. Just thought I'd give you a heads up about it.

If you buy pullets they will still need 16% protein and a balanced ration (wheat and barley free is fine) in order to provide eggs and be healthy, as they need nice protein. Eggs and feathers have a lot of protein in them.

 

[NanaRose]

You might buy your chicks when it is warm outside so you can do an outside brooder hutch instead of inside the house. I know that after 3 days of chicks in the mud room they are out in the garage due to the horrible dust.

They are incredibly dusty. The dust will coat the walls and everything in the room if they remain in there long enough. A lot of folks do brood chicks in the house but the resultant dust and smell becomes intolerable after awhile. Just thought I'd give you a heads up about it.

If you buy pullets they will still need 16% protein and a balanced ration (wheat and barley free is fine) in order to provide eggs and be healthy, as they need nice protein. Eggs and feathers have a lot of protein in them.

It occurs to me that I can split the time, as you do-- start them off in the spare room, then move them to the garage. Here on the Gulf coast it is quite warm, and our garage has an upstairs that is even more so. My concern is that the cats might slip inside unnoticed. I'm hopeful we can put a wire top on the cardboard box we plan to use. I simply cannot ask my husband to build me one more thing, and I do not have the energy or time right now.

I've decided to look at this chicken enterprise as an experiment. I have now read of other celiacs and gluten-intolerant wanting to raise chickens and having this conundrum. I think of all the children who might want to raise up baby chicks-- we have a friend with a grandson with the anaphylactic reaction to wheat & nuts, many, many children so severe, and then there are Autistic children. It is not right that they cannot safely enjoy raising chickens, when things can be substituted for wheat & barley. The feed industry uses that because it is cheap, and they hype up everything. I'm going to get a bunch of recipes and research them and give this deal a try.

 

[ChickensAreSweet]

Absolutely a cardboard box (try to get a nice large one) is great for a brooder.

Two precautions are: secure your heat lamp at least two ways not including the clamp (and I run metal wire through the lamp shade holes as well so that doesn't fall off too) to prevent fire.

Always keep lights far enough away from combustibles (your box needs to be large enough so that the sides are nowhere near the lamp).

You can line the bottom of the box with a tarp before placing your shavings on them or put a tarp under the box to protect the garage floor from staining.

They need some kind of cover over it that is noncombustible to prevent them from flying out. Or sides that are high enough.

Here is a setup that I thought looked cool:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/a/kathyinmos-brooders
scroll down for cardboard brooder

 

[Lazy J Farms Feed & Hay]

Chickens in the house is not a good idea! The dust they produce can get everywhere, if you are allergic to dust then you are asking for trouble.

I like to stick with what I was taught by both of my Grandmothers:

No livestock in the House!

 

[ChickensAreSweet]

Chickens in the house is not a good idea! The dust they produce can get everywhere, if you are allergic to dust then you are asking for trouble.

I like to stick with what I was taught by both of my Grandmothers:

No livestock in the House!

I agree with Lazy J Farms, but I logged back on to offer another piece of advice regarding heat lamps. If you are keeping them in the house I have found the 100 watt bulbs to be much safer, and you can go to Home Depot for clamp lamps and use several of them (I use up to three in winter). The heat lamps are dangerous.

 

[NanaRose]

I used yours and a few others for a base. Now that I've had the chicks three days, I'm understanding the recipes more, as I observe them. I made them a mix of cornmeal, millet, oatmeal, brown rice, ground alfalfa pellets, molasses, bit of salt. They loved it when I brought them home. Put probiotics and vitamins in their water. But then I soaked some cracked corn in a bit of water, and boy, they went for that. So I soaked the cracked corn, and just a bit of the corn meal, rice cereal found in the refrig., oat cereal, and a bit of dried milk. They love this mixture, and I'm actually able to see what this is supposed to be. It is no trouble to mix in small quantities for the day.

I've read several recipes with cod liver oil, but have to get out to buy some, as well as yeast and dolomite powder. Do I have to get these at the health food store?

Thanks so much for posting. I am fortunate that the feed store owner has a gluten-intolerant grandson who was very sick before diagnosis. When I saw the little chicks in the brooders and the chick starter all over everything and them, I knew I had made the right decision for me to feed gluten free. There's no way to have that in the house, even in your chicken coop, and not get it all over. People who are not celiac don't understand this, but those whose been sick or had sick relatives really know the seriousness.

My mother and little sister also have celic (if you want any good recipes PM me I have some great ones) so when the chicks are brooding and are very close to the house I mix my own feed for them.

We carefully read the protein and vitamin requirements, and weighed each ingredient to get the ratio right, so you can halve it or double it, but you have to keep the ratios. this is a 18% protein mix, with all of the percentages of vitamins and calcium that the Purina chick starter has.

Here is the recipe:
8 cups of corn grits
1/4 cups of cornmeal
6 TBS of molasses
7 TBS of brewers yeast
8 TBS of Cod liver oil
1 TBS Dolomite powder
2 cups of milk
2 cups of water

I mix it up 1-2 a week and keep it in the fridge, it needs to be changed every 2-3 days otherwise it gets moldy, I also feed this to sick hens.

ETA: what about a dust mask when you are feeding the hens?