The best types of grain for chicken feed?

[Illia]

Quinoa, in my opinion, with Amaranth just behind it, is possibly the best you can get for them. Corn is mostly fat, and these days most of it is GMO (which is a personal opinion type matter though) same with Soy, Barley and Oats are okay too, but I just prefer Quinoa and Amaranth, as they have plenty protein, are a natural diet to the feral and local chickens in South America, and it even helps the blue egg coloration a little with blue/green/olive egg layers.

Quinoa is also very hardy, too, althogh not the greatest for climates like mine that have a LOT of rain. If you live in a rainy season, and want to grow some, it is preferred that you either harvest early or choose a hardier strain (one seed company sells a strain that isn't as susceptible to seed bursting from rain)

 

[ChickensAreSweet]

Quote:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quinoa
Quinoa has a bitter saponin coating that is washed off before serving to humans. You probably know this already, but I thought I would mention it.

http://www.allergy-details.com/food-allergy/cooking-quinoa/
this website describes washing quinoa

 

[pascopol]

Quote:
Quinoa for chicken?

I have no doubt it is good for chicken, but at $4.00 a pound I rather eat it myself.

Delicious and the most nutritious of all grains, no doubt about it.

 

[sydney13]

Does anyone have a corn variety they would recommend? I think I remember reading somewhere that silver corn is not as good for chicken feeds as the yellow corn... Anyone know anything about this?

 

[Organics North]

Quote:
That is one of those foods that my chickens have a "dose" above which, they bill them out on the ground. I have learned the hard way only to put 4 lbs of them in my recipe.

I used to go around saying my chickens really disliked peas. But now, I just say they like them ok, but not too many.

I grind my field peas. The birds eat them, I never see any left. They did not like them whole and sprouted.

See my page for what I feed.

I can grow flax in my area, (Like a weed, it self seeds.) I tried quinoa last year, because I have cool summers rarely over 85F... So I thought it would do good, but then I reasearched it further and it seems to be photo sensitive too. (My understanding is it does not set seed as well in the long day lengths we have.) It does better south like in the mountains of CO or NM.)

ON

 

[ChickensAreSweet]

Quote:
That is one of those foods that my chickens have a "dose" above which, they bill them out on the ground. I have learned the hard way only to put 4 lbs of them in my recipe.

I used to go around saying my chickens really disliked peas. But now, I just say they like them ok, but not too many.

I grind my field peas. The birds eat them, I never see any left. They did not like them whole and sprouted.

See my page for what I feed.

I can grow flax in my area, (Like a weed, it self seeds.) I tried quinoa last year, because I have cool summers rarely over 85F... So I thought it would do good, but then I reasearched it further and it seems to be photo sensitive too. (My understanding is it does not set seed as well in the long day lengths we have.) It does better south like in the mountains of CO or NM.)

ON

I tried unsuccessfully growing quinoa too. I think I did have some "plants" if I remember correctly. But no crop.

 

[Organics North]

I got a "crop" but the seed heads were not that big. Sure is pretty stuff in fall though. The kind I grew was golden and a real pretty red.. I only had 50 or 100 plants, I could imagine a whole field of it that would be a sight to see
ON

 

[Illia]

Quote:
I'm not the biggest fan of white or yellow corn. . .

I myself like Oaxacan Green Dent corn the best, but mainly because it's dark green/blue/purple, a good flour corn, and the hardiest stuff for the northwest, where normally just the idea of growing corn is a joke.

After that, the other varieties are the same reason. Mandan Red, Hookers, Triple Play - All hardy for short seasoned, cold climates and all good flour and/or sweet eating corn, all heirloom too.

As for other regions of the US. . .

 

[ChickensAreSweet]

Quote:
Oh you just made my day Illia!!! I couldn't for the life of me figure out what I was doing wrong with my corn. THANKS!!!!

 

[Organics North]

I am trying a OP corn this year called Fischer's Earliest. It comes from Montana, is does well in cool conditions. If you have the time and temp, Hopi blue corn can be a good producer.


I suggest digging into the heirloom seed web sites and doing some Internet research. There are some really neat heirloom GMO free Open Pollinated corns out there.


ON