Topic of the Week - Saving Money, Feeding Chickens

[Sammster]

I've never fermented feed, but it is wet when you serve it.

I serve a wet mash made with feed and cold water as a treat on hot days.
GC

They seem to enjoy it! Approximately what water to mash ratio do you use?

 

[GC-Raptor]

They seem to enjoy it! Approximately what water to mash ratio do you use?

I add a half cup of crumbles to bowl for 4 chickens and add water to cover feed about a 1/4 inch and serve immediately.
I'm switching to a Pellet feed when the crumble feed is gone, so I'll have to experiment and let it sit for awhile. GC

 

[mamablair]

The biggest problem I have had is chicks wasting their feed. So I rigged up this, it's a baking sheet with a cooling rack (and some extra hardware cloth) on top. Hopefully I will be able to reuse unsoiled feed this way. I will get to test it out Thursday when my newest babies arrive.

 

[Driley62]

I plan on doing a forage/fodder box in their run each year. Almost like a raised bed with hardware cloth secured to the top so the grass and grains can grow through so they can't scratch and kill it so the next day or two, boom more food for the birds!

 

[Devyn Nagy]

When I fed a large flock outside (in the run) I realised I was feeding half the neighbourhood's wild birds as well. I changed my feeding practices by not leaving food out all day and feeding twice a day only and standing nearby to deter any freeloaders while the chickens were eating (about 10-15 minutes was enough), before covering all remaining feed until the next feeding time. I cut my feed bill in half Yes, the wild birds were consuming as much feed as my 100 bird strong flock did!

Wild birds are getting mine too! I'm trying to think of solutions.

 

[Driley62]

When I fed a large flock outside (in the run) I realised I was feeding half the neighbourhood's wild birds as well. I changed my feeding practices by not leaving food out all day and feeding twice a day only and standing nearby to deter any freeloaders while the chickens were eating (about 10-15 minutes was enough), before covering all remaining feed until the next feeding time. I cut my feed bill in half Yes, the wild birds were consuming as much feed as my 100 bird strong flock did!

That's odd. I've been out of work because of a surgery so I've had a ton of time to observe close and distantly and I haven't had a single Wild bird come in for any. Granted its not easy to get to and they have to come face to face with the chickens to get into it now when before they couldn't period.

 

[DatCampG]

SAVING MONEY FEEDING CHICKENS on my farm is buy in bulk (put back, ration) and keep in a nice metal barrel on a skid out of the elements. More than once my local Co-op has been out of feed (covid-19 was one) and a ice storm was another time. I let my chickens free range. (They eat less chicken food), that is a fact with my birds. I let them out in the pasture in the morning and in the evening, at least two hours before dark. I rustle them back to their secure housing and "pour some feed" in the hanging metal feeders and "toss some hand fulls" of wheat, corn, sorghum (gathered from the farm fields). When the farmers harvest and the 18-wheelers haul off---there is enough left on the ground that will fill five, five gallon buckets or twenty-five or fifty pound food bags (recycled). If you know where to go, and know your farmers, grab your shovel and get while the getting is good!! I always give free eggs to those who have their ears to the train track and let me know, harvesting is commencing, and the eighteen wheelers schedule.
Shoot, some farmers like to even sit down, chew the fat and heft the jug afterwards. It all works out if you know how to work it!! Gathering chicken feed like this at harvest time "in the fields" will SAVE YOU MONEY and take you into Spring if you ration it right and my bulk buy of feed lasts forever. I can spend that extra money on smearin' myself with beauty grease and fancy smellin' renderings.