According to Weeks (and others) back in the 20's grain should not be ground fine. Chickens, it seems, prefer it roughly the size of a matchhead or rock salt.
Mr Weeks recipe from the day went like this:
Four parts medium cracked wheat.
One part medium cracked corn (Indian corn or maize.)
One part good quality dried beef scrap.
One-fourth part soy bean meal (coarse ground).
One-fourth part oil cake meal (linseed).
One-fourth part charcoal.
He makes the claim that chickens relish this blend and that it took him 14 years to develop. He ground it fresh with is own mill, an important point.
The beef scrap, once commonly available, would be the hardest part to come by, today. However, there are animal protein blends, made from processing by-products (dont ask) that would suffice. Ditto the fish meals used in other feeds.
Do not turn your nose up at the animal protein part of the feed, either. It's an essential part of the chickens diet. Along with vitamin/mineral fortifiers, it's likely the one part you will find in commercial feed missing from home brew feed.
But in the end what have you done? You could very well have monkeyed with your flocks nutrition. I dunno you will, I'm only suggesting. You could make the altruistic claim that your chickens are fed with "home made feed." That counts for something, to be sure.
You may have even gotten out for less money, but to tell the truth - I rather doubt it. I can buy mill ground feed locally for$7-8/50 lb bag. It is complete and ready to feed. My current batch of chicks is thriving on it, if that is any indication. I doubt I could piece together a comparable feed for less cost. I'm certain to do so would be more trouble.
The poultry world we now embrace came up, in large part, because commercial feed was readily available to everyone, at reasonable cost. Without that, much of what we know today would not exist. I say, "Support Your Nearby Feed Mill, the Chickenkeepers Friend!"
