What can I grow? DIY chicken feed.

[KRack]

I’m going to try to plant some things to grow and dry for our chickens, in the event that chicken feed becomes hard to acquire at some point. People used to grow their own feed, right? All the percentages of protein and minerals and yada yada yada, weren’t overanalyzed to death (this sentence may have triggered some of you, hopefully not). I don’t want to HAVE to buy things from the store. So share your thoughts with me.

Could I grow oats, corn, peas, and add in their own eggs? I also have alfalfa and other things I could grow. Maybe start a mealworm farm?

How does one actually feed their chickens, from their own back yard? My chickens free range on 2 acres as well. Anyone successful in being self sustaining in this way?

 

[SandyRiverChick]

I'm not triggered for sure but I have indeed come full circle with this. I was where you are wanting to make my own feed a few years ago. Not because I feared a feed apocalypse but because I thought it would be far superior to commercial crumble. I also do have my chickens on 2 acres (with ability to roam another 3 wooded acres if they choose, which they don't.) I bought a long list of ingredients that I could not grow in addition to growing all sorts of chicken friendly veggies and grasses. I mixed corn, oats, black oil sunflower seed.... I don't even remember what else but it definitely cost more to buy all that is needed which you can't grow. I used a high quality, high protien puppy kibble in it too. Fast forward to the health decline of my flock. Unreal. Egg production went down at least 50%, they, had very pale combs, molted early.... I've had chickens for a very long time and there was no question in my mind that my feed alternative experiment proved that indeed commercial feed has nutritionally what they need. Today they are back on it yet still enjoying many seeds, grains, veggies and berries from my property. Good luck if you still choose to try to replace commercial feed, hopefully you'll be more successful than I was, I'm just letting you know what my honest experience has been.

 

[nuthatched]

People used to grow their own feed, right? All the percentages of protein and minerals and yada yada yada, weren’t overanalyzed to death

No, they bought it or the birds free ranged around the other live stock. Most birds were eaten before their second autum so any diet would work short term or for less productive birds, kinda how prisoners were fed bread and water. Of course, those birds were far less productive than today's birds and could get away with it. I.e 120 egg a year from a white leghorn was phenomenal. Feeding them their own eggs defeats the purpose of having chickens, if even even half of what they lay goes back to them, it won't be enough protein. oats and corn arent great for chickens anyway. mostly empty carbs
There are a hundred threads on this if you search the byc search box, some probably popped up when you started doing typing in your title. It will be easier for to read what's already been gathered.
You *will* need to buy some things, like blood/fish/by product meal and vitamin powder.
Chicken feed is heavily (one of the most heavily researched agricultural topics on the planet) researched for a reason, ignoring the research and doing it anyway is like buying a diy gallbladder removal kit.

 

[KRack]

I'm not triggered for sure but I have indeed come full circle with this. I was where you are wanting to make my own feed a few years ago. Not because I feared a feed apocalypse but because I thought it would be far superior to commercial crumble. I also do have my chickens on 2 acres (with ability to roam another 3 wooded acres if they choose, which they don't.) I bought a long list of ingredients that I could not grow in addition to growing all sorts of chicken friendly veggies and grasses. I mixed corn, oats, black oil sunflower seed.... I don't even remember what else but it definitely cost more to buy all that is needed which you can't grow. I used a high quality, high protien puppy kibble in it too. Fast forward to the health decline of my flock. Unreal. Egg production went down at least 50%, they, had very pale combs, molted early.... I've had chickens for a very long time and there was no question in my mind that my feed alternative experiment proved that indeed commercial feed has nutritionally what they need. Today they are back on it yet still enjoying many seeds, grains, veggies and berries from my property. Good luck if you still choose to try to replace commercial feed, hopefully you'll be more successful than I was, I'm just letting you know what my honest experience has been.

Thanks!! I definitely don’t think I’d nail it right away, but I do think I’d like to try and see how it goes. Not like I don’t have the organic feed I’ve always bought, as an option to switch back to. I’ve read many people be successful in making their own feed and their flocks flourished, but they sourced protein and stuff online.

It may come down to accepting that I buy homemade feed from the Amish down the road, who have been doing this much longer than I have. But I figured I’d see what people on here are doing!

 

[KRack]

No, they bought it or the birds free ranged around the other live stock. Most birds were eaten before their second autum so any diet would work short term or for less productive birds, kinda how prisoners were fed bread and water. Of course, those birds were far less productive than today's birds and could get away with it. I.e 120 egg a year from a white leghorn was phenomenal. Feeding them their own eggs defeats the purpose of having chickens, if even even half of what they lay goes back to them, it won't be enough protein. oats and corn arent great for chickens anyway. mostly empty carbs
There are a hundred threads on this if you search the byc search box, some probably popped up when you started doing typing in your title. It will be easier for to read what's already been gathered.
You *will* need to buy some things, like blood/fish/by product meal and vitamin powder.
Chicken feed is heavily (one of the most heavily researched agricultural topics on the planet) researched for a reason, ignoring the research and doing it anyway is like buying a diy gallbladder removal kit.

I did search some other threads before posting. Thanks for your opinion!

I don’t mind some research. I’ve made a switch with medicine in that I can treat a lot of things from home now, that I couldn’t before. That took research. Infections, even correcting appendicitis. My family is far better for it, and it’s been such a blessing. But sometimes people overthink things and I believe this is one area in which that happens. I’ll do research, but I won’t get hung up on everyone’s idea of what’s necessary. I’ll try things and see how they work and adjust as needed. I’ve got nothing but time to tinker with it.

 

[SandyRiverChick]

I did search some other threads before posting. Thanks for your opinion!

I don’t mind some research. I’ve made a switch with medicine in that I can treat a lot of things from home now, that I couldn’t before. That took research. Infections, even correcting appendicitis. My family is far better for it, and it’s been such a blessing. But sometimes people overthink things and I believe this is one area in which that happens. I’ll do research, but I won’t get hung up on everyone’s idea of what’s necessary. I’ll try things and see how they work and adjust as needed. I’ve got nothing but time to tinker with it.

Since you are intent on doing this my suggestions from my failed attempt are that you find a way to grind/mix then wet your ingredients so that they don't just pick out the candy and try to exist off that (which is what happened with my mix, they don't eat oats, they love corn and corn is not enough.) I don't know how large your flock is but I wish that would have tried the new feed on part of the flock, not the whole flock to compare. Growing then drying and storing takes a long time so ramp up before going for it. Can you get fish easily, locally? I don't know where you are, it's really easy for me.... You're tinkering with health so when/if you see a decline, do the right thing for the animal. Personally, I'm not going to go there again because I enjoy the mass egg production when my flock is at peak health, it's also why I actually have time to be on BYC. But I do wish you luck and hope you're open to posting your journey.

 

[KRack]

Since you are intent on doing this my suggestions from my failed attempt are that you find a way to grind/mix then wet your ingredients so that they don't just pick out the candy and try to exist off that (which is what happened with my mix, they don't eat oats, they love corn and corn is not enough.) I don't know how large your flock is but I wish that would have tried the new feed on part of the flock, not the whole flock to compare. Growing then drying and storing takes a long time so ramp up before going for it. Can you get fish easily, locally? I don't know where you are, it's really easy for me.... You're tinkering with health so when/if you see a decline, do the right thing for the animal. Personally, I'm not going to go there again because I enjoy the mass egg production when my flock is at peak health, it's also why I actually have time to be on BYC. But I do wish you luck and hope you're open to posting your journey.

Thank you!! This is good advice. I do have access to fish (I’m in PA), this is definitely the part that needs the most work for me. I might not be able to implement anything this year, but I’d like to get started messing with the process to see how it goes. I won’t sacrifice the chickens health just to figure this out, I do love them. Honestly that’s part of why I want to have a back up plan if possible.

 

[U_Stormcrow]

@KRack I STRONGLY suggest you don't do this. I understand you are going to try it anyways. I could waste my time explaining why, even if you do things perfectly, you will end up with nothing better than educated guesswork (still a fair site better than uneducated guesswork, but definitely lacking in certainty). I could explain how, for the very vast majority of people who don't enjoy commercial advantages of scale and efficiency (and have facilites to store crops to last the year), the end result is far more expensive. Or that the typical person has not the acreage, the climate, the equipment, to grow all the components of a nutritionally complete feed on their own property. I might even waste my time explaining what I do to bend the cost curve somewhat.

But I'm not feeling that charitable.

Instead, I'll offer this. Science tells us - because its one of the best researched subjects on the planet* - what a chicken needs for optimum production. They are your birds, you can do with them what you will. If you don't want optimum production, you needn't feed them in a way that makes that production possible. If you are willing to shorten the planned lifespan of your flock, you can cut a lot of corners by shortening the timespan in which poor nutrition can lead to negative health outcomes - that's part of how CornishX (together with a hefty dose of selective genetic breeding) puts a bird of supermarket weight in the display in just 6-8 weeks)

In everything there are tradeoffs. Making intelligent tradeoffs, a balancing of understood risks and rewards, is - I contend - not "overthinking" a thing.

*Why is it so well researched? Because history tells us that starving populations tend to overthrow - or attempt to overthrow - their governments, and there are a lot of countries on the planet who would rather that not happen to them. and on the flip side, there are a lot of profit oriented companies interested in the cheapest costs of production. How many widgets for how much money?

P.S. FWIW I know what the optimum feed is for my birds, I've done a lot of reading. I CHOOSE not to feed them in that fashion. I also eat most of them before they hit two years of age, and many by 18 weeks.

 

[Perris]

Science tells us - because its one of the best researched subjects on the planet* - what a chicken needs for optimum production.

"at minimal cost". Almost no research is done on what is best for the chicken, ignoring the cost of the feed or housing etc. As you say,

there are a lot of profit oriented companies interested in the cheapest costs of production

If someone is prepared to spend a bit more (as you yourself are) they can do a lot better by their birds than the bare minimum required to get the most eggs out of a hen as quickly as possible and then kill it.

 

[Sussex19]

I think, instead of trying to completely make your own feed, you should still feed them bought food as a base.
If you pick one with a higher protein, it gives a bit more room to play around with.
Then, you can feed things you can grow, and (what I do) encourage them to free range and find their own food.
If a good % of their feed is from the bought food, they will still be getting most of the proteins and minerals and other things they need from that, but will have the benefit of fresh things in their diet as well. It also cuts back on feed costs, without compromising their health.
I know that in the summer, they will not eat nearly as much of their feed as in winter, as they are getting bugs and fresh greens.
I have not seen any less eggs, or poorer health due to them eating less of their feed, because if their can't find what they need, (and I do think that animals, including chickens, are quite good at balancing their own diets, as long as there is enough things to choose from; which there all most never is how we keep them today) they just come back to their feed dish.