What can I grow? DIY chicken feed.

[KRack]

I am a duck person. But I will be starting chickens soon. In Storey's guide to raising ducks, Dave Holderread gets VERY specific on combinations of food vitamins and minerals. He also noted that sometimes the commercial producers screw up and fail to add a critical component (along with specific examples of the results of those failures). So.... try checking Storey's guides. You might get the technical info needed to ensure your flock remains in optimum health. I am confident that an intelligent, competent human can produce suitable feed just like the factory can. (The feed factory is run by humans after all. )

See example image from the book: View attachment 3386939

You can even purchase pelleters to create pelleted feed if you were enthusiastic enough, but just presenting the right combinations will probably be adequate.

Thank you!!

 

[U_Stormcrow]

Sardines once a fortnight may be very different than lots of fish every day.

The sources I have read usually say to limit the amount of fish to a certain percent of the diet, not to avoid it entirely. That is also consistent with there being some in commercially-produced foods.

I have no personal experience, which is why I said "most sources say," and suggested testing it.

Edit to add:


One of the books you just linked, Robinson Poultry Craft, says this on page 98:
"FISH SCRAPS and DESICCATED FISH are, near the sea coast, staple articles of animal food for poultry. Fish products impart a rather strong odor to eggs and flesh, and are often on that account objectionable."

So there is a specific source, recommended by yourself, for the idea that fish CAN affect the flavor of the chicken eggs and meat, in a way that some people find objectionable.

Most of what I read says keep it under 10%. For unimportant reasons, I have almost no sense of smell, and thus virtually no sense of taste - so I can't speak from firsthand experience. I do know that J Rhodes make at home feed recipe is about 10% fish meal and used widely, considered acceptable. I also know that Lazy J Farms & Feed, who actually does this for a living (feed mixes/feed science) says that the industry is at 5% and trying to move away from its use for a host of reasons. I put a lot of weight in what Lazy J has to say - I know some theory, LazyZ lives the practice.

 

[U_Stormcrow]

I am a duck person. But I will be starting chickens soon. In Storey's guide to raising ducks, Dave Holderread gets VERY specific on combinations of food vitamins and minerals. He also noted that sometimes the commercial producers screw up and fail to add a critical component (along with specific examples of the results of those failures). So.... try checking Storey's guides. You might get the technical info needed to ensure your flock remains in optimum health. I am confident that an intelligent, competent human can produce suitable feed just like the factory can. (The feed factory is run by humans after all. )

See example image from the book: View attachment 3386939

You can even purchase pelleters to create pelleted feed if you were enthusiastic enough, but just presenting the right combinations will probably be adequate.

**edit: Granted, it is more difficult than just buying a bag of formulated food, though.

Expect difficulty sourcing some of those ingredients at home. but yes resources like that make a great place to step off from.

 

[Sally PB]

What about contaminants in fish? People in Michigan are warned not to eat more than 1-2 servings per month of fish from Lake Michigan. This recommendation changes from time to time. PFAS, PCBs, etc., have been found in Lake Michigan fish, as well as the Grand River. (Lansing/Grand Rapids area for geographical reference.)

I live on a different river, but have never gone fishing. I'm told I have "one of the best fishing spots in the county" on my property. My property is between acres of farm fields treated every year with glyphosate and that river. Yeah, it concerns me, but there isn't anything I can do to stop it. I filter my drinking water, but I still eat produce from my garden.

I'm not sure if eating the fish I could catch and giving their entrails to the chickens would be a good idea, or not. I'm not keen on the taste of fish, really. But if TSHTF, I would have other things to worry about, and I'd be eating the fish and giving the guts to the chickens.

 

[davez]

I just bought Storeys guide to raising chickens and right on p 104 it has a section on creating your own home made feed mix. It has lists of ingredients and appropriate proportioned amounts. Also I have just read some anecdotes of feeding the birds just your kitchen leftovers and letting them free range to find the rest of what they need. Egg production goes down but you can still have long term healthy, but lower producing birds.

 

[MadeintheUSA]

I think a grazing plan is more efficient and nutritious. Buy some extra moveable electric netting, map out a few zones in your 2 acres, and move them around like cattle men do into different zones every week or so, where they will get new grass and bugs? The bugs are super nutritious and free.

 

[Perris]

It takes a lot of time and physical effort to do all the grinding, mixing, and cooking

who on earth does that? whole grains take the same amount of time to scoop as any other feed.

 

[Asya]

We've been feeding homemade chicken feed for around ten years now. We feed adult birds as well as raise chicks, very successfully. We've had a variety of breeds including sex-links and cornish cross meat birds (so, not just better foraging types), they have all done well on it, better than when we fed commercial feed. We, of course, are always trying to improve, but we started out just feeding sprouted barley, nothing else, and the improvement in the birds health was obvious, these were red and black sex-links. We now also add bentonite clay, kelp, and alfalfa, for the adult birds, plus raw milk and brewers yeast for the chicks. I do believe that sprouting the grains is very important. I would love to hear what you come up with, and wish you all success,
Asya

 

[Sally PB]

@Asya, can you post your recipe?

 

[Perris]

There is no combination of whole grains that will make a nutritionally complete chicken ration

who said I use only grains? you are making assumptions.

you need the vitamins and minerals that come as a pre-mixed powder.

I do not use a pre-mix powder. I get all the vitamins and minerals my birds need from foods and forage.

Without soybeans or meat you have no hope of getting a decent amino acid profile.

This is simply false. I don't give soybeans or meat.

Things are further complicated when the birds pick out their favorite grain and leave the rest.

Birds allowed to select their own ration choose what they need to get a balanced diet: read here for chicks, https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0032579119562289
here for laying hens
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0032579119347285

All this can be compensated for by free-ranging on a really good forage base. But, that takes either a lot of land or very intensive pasture management.

I have just over an acre and I spend very little time managing it. It's enough for about 20 birds.

I do not understand why you keep asserting it is impossible to do what I do and/or exaggerating how hard it is to do it. Perhaps because you tried copying what commercial feed manufacturers do?

I've done it.

I went old school instead. It's a lot easier, and cheaper. And my flock is vigorous and fecund.