What do you feed your breeding chickens?

[speckledhen]

Tori, I bought that at the Fannin County Co-op and it cost me $13.50 or so, which is about $4 higher than the regular layer pellets. I may not keep them exclusively on that, maybe alternate, due to the cost and my meager $$$.

 

[Mrs MIA]

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Yow. Regular 16% layer feed is $15.19 here... jumped to $20 for a week, then went back down. I wish we had other options...

 

[kathyinmo]

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I really appreciate this information! Thanks for taking the time to share it with us.

 

[Lotsapaints]

Well I'm going to try Farmer's Helper Ultra Kibble and the forage cakes going with Resolution's suggestions for feeding and housing too only because I have the equipment at my house to do it and don't need to buy anything except the feed....I'm still building new coops and my design was similar so to add in his ideas is pretty easy. I do feel for breeding that use of animal protein is very important and understand not over doing the protein % I also feel that my heritage breeds were not designed for the current type of chicken feed marketed either......time will tell as I'm learning by doing and having fun

 

[alabama49]

Lotsapaints-please share your results of trying the Ultrakibble & cakes. I am very interested in trying the Ultrakibble myself but the Southern States dealer here is having trouble finding out if they carry it or not!!! Anyway, will be reading with interest!!! Resolutions makes sense to me but I heard that the Kibble is very pricey!! So I don't know how one would save $$ on their feeding program.

 

[Lotsapaints]

Well it mixes 15% with your whole grain mix so for every 85lbs of grain you need one bag of kibble and it decreases the amount birds eat yes I found it for 25.00 counting shipping but my whole grains run 10.00 per 50lbs so it seems about the same as any good breeder mix I could make or buy......I can tell you going to mostly whole grains has made a big difference in the amount of food they eat and they way they look is very pretty to my eyes I hope to see a difference with the kibble buying a 50lb bag a peas is very close to 1 bag of kibble......and there is no comparison to the nutrients

 

[alabama49]

I think I read that you could feed scratch feed with that kibble. I get a 3 grain scratch with cracked corn, barley & millet to feed with my layer pellets but there seems to be some disagreement about feeding corn?? I am confused about this feeding situation!!!

 

[Lotsapaints]

Wheat and oats are better than barley as barley isn't a good chicken feed there is nothing wrong with corn only too much corn has a high TDN 1lb corn is worth 1 1/2 lbs of oats oats have more fiber and millet and milo are great winter feeds for chickens so I make my own scratch and add split peas and sunflower seed. The big difference I made is sprouting grains-I sprout oats wheat and sunflower seeds together in a bucket, separate I've been doing Austrian peas they spout quicker and they are like sunflower seeds a little goes a long ways it cut down on my feed costs and my birds shine like glass. I'm going to the kibble for the turkeys most of all they need higher protein than chickens and they are laying right now and I sure want to hatch some early turkeys....in the wild our birds would be eating seeds, bugs and what ever windfall they could find and berries plus whatever is sprouting...just trying to get my diet close to wild for all the nutrients any animal gets when they eat wild organic foods....

 

[speckledhen]

This is the "scratch" I use, called Knockout. It's really a feed for game roosters. Has 11 grains and is 12% protein, though recently it was 13%, but they added more corn to the mix. Still, it's a nice quality feed--my crippled rooster, Zane, who lives in his own cage, eats it almost exclusively.

 

[Newyorkrita]

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That feed mix just looks good