Who makes their own feed?

[Sutherland906]

Looking for some advice/opinions/feedback from those of you who make your own chicken feed? I've recently found an organic supplier near home and should be able to reduce cost significantly.

If you make your own...

• What are your base ingredients?
• Do you add vitamins/minerals?
• For layers, has your formula impacted their laying? (If you have previously altered your formula because of a decline in laying, I'd be glad to know that as well)
• If you wouldn't mind sharing your "recipe", I'd love to see what others are doing!

I will also mention my birds diet is 95% bugs/greens. They free range from dawn until dusk. My biggest concern is to formulate an adequate diet for winter time when foraging is decreased due to snow cover (upstate NY, it's inevitable). Thanks in advance!

 

[Little Fuzzy]

I only mix my own scratch. I use whole seeds of barley, oats, red wheat, Rye if I can find it, Black oiled sunflowers seeds, then i add in corn in the winter. They love it and run up to the coop at bedtime to get their treat. Just don't feed too much.

 

[Gray Farms]

I don't make my own but I mix my own. Layer crumbles, crimped corn, black oil sunflower seeds, safflower seeds, MannaPro calfmana pellets, MannaPro Poultry conditioner pellets, & Aureomycin crumbles.

 

[Little Fuzzy]

There is a good recipe on this thread somewhere, I just found it to be too complicated. You have to get all those minerals and other additives just right or your going to have unhealthy birds. I'd rather leave it to the professionals. There is good organic feed out there if thats what your worried about.

 

[Sutherland906]

I only mix my own scratch. I use whole seeds of barley, oats, red wheat, Rye if I can find it, Black oiled sunflowers seeds, then i add in corn in the winter.  They love it and run up to the coop at bedtime to get their treat. Just don't feed too much.

Are they free ranging for their main food source or do you give them feed? (Or both)

 

[ShanandGem]

After a LOT of research and tweaking, I have developed my own feed. It isn't cheap and it is time consuming but my birds are beyond healthy; shiny, soft feathers, good egg production. I didn't realize how beautiful my birds were until I recently brought home 4 free hens from a home where they were well loved and fed nothing but commercial chicken feed. They had dull coats and split feathers.

Crumble recipe:
10 heaping cups scratch grains
2 heaping cups buckwheat groats
2 cups alfalfa pellets
2 cups soybean meal
1 cup pumpkin seeds
1/2 cup nutritional yeast
1 cup wheat germ
1 cup sesame seeds
1 cup flax seeds
1 cup millet
1 cup sunflower seeds
2 tbsp. cod liver oil
3/4 tsp salt

The above I ferment and then mix in equal proportions with my cooked mash:

2 big handfuls split red lentils
3 cups of the above crumble
piece of fish or venison
fresh frozen corn
water to cover everything
1/2 tsp salt

If the piece of meat isn't very big I may occasionally add a small handful of dry cat food after cooking.
Cook on medium heat until it starts to boil , then turn off heat and leave it on the burner. I do it in the evening and before going to bed add a block of frozen spinach. In the morning just before serving I add a tbsp. cod liver oil.
Mix this with the fermented feed in a big bucket and watch the chaos unfold.

It's not cheap but my hens are egg laying machines and my roosters are all 100% fertile. Everyone looks like they're made of polished glass in the sun, they're so shiny.
I leave out commercial crumble free choice 24/7 but the only time they eat it is when I don't make enough of this goop. I have 40 birds and a 50 lb bag of commercial feed lasts me 2 weeks.

 

[Little Fuzzy]

My birds free range all day but I also have layer feed out for free choice.

 

[ShanandGem]

Mine free range too, as much as I can manage, but I have multiple roosters so they have to take turns.

 

[Sutherland906]

After a LOT of research and tweaking, I have developed my own feed.  It isn't cheap and it is time consuming but my birds are beyond healthy;  shiny, soft feathers, good egg production.  I didn't realize how beautiful my birds were until I recently brought home 4 free hens from a home where they were well loved and fed nothing but commercial chicken feed.  They had dull coats and split feathers. 

Crumble recipe:
10 heaping cups scratch grains
2 heaping cups buckwheat groats
2 cups alfalfa pellets
2 cups soybean meal
1 cup pumpkin seeds
1/2 cup nutritional yeast
1 cup wheat germ
1 cup sesame seeds
1 cup flax seeds
1 cup millet
1 cup sunflower seeds
2 tbsp. cod liver oil
3/4 tsp salt

The above I ferment and then mix in equal proportions with my cooked mash:

2 big handfuls split red lentils
3 cups of the above crumble
piece of fish or venison
fresh frozen corn
water to cover everything
1/2 tsp salt

If the piece of meat isn't very big I may occasionally add a small handful of dry cat food after cooking.
Cook on medium heat until it starts to boil , then turn off heat and leave it on the burner.  I do it in the evening and before going to bed add a block of frozen spinach.  In the morning just before serving I add a tbsp. cod liver oil.
Mix this with the fermented feed in a big bucket and watch the chaos unfold.

It's not cheap but my hens are egg laying machines and my roosters are all 100% fertile.  Everyone looks like they're made of polished glass in the sun, they're so shiny. 
I leave out commercial crumble free choice 24/7 but the only time they eat it is when I don't make enough of this goop.  I have 40 birds and a 50 lb bag of commercial feed lasts me 2 weeks.

You sure put in a lot of effort! I appreciate the feedback, I'll definitely be incorporating a good portion into my mix.

 

[ShanandGem]

You sure put in a lot of effort! I appreciate the feedback, I'll definitely be incorporating a good portion into my mix.

When I first started out I followed the 'feed nothing but commercial chick starter' rule and lost half my chicks to vitamin deficiencies. Never again.