“Having children changes everything.”
This saying constantly rang through my ears, especially in the years before my husband and I had children. While I was prepared for certain changes, I was not prepared for our philosophy of consumption to be radically altered.
So radically altered, that even our chickens felt the difference.
With the arrival of our first child, I realized that no longer were we meeting just our own needs with products and food. Now, God had given us the responsibility of caring for a new little life as well.
This idea changed everything…
The Changes
Slowly, over the years, the environmental working group became my most visited website.
First to go was No More Tears shampoo, which gave me tears when I read the ingredients list. I was putting those toxins on the skin of my sweet newborn?!
Next came our food. We saw firsthand the horrendous farming practices along the I-5 corridor of California… No longer did eating out, or buying anything but local, organic food seem like such a treat!
And then, after plunging into backyard chickens to rid ourselves of scorpions, we began enjoying their eggs! That was, until we realized what we were feeding them. Handfuls of words we couldn’t identify or pronounce. Eventually, that nagging concern led us to explore alternatives…
Tackling Homemade Chicken Feed
Eggs have always been a big staple in our home. And to ensure that we were consuming the most nutrient-dense eggs possible, we decided to give homemade and nutritious chicken feed a try.
Hoping for a cheaper alternative to the expensive chicken feed bags from our local food co-op, we scoured through recipes, local feed availability, and protein ratios. And finally, my husband developed a homemade mix!
Now, after partaking daily of our homemade feed for 4 1/2 months, our ladies are laying incredibly well. They are healthy, and we haven’t lost any to sickness, even during our humid summer climate.
The biggest hurdle after figuring out ingredients and ratios was what to use for grinding the feed. Hesitantly, we used our Family Grain Mill, which has worked so well that we nicknamed it Old Faithful. 😉
Homemade Non-GMO & Organic Chicken Feed Mix
All ingredients are organic and non-GMO. Makes 25 pounds.
Ingredients
- 7-1/2 pounds corn
- 7-1/2 pounds peas green/split/cow peas
- 5 pounds wheat
- 2-1/2 pounds oats
- 2-1/2 pounds barley
- .20 ounce fish meal
- 1.0 ounce diatomaceous earth
- 0.05 ounce mineral salts
- 0.15 ounce kelp
- eggs shells ground up old from the week prior, as many as we save
- clabber yogurt, or whey (optional)
Instructions
-
Grind corn and peas on a coarse setting.
-
Combine all ingredients (except cultured dairy or whey).
-
Mix with cultured dairy or soak in whey, if desired.
-
Use as chicken feed.
How We Feed
We feed two times a day, once in the morning and then again in the afternoon.
The afternoon feeding is mixed with approximately 2 to 3 cups of cultured dairy, or soaked in whey. Our milk lady sells us the skim milk left over after separating cream, or whey from cheesemaking. Thankfully she only charges $1 per gallon for what she considers “seconds milk”.
We grind only enough to last about 3 to 4 days, since after research my husband decided that this is best nutritionally. Ideally, it should be ground fresh but there’s just not enough time in the day.
On average, depending upon slight price variations, we figure the cost of our chicken feed to be about $20 per 50 pounds (give or take a dollar). That includes the milk, but not included is the cost of gas to drive to the organic farm a couple of times a year to replenish our supplies.
By the grace of God, we have finally tackled the hurdle of chicken feed. I am now completely joyful at the eggs I watch my children devour every morning, knowing exactly what is in the feed that nourished the chickens as they produced them.
Do you make homemade chicken feed? What recipe do you follow? What advice would you give?
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Yes, I make our own chicken feed, using mostly the same ingredients as you use except I do not grind it – I soak it instead.
Method:
Wet – I combine all the ‘seeds’ and soak over night at least, allowing the un-used portion to continuing soaking until the next feeding/day. I use a big splash of ACV, whey, or molasses plus water to cover the organic seeds about an inch. I do not feed corn as I haven’t found an organic source for it.
Dry – Then I fill half my feeding bucket with alfalfa meal, salts, kelp, all the dry ingredients.
Finally I combine the now plump and soft soaked seeds with the dry ingredients in a about a half and half ratio. So my chickens get more ‘grass’ protein in the form of alfalfa.
And we use recycled roasting pans to feed in, two times a day. Plus they are on grass, and moved to new grass as needed.
My goals were to not only avoid typical feed stuffs, but to also minimize the feeding of ‘seed’ to all my animals, to better mimic a wild diet. In the case of chickens/ducks seed can be further limited by adding worms to their feedings.
I’ve stopped using worms for now as we are still settling in to our new land 🙂
I hope this gives some more ideas to those considering their own feed mixes ~ blessings to all!
I enjoyed Tracey’s post very much, but I have to say I LOVE this idea Jami! If and when I ever get chickens again, I will do something very similar to this. I used to soak the grains for my goats in vinegar also… thanks for telling how you do this!
Hello Jami!
Thank you so much for sharing!!!! I like the idea of not grinding so much. We opted for grinding so we could feed dry and soaked – to hopefully avoid sour crop. Do you find that the mix of soaked and dry still allows for enough roughage for their crops or does everything get mashy?
Thank you for posting this information. So many wonderful and helpful posts on this thread. We are currently feeding a store bought layer brand called HOMEMADE Layer. It has non-GMO corn. But we also add some extras for our chickens….flax seed, rolled oats, barley, millet, meal worms (live or dried), sunflower seed meat (without the shells), triticale and caterpillars, if I find any. They seem to enjoy feeding time. 🙂 I grow the meal worms for the chickens. I want to check into making our own feed. Its nice to know what your chickens are eating. Where do you get the alfalfa meal, seaweed or kelp?
Thank you for sharing your feed mix! What I am learning is that there is not a one size fits all feed- I wish I could find more information on what chickens were fed historically, and regionally for that matter. I would love to hear how you grow the meal worms- what a great source of protein! Are there better times of the year for this to be done?
We source our alfalfa and kelp from Azure- which unfortunately is not local for us anymore. However, i am about to get on a local Thorvin kelp order through a buying group. I hope that helps. : ))))
The Meal Worms are fairly easy…but time consuming. You can go online and see how to raise them. My chickens are really happy when those are on the menu for the day. 🙂 There are also Super Worms that are bigger than the Meal Worms and easier for the chickens to find. Meal Worms will pupate into a larva after a while and then emerge into a beetle. We put all our beetles in Wheat Bran in a Tupperware container and in a 3 week time will lay lots of eggs that turn into the Meal Worms. If you keep everything clean, there is no smell and if you gut load the worms, the chickens get more protein when fed the Meal or Super Worms.
Sorry I’m so late getting back to this discussion, I never got any more email notices – ow well I’m here now….
I have never had sour crop in any of my flocks over the years. I did take in some birds from a friend and one of her’s was sour and died. I think the sock of the move finished her off.
More background – I first started with my chicken rearing in the city; they were confined and fed by me with almost no ranging as this put my flower beds in peril. I raised chickens for over 6 years. Now we are on land, and the chickens help feed themselves.
I started experimenting with making feed and modified it right from the beginning. I never had chickens eating their own eggs or sour crop, but I always paid attention to providing a varied mix.
So to answer your question Tracey – I think the roughage works out fine. My mix ends up damp but still loose and crumbly, not clumpy or mushy.
I tried a worm bin for several years. I would keep it in the house during the Winter time to keep my supply going during those cold months. But I found it very time consuming during harvest, and Winter maintenance. So I gave it up.
But there are variations that are a bit easier to keep. Like in a heated green house for instance.
Now, I place old boards on the ground when chickens are confined. I keep the boards watered in the dry months. In a week or two I call the chickens and flip the wood over to reveal all kinds of bugs living in the ‘safe’ place I provided. The larger the surface area of the wood (think plywood) and more bugs use it. But mostly I prefer to run the chickens in the untamed places on my land. This way their find their own bugs. I know not everyone can do this so give the wood flip a try.
Hi Jami,
I know this is an old post, but I was wondering if you wouldn’t mind sharing your recipe. I am looking to make feed for my chickens, but want a corn free recipe because my son’s allergies. Thanks so much!
Samantha,
I know someone who has a corn free recipe. Here’s the link: http://hopecentric.com/grain-free-chicken-feed/
God bless,
Tracey
is there a certain ratio that should be followed for the grains vs seed vs protein?
Where on earth can you get the organic non tmo grains at a affordable price ? Have 15 chicken, 10 ducks, and a few geese. Oh, we live in East Texas….
We’ve had backyard chickens for 3+ years and have gone back and forth about feed and whether or not to make it so this information is very useful – thank you! I am curious how much you give your birds at each feeding? We just use dry feed and fill the bin up so I’m not sure how much they’re really getting but they have access to bugs, etc. in the yard. Thanks again!
Hello Elaine,
I am glad this was helpful. ; ) We have 22 chickens right now and feed four bowl fulls of feed in the morning (cereal size bowls) and one bowlful of soaked feed in the afternoon – so five total bowls a day. We also move our chickens with chicken netting every few days so that they have fresh grass to peck- my husband built his own version of a moveable egg-mobile. : ))) I hope that helps!!!! : )
do you have pics of the moveable egg-mobile?
I will look into seeing if I can post it here. : ))) If not, maybe I can email it to you. : )
I’ve been making my own chicken feed mix over the last year. Like Jami mentioned above, rather than grinding the grain I soak/sprout some instead. My current grain mixture is:
-2 parts wheat or triticale (this is a grain similar to wheat but higher in protein)
-1 part milo (which is whole, unhulled millet)
-1 part barley
-1 part rolled oats
-1/2 part sunflower seeds
I soak mine in filtered water with a little apple cider vinegar for about 6 hours, then drain it and rinse it daily until the sprouts are showing (at which point I transfer it to the fridge).
My chickens have this same mixture in dry form as well as the sprouts. (They eat it both ways, but definitely seem to prefer the sprouts especially during the cold season when there isn’t much growing for them to eat.)
I also feed my chickens a small amount of milk kefir-soaked grains each week. Sometimes this is made with organic corn meal (I haven’t yet found a source for bulk organic feed corn that is reasonably priced), or sometimes it is oats soaked in kefir. The chickens LOVE to eat kefir-soaked grains. I periodically sprinkle a little kelp powder over their food, and also crush up egg shells into their yard which they eat as desired.
I’ve never had any luck getting my chickens to eat split peas. Whether soaked or dried, they turn up their noses at split peas. For additional protein, I also give my chickens meat scraps cut from our grassfed beef steaks, and more recently have started giving them all the leftover bones/meat/etc from my chicken broth pot (which cooks so long that the bones could easily be smooshed with a spoon). They LOVE to eat this as well.
Thanks so much for sharing, Sarah! We tried feeding our mixture of feed without grinding it, but our chickens would not/could not eat the whole corn as well as the peas- thus why we began grinding just the corn and peas, everything else is whole. Sounds like chickens can truly be picky eaters- ironically. : )
Thanks for sharing about the triticale- I will have to see if I can source that locally!
What type of Sunflower seeds do you use and where do you purchase them (or do you grow them)?
Hi Tracey,
I use black oil sunflower seeds, bought from one of our local feed stores in a 25-lb bag. They are expensive (at least twice the price of my other grains), but the chickens sure love them and they are a good source of protein. They also seem to really love the milo.
I wonder if our chicken’s pickiness about their food has to do with what is available for them to eat in our different regions/climates… I bet my chickens eat a different mix of bugs and plants than yours since I live in the hot desert southwest. Last month I watched my chickens chase each other around fighting over a huge centipede, last night it was an enormous 5-inch long grass hopper/locust-looking bug.
We have looked into the black oil seeds, especially for our goats, but find them to be expensive here as well. Are the seeds grown organically? Do you know the protein ratio?
We have a handful of chickens left in our brood from when we lived in AZ- funny thing is, they chase bugs all the time- maybe because they were a bit bug deficient in the desert? The other chickens that are TN grown exclusively are lazy about catching bugs. In addition, the older chickens, who only occasionally lay eggs, do not eat the soaked whey/yogurt feed in the afternoon- guess they do not need as much calcium as the regular egg layers.
Just out of curiosity, and this can be for you or anyone else reading this- what is the movement away from corn for feed? Is it allergy related or because most corn grown is GMO?
Black oil sunflower seeds are supposed to be 15% protein. The ones I’ve bought are not organic, and I can’t find any of those, but at least there are no GMO sunflower seeds yet.
I would love to be able to give my chickens lots of corn, but I cannot find an organic source and I am definitely concerned about GMO’s in the non-organic corn sold here.
You’ve encouraged me to look more into the black oil seeds! We drive a little over an hour to get our corn/oats/barley/wheat from a N. Nashville farm committed to non-GMO. If we bring our trailer and go a few times a year- it is not too bad of a trip. I am thankful that there is that local, affordable source here. Sure sounds like you make due with what you are able to source where you live!
I too find the black oil sunflower seeds expensive in my area too, so I plant a few each spring. They grow easily in Oregon where I live and really add color and beauty to a place. In the Fall I cut them down and feed the stocks to our rabbits, plus a couple of the heads.
I store whole seed heads for feeding to rabbits and chickens during the winter months.
Agreed…my chickens dont like split peas much either. I have only had luck with yellow peas and if they are pieces and not whole (we feed a whole grain diet to our chickens). As for chicken pickiness, I really believe it works mush like other animals (and people). Some seasons they need different things nutritionally. And different breeds will have different nutritional needs and preferences. Lots of factors. Great post Tracey! Impressed you can find Non-GMO corn. Passing this on for those who don’t have the sensitivities we have in our home.
Thanks, Nichole! The ladies haven’t scoffed at our peas yet- I just tried some green whole peas this week to mix things up a bit- so far so good. : )) Living in the AG South, there is only ONE farm we have found within reasonable driving distance for non-GMO corn- thankfully it is a goldmine, and I pray he makes it work over the years! Hope your mix is working well!!!!!!
Tracey,
Do you mind sharing: is the farm in or near (eastern) Tennessee?
Hello Terri- The farm is North of Nashville, near Springfield if I remember correctly- Windy Acres farm. : )))) Please let me know if you need contact info.
Thank you for all this information! I have been making my own scratch for over three years now and have learned some great things from this post. I’ve never “measured” the protein in the feed I make, I’ve just trusted the wisdom of where the recipe came from originally. Don’t know if that is good or bad, but so far, I’ve never lost a chicken to sickness, and their eggs are big, beautiful, and hard as rocks.
My chickens won’t eat peas either, but then again, they’ve never gotten them ground. I may have to try that. They also get sunflower seeds, which is ordered from Azure Standard. Definitely not local…. I’ve tried to grow them myself, but found it takes a lot of sunflowers to feed 15 chickens for a whole year.
I have never sprouted my seeds, but have I mentioned they are picky eaters? They don’t always clean up the ground, the seeds sprout on their own, and voila! they are gone.
The recipe:
2 parts corn (increase to 3 to 4 in winter)
2 parts white wheat
2 parts red wheat
1 part millet
1 part amaranth
1 part peas
1 part kamut
1 part barley
1 part whole oats
1 part lentils
1 part quinoa
1 part sesame seed
1 part sunflower seeds (increase to 2 to 3 parts in winter)
1/2 part flax seed
About 4 times a year, sea kelp and diatomaceous earth gets added into the mix.
For 15 chickens, I give them 5 scoops a day (the scoop is about a cup and a half). I also let them out to free range for about an hour to two everyday in the evenings. We have a few acres, but it is completely surrounded by woods. If they are let out to free range all day, I end up loosing 1 to 3 chickens everyday to coyotes. Not cool.
Thanks again for this post!
Hello again, Terri- I like your mix- what do you estimate that you spend per 50lbs? In addition, do you increase the protein/corn in the winter so that they will lay better? Do you put lights on them as well? I am thankful to be learning so much from you all! : )))
I do not put lights in there, I try to keep their environment as close to natural as possible and still keep them alive. 🙂 I do increase corn… that is, if I can find non-GMO corn. Increasing the sunflower seeds also helps keep them warm. Most of my girls roost up in the rafters of their coop, and the sun always warms it up in there, so that is good.
We’ll see about this year (it is our third), but my chickens have always laid all winter long – not as consistently, but never-the-less, all throughout the winter months. And their eggs’ shells are so hard, they usually don’t break if accidentally dropped, so I think the mix is a good one.
This is a horrible thing to say, but I have no idea how much per pound I spend…. I have just done research and tried to find each of the ingredients at the lowest possible price and still have each be of good quality and non-gmo. I buy a lot of ingredients from Azure Standard. Their animal grade organic wheat (white and red), barley, and whole oats that are VERY reasonable: the 50# bag of organic, animal-grade, mixed wheat is only $15. Gotta love that!
And yes please, I would like the farm’s contact info. Thanks!
Hello Terri,
Forgive me for not getting back to you sooner- you can google Windy Acres Farm (in Orlinda, TN) for all the details- they are truly great there and the corn/wheat and a few other things are cheaper than sourcing it through Azure animal grade- at least in our recent experience- and it is supporting local, sustainable farming practices!
We have opted out of putting lights on our chickens as well. By the grace of God, this winter so far, I have a constant dozen left over at the end of the day in surplus; I would like to increase that to two dozen if possible, but my little ones love their eggs!
God bless you, Terri! I have enjoyed the conversation!
What a great post! I love the idea of making your own feed–so much better than the commercial stuff, and cheaper than Non-GMO and organic. Thanks a bunch! I know I’ll give this a try!
Thanks, Samantha! Yes, we are very thankful to have success with this mix and not feel like soy had to be the main source of protein. I hope you find something that works well for your flock!!!!
Hi Tracey, I too live in tennessee we drive about an hour to get our non-gmo organic feed also. I’m wondering if we go to the same place. We go to windy acre farm.
Haha- that is wonderful! Yes- we source from Windy Acres as well!!! Do you buy their pre-mixed feed or supplies to make your own? My kids love going there, even despite the drive because the owner is always welding something, or the farm is just in action- a great place to see an organic farm at work with people who care and love what they do!
We are a family farm (just DH, me & the 3 teen boys) that is trying to make a business of selling our “extra” eggs that we don’t eat. We use organic, non-GMO feed from up north (has to be trucked in – but it is the ONLY organic chicken feed available). The price per bag is much less than Tracey’s cost (we barely make any money at that price) so I know we can’t afford to change and make our own. However, what I want to share is something we’ve found to reduce their reliance on the commercial feed. We buy non-GMO corn and soak/sprout it. The hens LOVE IT! And it makes the yolks turn so orange! I can always tell when they haven’t been feeding the soaked corn. (just corn doesn’t do it – has to be soaked/sprouted) We soak/sprout similar to the method used for grains for people – just think a 5 gallon bucket with screening over the top. The boys do this all outside, so you have to adjust your times depending on the temp. Our girls are also very healthy and happy.
Hello Sherri!
Thank you for sharing! I am glad to hear that you all have a source for non-gmo corn. I have learned through all the wonderful comments, yours included, that I may want to soak our corn more than just in the afternoon, and then our grinding may be less. I appreciate your input!
Just out of curiosity- how many chickens do you all have? How many dozens extra of eggs on average, do you sell a week? When your hens are done laying- do you all process them?
We have wanted to get more chickens so that we can sell eggs as well, but wanted to get our feed down first. : )))
God bless!
I am soooo excited to learn about Windy Acres Farm. I live northwest of Nashville and have been searching for healthy grains to feed my chickens and ducks and other farm animals. Thank you so much for sharing this information. whohoooooo
Yeah!!!! I am happy to share the blessing of this farm! : )))))
I am 71 years old. When I was a small child on my grandmother’s farm, I watched her harvest and shuck corn. It was hard and dry. My grandmother told me it was popcorn. Somehow she cracked it. This is what she fed the chickens. The chickens had the run of the farm, so they got bugs, worms, and whatever. I was not old enough at the time to be curious as to how they cracked the corn, just recall it being “broken.”
Thank you for sharing, Sharon. Being both history teachers by trade, my husband and I always seem to ask- how were things done back ……… Chicken feed has been difficult to find an answer to historically, because I am assuming people fed their chickens whatever they had left over on the farm- and corn as you said. In our modern world, we want production, and I often wonder if that was so important years ago. I am guessing if a hen was not laying well, it would end up as dinner???? Thank you for giving me a picture into your experience!
Hi, can anyone tell me how to feed meat chickens? Can I use the above recipe?? thanks!
Hello Julia,
Just now seeing this, I apologize. I know you want to ramp up protein for meat chickens to get them to grow faster. So, I might take this recipe and increase protein by 5% or so, but keep an eye on them to make sure they are handling it okay.
God bless!
I just wanted to share that POPCORN is NOT gmo and thus can be used if you are unable to source organic corn locally. Sams Club carries it in 50lb bags for around $20-$25, not bad at all. The only downside/concern is there is still the issue of use of fertilizers or pesticides.
5/28 Just as an update, thanks to so many comments and growing tired of grinding all the feed- we no longer grind corn, peas, etc… We soak in ACV and then add to the dry mix. The chickens have been on this method for a number of months now and are doing great. The only grinding we are doing now is for our homemade chick/turkey feed. : ) Thanks for all of the comments/wisdom.
What is the protein content of this feed?
What are the mineral salts you are adding?
If I didnt add egg shells should I add some other calcium supplement?
And why do you add DE?
Thanks!
Hello Jennifer,
Based on our measurements, our protein is equivalent to standard layer feed, I am pretty sure about 16-17%.
The mineral salts we are adding are Redmond’s animal salts.
I would assume you could add another calcium substitute, we just chose the egg shells because, well, they are free with a little work each time we have eggs. : )
DE is added to keep our feed insect free- which is not a huge concern because our feed generally does not sit for long, but is helpful none the less.
I hope that helps. Please ask if you have more questions. This spring, we upped the ratio of protein in this recipe for our chicks and it has worked well- however, not for baby turkeys- so we have met our next match. : )
God bless,
Tracey
Hello! do you mind sharing your updated recipe & how you boosted the protein for the baby chicks? Thank you so much!
Where do you buy the organic grains for your homemade feed?
See the above comments for info. on sources of grain ingredients. Mainly, just find a local organic grain producer, or order through Azure Standard Online Organic Coop. They offer the kelp and minerals too, and ship nationwide! 🙂
I was wondering how this recipe measures out in cups. Would you be able to eyeball it?
Hi all, I love all of the info here! I am currently giving my girls laying crumbles and scratch, will this take the place of both? Thanks so much! Dawn
Hi! I need this recipe, but modified for quail who require more protein than chickens (more like chicks). Any help with that?
I too am loving all the information here. We make our own feed as well, and are preparing to rework our recipe and switch over to more of a fodder system, for both our goats and birds (chickens and ducks). I’m glad to hear about how the soaking and sprouting is working out, mentioned above. Our hens do not like corn or peas, so we do not try to feed those to them. But I can see where they might like sprouts. More chlorophyll is a very good thing, or so I’m told. Thanks very much.
I was wondering why you have to grind your feed and not just hand mix it, and do you use a kitchen aid with a grinding attachment? we buy our chicken feed but we also were appalled by the ingredients. where do you purchase your ingredients?
Thanks for sharing, everyone. I have some helpful hints and will tell you what I do, but first have a question: You say you soak and sprout your corn –is this dried whole kernels of corn? I’d like to try this. Now my comments: I have anywhere from 70 – 100 free-pastured chickens. Usually 70 egg layers and around 35 meat birds in a separate moveable tractor. I still let the meat birds out during the day though. I sourced a local Amish feed mill and they test every local batch of corn for GMO’s…it’s a test kit –kind of like a pregnancy test. They were using non-GMO soy too, however, it was not organic. I dug deeper and found it was non GMO, but most places use the soymeal, which has the oil removed by extrusion –which uses hexane –rocket fuel. So, I got this mill to make up a special blend using only organic roasted soybeans. I also source sunflower seeds, add in homemade raw kefir, flaxseeds, fishmeal, and make up a DE, Azomite, kelp mix that I put into their feed. Homemade ACV is added to their water too. (We’re apple/fruit farmers) About once-a-month, I get a 1 lb packet of cayenne powder and garlic powder from Frontier and add to their feed. Even while doing this, I have had trouble with parasites in the past from my stationary egg layers, but not with my traveling meat birds who can get fresh pasture constantly. I also buy about 1 bag a year of fishmeal from Fertrell that does not have preservatives. I figure it costs me about $2.50/dozen just to feed them. My 50 lb bags are $17 from the Amish, which is a great price IMO, it’s just all the stuff I add that ends up costing. Whenever I advise newbies my first piece of advice is to of course feed them non GMO etc, but also to have moveable coops. I know a farmer with 400 chickens who has two school buses as chicken coops he moves around his farm. Also, the local food terminal here has an organic section and in the winter when our ground is snow covered, I can get a case of organic cabbage or spring mix seconds for $2 – $5 per case! They just devour this. All major cities have food terminals so you can probably do this as well. HTH.
“I get a 1 lb packet of cayenne powder and garlic powder from Frontier and add to their feed. Even while doing this, I have had trouble with parasites in the past from my stationary egg layers”
It sounds like you buy most of your feed and don’t ‘grow’ a lot of your own. However, I would suggest looking into worming herbs and planting these both around your fields as well as in a garden area for harvesting and winter feeding to your stationary chickens. Powdered garlic and Cayenne won’t be as strong as home-grown.
Sorry I do not have an answer to your corn sprouting question.
haha, yes you are so right. I cannot grow all my own feed due to a lack of time. I’m lucky I can even keep chickens at all! I just wanted to put out a few pointers for those who source some of their feed. I should have stated this up front….as your info was more about growing your own. Thanks for responding though.
Hi,
We are expecting 25 chicks in about 3 weeks. Our first time and so excited. As we are preparing, I am wondering what to do for a chick starter. I am leaning toward non-medicated so thinking maybe homemade. I have seen branded organic, non-GMO, as well as non-medicated but am Leary about believing every claim. ???
Any suggestions?
Hi Maddy,
Well I make my own as outlined in these discussions. But if I needed to buy ready made I would go with organic, non GMO, non medicated chick starter. They used to sell some from Azure Standard, I’m not sure what resource you could find in your area. . .
All the best,
its great to know you are supporting local organic farmers. They need all the support the can get! Just be careful not to feed too much, if any barley to chickens as they cannot digest it properly. Have you tried soaking and sprouting you grains into greens for your chickens? It boosts nutritional value and Increases digestability from 40% to 80%!!! I’ve also started covering grains in water with a splash of raw organic apple cider vinegar and let it ferment for 3 days. It is suppose to easier to digest that way as well ????
I apologize for all the grammar mistakes. The joys of posting comments from your phone! ????
I once had a website I went to, entered in an ingredient, and it pulled up the nutritional content. I have since lost the site, and can’t find it. I also am seeing conflicting protein levels for several ingredients on different blogs and comments, so I really want to find a good site. Do you have one? Thanks!
Hello,
There are a lot of charts, facts and university nutritional feed pdfs out on the Internet, but no I haven’t run across the the website you mention. Hopefully you’ll find it again and be able to share it with us all 😀
Can these directions/ingredients also be used to ferment chicken feed?
Yes –
If your here at GNOWFGLINS reading you will see the many methods for soaking nuts, grains and other ‘seeds’ as well as going a step further and fermenting using a starter.
A starter can be made or purchased. Many people will use their kombucha, whey from hanging yogurt, or ACV as starters (as long as they have live cultures/mothers they will work for starters). But you can also create starters from soaking wheat or spelt (sourdough), or from roots such as dandelion root (see natural soda).
Add your starter of choice to the water you plan to use for soaking. Enough to cover the seeds a several inches.
Rinse your seed to remove dust and debris, then cover with your starter-water and allow to sit in a warm, dark place. Depending on the current temp it can take from one to 7 days to form a sour smell. Now it is ready to use in your feed mix.
Is the 7.5 lb of peas considered fresh/dry-dehydrated weight?
I am very tired of all the feed from the feed stores so this is next on my list to do. So excited. I will try the soaking idea because I don’t have a grinder. I also have dairy goats that we drink and sell raw goats milk. Does anyone have a feed formula for goats? I would love to get them away from the feed also.
Is there a good substitute for corn? I’d ather not feed them corn, it’s an allergen for me, so I’d be worried about breathing in the corn dust.
Thank you to everyone for this wonderful comments and suggestions. I am doing my research now to start making my own poultry feed. Many good ideas. Does anyone on this post or reading living in Missouri? I am in Central Missouri and struggling to find a good non-gmo feed source. Hostetler’s is a local company that is producing some non-gmo organic feed for chickens. I bought a bag but it is just powder it is ground so fine. Just wondering if anyone from Missouri on here that had some ideas for sourcing. Thanks and God Bless.
Hi I just found your comment Kim as I was searching for a Missouri source for organic chicken feed. I am in central Missouri and I have seen Hostetler’s non-gmo feed but it is not organic. At least, not anymore. Do you have a good organic source around here now?! Thanks!