Anyone have any good tips and tricks that are Cheap and easy to boost protein and nutrition for chickens?

[Rangergord]

Milk can be a good, inexpensive option - like for people with a cow or goat who can't otherwise use all the milk. Saysfaa.

I use powdered milk during winter when my hens have no insects or vegetation to eat. Skim milk has animal proteins that grains are unable to supply. Ferment the milk with lactic acid cultures like buttermilk and mixi it with whole grain and crumbled ration. My winter laying is much better with ration and milk. Milk has too much liquid to be the only protein supplement with grain. On grain, insects or other animal protein are required for good laying or growth when young. Laying ration is worth it, if you can get it.

 

[KlinoClucks]

That sounds like a good idea. Would yogurt be a good idea, instead of the milk? And should it be given on a daily basis or only every once in a while?

 

[KlinoClucks]

Does your soil have earthworms? I would not introduce them if it doesn't but if there are some in your area, you could "farm" them - basically, keep a space watered/drained to their liking, sheltered from predators of earthworms, mulched, and with food for the worms.

Milk can be a good, inexpensive option - like for people with a cow or goat who can't otherwise use all the milk.

If I didn't have access to good commercial chicken feed, I would look into raising meat for the chickens. Rabbits or quail probably, if it was for the chickens only.

The soil here still needs plenty of work to get it back to its full potential (that’s one of the reasons we got the chickens), but maybe I can try set up a small spot for them near my vegetable garden. Do you have to buy the worms from somewhere or just hope they find the spot you make and start living there?

 

[KlinoClucks]

Also in regards to the milk-yogurt, I usually fed yogurt to my chickens in the past in a series of treatments for sour crop. I always assumed that they couldn’t eat a lot of dairy?

 

[Rangergord]

That sounds like a good idea. Would yogurt be a good idea, instead of the milk? And should it be given on a daily basis or only every once in a while?

Yes, yoghurt is lactobacillus. Whey from cheese making is excellent. I feed my 8 hens I cup of liquid milk per day (made from powder) This adds 2 % protein to their layer ration.

 

[Rangergord]

Also in regards to the milk-yogurt, I usually fed yogurt to my chickens in the past in a series of treatments for sour crop. I always assumed that they couldn’t eat a lot of dairy?

Well experiments have been done in Canada, where chickens consume as much milk as they can drink daily along with grain and the results were impressive. I cant afford to feed more milk so I have not had any problemS.

 

[saysfaa]

It is better not to buy the worms because invasive species can really devastate the native wildlife. Try looking in the richest soil you find nearby.

Poultry textbooks from before pelleted feeds (that is, the late 1950's) have recipes with kefir at 30% of the diet and recipes with dried skim milk or dried buttermilk at about 5% of the diet - just two of many recipes that included milk of some sort. So, I don't think there is much need to worry about digestion problems.

 

[KlinoClucks]

Thanks so much everyone!

 

[KlinoClucks]

Can’t wait to give these things a try

 

[Red-Stars-in-RI]

Some great advice in this thread, including the caution against introducing potentially invasive species. Depending on where you live, invasive species may offer an opportunity for cheap or free protein while also doing some ecological cleanup.

If there are invasive aquatic or land-based invasives of any size in your area, they may offer a source of protein. Fish like carp or other invasives are probably among the easiest, but partnering with a hunter or trapper in a region where land-based invasives are plentiful would also work.