DIY Chicken Feed

[NeoHomesteader]

I have never said that it is commercially worthwhile to grow ones own balanced diet for the chickens, but it is definitely possible to cut down a bit of the feeding cost.

This was the milo/sorghum field we had just for our rooster flock:
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These were the sunflowers we grew for the birds:

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Our main crop on the hobby farm are the sweet potatoes, so during harvest season and 1-2 months after it, 30%+ of the feed for the rooster flock consists of boiled or shredded sweet potatoes.

Beneath was the flock foraging in the field:

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It is more for fun and cut down waste. Commercially, it does not make much sense growing own chicken feed.

That is exactly what I was going to recommend. Some cheap grains/seeds to offset the cost of the feed. And it keeps them active! nice job

 

[chooki]

The other thing we have is a large composite pile, we put sweet potato vines, hay, horse dung, chicken manure, inedible fruits and vegetables into the pile, then we cover it with a large tarp and let it decompose. The cover is to prevent a fly infestation in summer and raise the temperature and humidity in winter.

I was able to harvest reasonable amount of larvae and crickets from the composite pile/bin for my chickens (like open the cover and turn the pile a bit and let the chickens to hunt whatever worm/insects are in the pile).

The drawback is that there is no certainty when and what you can harvest for your chickens, besides larvae, crickets, we have also seen snakes hiding in the pile.

The pile is there to produce fertiliser for the crops. If there is a worm/insect infestation, there are always our chickens.

Edit: there is no set ingredient in a composite pile, it's just mostly organic waste, be that hay, weed, livestock manure or fruit peels. Although ideally, it's a mix of these things.

 

[Altairsky]

A well balanced and nutritionally fulfilling homemade feed will cost $5-$12 a pound,

Seriously? I follow Perris recipe and it costs me no more than 10€ a month for 5 chickens. Cheaper than that we have just some garbage quality commercial feed crumbles with 14% protein that almost killed my birds.
Homemade forever and I will never look back.