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:
View attachment 4034507

These were the sunflowers we grew for the birds:

View attachment 4034508

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:

View attachment 4034509

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.

 

[MichaelDJ]

A well balanced and nutritionally fulfilling homemade feed will cost $5-$12 a pound, depending on your location, double or triple that for organic/nongmo. Your average chicken eats 3 oz-5oz a day.
If you have 8 hens, they'll eat approximately 32 oz= 2lbs a day.
Let's say the average cost of homemade feed per pound is $8, that's $16 a day, $480 a month.
To offset those costs, averaging 5 eggs a day, 150 eggs a 30 day month, 12 and half dozen, to even recoup half the cost of feed, you'd have to sell those eggs (every one laid, no eggs for you) at $20 a dozen.
I don't know about you but I do not have an extra $430 to sling at my chickens every month. I'm happy buying two 50# at $24 each that lasts 6 weeks.
If you still want venture down that rabbit hole, you will need:
Vitamin mix powder
Fish/swine blood/by product meal
Soy/kelp meal.
The ability to buy ingredients in large bulk quantities.
The ability to store all it in a pest free, relatively climate controlled area.
Good recipes will not contain large quantities of flax, sunflower seeds, or pet food.

I mix my own whole grain, organic Chicken feed. I buy the separate ingredients in bulk and I assure you it's nowhere near $12 per pound. Try more like a $1.50 - $2 per pound max.

 

[nuthatched]

I mix my own whole grain, organic Chicken feed. I buy the separate ingredients in bulk and I assure you it's nowhere near $12 per pound. Try more like a $1.50 - $2 per pound max.

What's your recipe?

 

[Perris]

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.

great to hear it's working out for you @Altairsky

 

[MichaelDJ]

What's your recipe?

Organic Feed Mix:
4 Cups Barley
4 Cups Black Oil Sunflower Seeds
4 Cups Cracked Corn
4 Cups Flaxseed
10 Cups Oats
8 Cups wheat
10 Cups Split Peas

I ferment 2 cups of the mix and add to it about a cup of spent grain, 1 cup of organic layer pellets, and 2 heaping tablespoons of fish meal. I also sometimes add 2 spoons of kelp and 2 heaping spoons of freeze dried pumpkin or zucchini (I have a freeze dryer). During the winter I add in a 1/2 cup of alfalfa pellets. Wife likes to give them a handful of BFSL as a treat.

Summer I feed less of the mix as I have a huge organic garden and they get kale, lots of worms and bugs, weeds especially dandelions, clover that we allow to grow, grass clippings etc. I plant sunflowers pumpkins, broccoli, califlower - you get the idea

 

[U_Stormcrow]

I generally recommend a commercial feed as the most nutritionally certain, and also generally lowest cost, solution for most BYCers, in most situations.

I am not above "bending the cost curve" via a diverse pasture. I do it myself, and invest in improving my pasture every year.

But I find that most make at home feeds do not meet even nutritional minimum recommended targets, and are generally at least twice, more often 3-5x as expensive as an equivalent commercial feed AND that most people have neither the space nor the diversity in their "pasture" to support a chicken at best health. If you are willing to accept reduced rates of weight gain, egg laying, hatching egg viability, and general health, you can of course get by with lesser nutrition. If you have birds that don't produce much (older birds, infrequent layers, small eggs) you obviously need less nutritional feed to support their maintenance.

There Ain't No Such Thing as a Free Lunch.

There are, however, lots of unseen costs.

 

[nuthatched]

Organic Feed Mix:
4 Cups Barley
4 Cups Black Oil Sunflower Seeds
4 Cups Cracked Corn
4 Cups Flaxseed
10 Cups Oats
8 Cups wheat
10 Cups Split Peas

I ferment 2 cups of the mix and add to it about a cup of spent grain, 1 cup of organic layer pellets, and 2 heaping tablespoons of fish meal. I also sometimes add 2 spoons of kelp and 2 heaping spoons of freeze dried pumpkin or zucchini (I have a freeze dryer). During the winter I add in a 1/2 cup of alfalfa pellets. Wife likes to give them a handful of BFSL as a treat.

Summer I feed less of the mix as I have a huge organic garden and they get kale, lots of worms and bugs, weeds especially dandelions, clover that we allow to grow, grass clippings etc. I plant sunflowers pumpkins, broccoli, califlower - you get the idea

Ok, thanks.
Where did you find this recipe?
I don't have my stuff right now but at a glance, it's also not in parts, which makes it tricky to calculate, the bulk of it is sunflower seeds, corn and oats.

Sunflower seeds are a good source of protein (14%) but have more than double that in fat (33%)
Oats are not great for chickens, as its hard for them to digest and they contain nutrient blockers (phytic acid), so they should not be the bulk of the grain used.
Is this hard or soft wheat?
Split Peas are good but I don't know what an appropriate amount would be, since they can also be hard to digest
Corn is low nutrition, high carb filler.
Flax, high fat, some good nutrition but they can be toxic in high amounts when raw.
As for the kale and broccoli, both contains high amounts of calcium and general nutrition blockers, so they shouldn't be fed excessively.
Both the kelp and fish meal amounts seem low, since they're doing the heavy hitting in the vitamin/mineral category.

So yes, it's cheap, but not a nutritional powerhouse. I'd recommend perhaps finding a more nutritious recipe, Justin Rhodes has a good method.

 

[MichaelDJ]

No, it's very well balanced. I use a nutrition calculator for chickens. It allows me to hit optimum nutrition.
Completely disagree. The mix alone is 16 percent protein so adding in the fish meal plus the black fly is protein overkill. My birds are very healthy, bright shiny feathers, and lay nice sized eggs.