Homemade chicken feed

[featherbaby]

Unfortunately, they don't deliver anywhere close to Florida.

 

[Organics North]

http://www.azomite.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=category&layout=blog&id=69&Itemid=2
Access to Organics
Richard Buffington
347 Mason Ave, #100
Daytona Beach, FL 32117
Phone: (386) 236-9447
Email: [email protected]

This is what I found for Azomite dealer in FL.

I don't know if Redmond has a simular dealer network. Redmond is generally cheaper than Azomite, but I can find Azomite in my state..

I have bumped up the HRW to a 150 and also added 50lbs of peas. The total weight is 515 so I’m guessing we will need about 6lbs of the minerals.

I think I have the percentages right.

BOSS is 16%P x 10 parts= 160
HRW is 17%P x 15 parts= 255
Fish meal is 60%P x 5.5 parts =330
Rolled oats is 13% P x 5 parts= 65
Barley is 12%P x 5 parts= 60
corn is 9%P x 5 parts = 45
Flax is 34 %P x 1 part= 34
Peas is 24%P x 5 parts =120
Total protein 1,069
Total Parts 51.5
20.76% Protein

Looks good... Fun hey??

IMO toss in a bag of Alfalfa at 17%.. Also a fan of Kelp meal for a little salt..

ON​

 

[HaikuHeritageFarm]

Quote:
Ak! SO much cheaper than Calf Manna! I wonder how much shipping to AK is...thank you for this thread. Very good information for me. I have local (cheap) sources for all of these ingredients except for flax. Woohoo!

 

[5acrehome]

Is making you own feed more bang for your buck when it comes down the line for broilers and egg production? What I mean is will this type of diet feed the cornish cross more effectively then just a heavy protein shelf bought feed. Does it make the meat taste any better ect. general information.

thanks for your time,

 

[HaikuHeritageFarm]

Quote:
In my experience, for meat providing animals a soy-free/low-corn diet makes them tastier. I haven't tried this theory on poultry yet, but it has proven true with the other species I tried. Especially on the soy. With my rabbits, the grain fed critters are so much yummier than when I just feed the pellets. They are much slower to grow out, but worth it.

 

[qbarfarm]

Be careful, more is not better in many cases. Let me show you:
If you have a problem you are trying to fix, and you are thinking deficiency, think again, it may be too much of something.

Protein is not an ingredient by itself. The most used "Protein Supplement" is Soybean meal as an example: It is made of many things besides protein. It has vitamins, minerals, protein, isovlavones, it has estrogenic effects ( hence early puberty in girls, and I wouldn't want my young sons eating much soy, look up "FDA Scientists Against Soy") and the protein is less bio-available than feather meal or fish meal.
An ingredient may test high for protein, but what of the other vitamins and minerals in it? Without knowing how much of each vitamin, mineral, etc., is in the protein supplement, you can throw the "balance" of the ration out of whack.


I have feed test results of the biggest feed manufacturers in the nation, and they all showed too much Selenium. The tests were so high that there was a big investigation. The end result is that after 3 years, Oregon is now making a law against too much Selenium. The FDA investigated also, and they figured out they don't have a law written about too much Selenium in whole grain, so they won't do anything. But if the companies had "added" too much they would have recalled it. So much for the Government making sense.
That would cause your birds to go off feed, not like their feed, loose feathers and have aggressive behavior, I could name about 100 different symptoms of Selenium Toxicity.

If you feed extra minerals you could cause a toxicity problem or imbalance in the important relationship between many important minerals. Such as too much zinc will cause copper depletion.

After years of buying from the big feed companies, we tested their feeds and they were all toxic with high levels of selenium. That means it was being carried in the whole corn and soybean meal and any other grain grown in high Selenium soil. Tests on individual grains proved it. Look up "Oregon Department of Agriculture Selenium".
Needless to say, the big companies dropped us like a hot potato, and left us with hundreds of pigs to feed and no safe feed to give them. (I am sure they are hoping I will be quiet about it, but they messed with the wrong person). They refused to fix their feed, they just figured they could walk away and nobody would ever know.

My husband and I now manufacture Pig and Poultry feed, on our farm, because we saw an important need out there for safe feed. It is Corn and Soy free (because safe corn and soybean meal is not available in the western half of the US). It is truly made of whole grains, no wheat middlings. All ingredients are scrutinized to the Max. Because, with what we now know about feed ingredients, we don't take anything for granted.
Anyway, we bought the grinder and mixer, computer program, and started making feed. We sold the pigs and are now making feed instead. We talked with the poultry people, and listened to what they wanted to see in their poultry feed, then we made it. We also have a grinding process which keeps the particles larger and eliminates most of the "dust".

We are just getting started and distribute the feed through "Naomi's Organic Farm Supply" in Portland, Oregon.
If you are interested, you can e-mail me for a copy of the label, and I am going to talk to my husband about giving out samples so people can see it, feel it, smell it, before they buy it.
You can e-mail me for more info and references too at [email protected]

 

[ChickensAreSweet]

That's a lot of fish meal, IMO. If your eggs taste funny you might want to decrease it. I'm still reading up on everyone's posts...

And it looks like your recipe is good! I will post a link to my recipe and to some other websites that I have found helpful (inspiration):

http://www.lionsgrip.com/protein.html
https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?pid=4850576#p4850576
http://www.greenerpasturesfarm.com/ChickenFeedRecipe.html

Congratulations! It looks yummy (from a chicken perspective)!

 

[Organics North]

qbarfarm,
Thank you for the informative post!!!!
Very interesting.. Yes more is not better with mineral supplements. One needs to follow guidelines closely or even go under recommended levels IMO..

In an ideal situation, one would put the mineral supplement in the soil for the crops, then not supplement the feed.

ChickensAreSweet,
I agree with you on the fish meal. It is expensive, and has a high impact on the environment. I personally would cut the amount of fish meal in half and and adjust the other ingredients accordingly to get the desired protein..
ON

 

[HaikuHeritageFarm]

Quote:
Just curious, how does it have an impact on the environment? It's utilization of a waste product. At least it is here. Our AK fisheries are very carefully managed and probably one of the best run fisheries in the world (not perfect, granted,) and I like the idea of utilizing all parts of the animals we are harvesting. I don't see how using the waste instead of pumping it out into the Sound to create massive 'dead spots' is harmful.

Sorry to derail a bit.

 

[Chris09]

Selenium is an essential element that has a narrow margin of safety. Feed supplements containing 0.1-0.3 ppm selenium are added to the diet to prevent deficiency diseases such as white muscle disease in cattle and sheep, hepatosis dietetica in pigs, and exudative diathesis in chickens. The maximum tolerable level for selenium in most livestock feed is considered to be 2 ppm or as high as 5 ppm, although some believe that levels as high as 4-5 ppm can inhibit growth.

Chronic selenium poisoning usually develops when livestock consume seleniferous forages and grains containing 5-50 ppm of selenium for many weeks or months.

Selenium Deficiency (poultry)

A deficiency of selenium in growing chickens causes exudative diathesis. The early signs (unthriftiness, ruffled feathers) usually occur at 5-11 wk of age. The edema results in weeping of the skin, which is often seen on the inner surface of the thighs and wings. The birds bruise easily; large scabs often form on old bruises. In laying hens, the tissue damage is unusual, but egg production, hatchability, and feed conversion are adversely affected.
The metabolism of selenium is closely linked to that of vitamin E, and signs of deficiency can sometimes be treated with either the mineral or the vitamin. Vitamin E can spare selenium in its role as an antioxidant, and so some selenium-responsive conditions can also be treated by supplemental vitamin E. In most countries, there are limits to the quantity of selenium that can be added to a diet; the upper limit is usually 0.3 ppm.
The commonly used forms are sodium selenate and sodium selenite and, more recently, organic selenium chelates. Feeds grown on high-selenium soils may be used in poultry rations and are good sources of selenium. Fish meal and dried brewer’s yeast are also good sources.

Merck vet. manual

Chris