Would this be enough?

[CochinBrahmaLover]

Ok,so due to needing to cut back on feed costs, right now we plan on feeding our chickens, ducks and geese (plus 1 turkey hen) dubia roaches (getting a colony started), barley and free ranging
But, come winter, they won't really be willing to even walk outside. So we have 2 choices -
Feed them typical layer feed
OR
Make a cheaper feed.
I can keep the same regime as during summer, but I'd imagine I'd have to supplement something else? I can add oyster shells, but not sure what else to supplement.
Any ideas? Would they be deficient in something? Have something better then barley?

 

[CochinBrahmaLover]

Bump...
I refuse this thread be ignored xD

 

[RussianChickens]

Have you tried corn? Can you get cheep corn? They will learn to eat whole corn. We fed all whole corn to our hens in winter and they did great. Wheat, oats, any grain. I imagine barley would be ok too. No soy. Haven't found a bird to eat that yet.

Oyster shells are good. Give those!

You could supplement with the layer feed. And!
Table scraps! Table scraps! Any food you don't finish give to the chickens. They will peck meat off of bones (don't leave them out there over night as this will attract predators) The extra cereal or chip/cracker crumbs, raw meat or fat or cooked. Fruits veggies. Even deserts like donuts, cake, pudding. Chickens will eat just about anything. Out of date food if you can find any from the stores cheep. Just don't feed totally rotten, spoiled or moldy. Ask local restaurants about any food they are throwing away at the end of the day that you might feed to your chickens. They eat fast food, organic food, any kind of food.

I don't know anything about the roaches. I would say they are as good as any bug. Just long as they can catch and swallow them.

I think if you do the grain, scraps/out dated/food service scraps and bugs you could get by with a few bags of layer feed in between. However if you have a lot of animals the scraps won't add up to much so thus you need more layer feed.

Best of luck!

 

[CochinBrahmaLover]

Lol, well they get all the table scraps we have as well as my sister brings scraps from work
*but* we have 40 hens, 10 ducks, 2 geese and turkey
So like 53 animals (give or take) plus 2 goats and 2 sheep, so table scraps are shared pretty evenly.
We could probably get a big bag of scraps from subway (they'd have veggies anyways)
I was mostly looking to see if I could be an easy, cheaper food and still meet their nutritional needs
Thanks though!

 

[Mrs. K]

the thing is, with winter, they need more feed. Summer you can get by feeding less, as the forage makes up for it, but in winter the forage dramatically decreases in protien.

You would do better to reduce the size of your flock in the fall, and feed what you keep better, more expensive nutrition, than to keep all of them, and feed them less expensive nutrition. They will hit spring in better shape, will reproduce better, and have less health issues.

Most husbandry of domesticated animals works on this principal, have most of your young animals arriving in early spring so as to have more animals take advantage of nature. Even so early that you are slightly ahead of spring, as newly born or hatched don't eat as much. Then as they grow, nature provides the bulk of the food, and as nature starts to slip with the coming of fall, reducing your flock to the minimum to get through the winter. This will produce the most food, both eggs and meat, with the least cost for the feed bill. It will keep your flock young and productive and in the best shape.

This will give you the greatest return for your money, provide food for your family, and keep your feed bill most economical.

Mrs K

 

[cwcochran1961]

Meat? Really?

 

[moetrout]

Eggs are a source of protien, so why not meat? Seriously, yes meat! A left over turkey carcass from thanksgiving is a special treat for my birds. I read from some on here that feed their chickens gut piles from their deer hunting. I choose not to give mine raw meat, but I see no problem with that either. Even if you don't feed them meat I can almost gaurantee you they get some meat once in a while anyway, in the form of a mouse, frog, or in the case of one of my hens a small sparrow that got too close. I always tell people that I never want to hit my head and pass out in the run. I might wake up half eaten!

 

[donrae]

Go to the "feeding your flock" section, tons and tons of threads on homemade feed...........

 

[CochinBrahmaLover]

Mrs. K -
We aren't keeping 50 animals through winter but still would like to make our own feed. I did a search and hulled barely nutritions are -
82% 5% 13%
Carbs Fats Protein
And oats has -

70% 15% 15%
Carbs Fats Protein


Cracked corn -

Calories 170 Sodium 190 mg
Total Fat 10 g Potassium 0 mg
Saturated 1 g Total Carbs 21 g
Polyunsaturated 0 g Dietary Fiber 2 g
Monounsaturated 0 g Sugars 10 g
Trans 0 g Protein 2 g
Cholesterol 0 mg
Vitamin A 2% Calcium 2%
Vitamin C 0% Iron 2%

(Different site, different way they had it set up lol)


And I did not see a feeding & watering you flock section.... Gah. >,<

Oh and dubia roaches have -

Moisture % Protein % Fat % Ash %

Dubia Roach 61 % 36 % 7 % 2 %

 

[Mrs. K]

oh perhaps I misunderstood