Chicken Feed

[Patriot222]

Hello, I am curious does anyone make their own feed for their chickens?
Every way I have looked so far it is a lot more expensive then store bought feed. But I’m trying to go off grid and don’t see how this part works. I grow my own food but buy chickens food🤷‍♀️ Tips and any info is super appreciated and needed. Thank you

[RWS]

First let me say I dream a lot.  I just purchased a BOL in region 2, farm land.  My closest neighbor has a goat and chickens.  Not many of each.  I have two spring fed ponds I plan to clean out and stock.  I plan to grow corn and grind it into cracked corn for chicken feed and corn meal.  I will try and barter chicken feed for eggs and fish for goat milk and meat.  Just dreaming here.  I think we all need to try and set up local bartering now so as to be prepared later.
In region 8 I have 3 vegetable gardens and about 100 blueberry bushes.  I currently have barter agreements with several local people.  I trade for pecans, pears and figs. 
It looks like you are 30 miles East of my BOL.

[Abigayle]

Patriot 222, Have you looked into growing Amaranth?  You have to be careful with it as it is invasive.  Remember that 25% of your chickens diet can be greens.  Our really love Bac  choy,  which is easy to grow, along with kale and other greens.  Any bad tomatoes (not moldy) are also appreciated.  You can crush some egg shell in the food and raise meal worms, if you are so motivated.  Bugs and worms will start a ball game in your run with  entertainment included.  We also fed layer crumbles, which really went up in price, but we could not see our way around it.  Some corn or scratch in cold weather for a treat (it produces some heat).
One mistake we made when we first started having chickens was having more than we needed.  Even lately, we were lucky to barter our extras for honey.  If you are not careful and have to give them away, it is a loosing deal, for sure.  There are good pickled egg recipes on line.  Good Luck!

[HogJowlHomestead]

We have done fermented chicken wheat, you can buy in bulk from azure. They were not totally impressed as the meat chickens left some behind after feeding. We have also done fermented corn that was purchased bulk off a farm silo but ended up being full of rodents. At this point we only make our own feed for the milk cow because we’re drinking the milk. I think for economic reason we will go back with Tucker mills non gmo feed and let them free range the rest both meat and layers.

For maple (moo moo) we mix a Cobb diet, Milo, oats, barley and alfalfa. If you do grain feed your chicken or other animals make sure you add kelp for vitamins and a mineral block. Good luck, there’s so many options out there.

[Fixit]

What a lot do here is Tucker milling 6 way scratch non gmo that they sprout before feeding.

[nj_m715]

this is probably more of a high jack than an answer
but I've been thinking about sprouts along with growing meal worms and crickets
sprouting looks easy enough and increases volume a lot
the bugs will add back the protein I'm missing

now for the high jack, how long will extra game bird crumble last in a sealed bucket in the basement?

I dont want to buy too much and have it go bad, but I want to keep as much as is reasonable to use before it rots

[Patriot222]

Omg, thank yous all so much with the info!! I took have been thinking of growing/breeding worms and crickets, but I’m so going to look I to the greens yous suggested!

 I can always grow some in my greenhouse. I’ve tried fermented feed without much luck, they didn’t lay as much and I used the same amount of feed it seemed. I’ll keep trying though might just need to critique it a bit for them.

[Starlady]

nj_m715:  Processed chicken feed won't last very long depending on the heat.   There's fat in there, some added, some from the grains themselves and once the whole grain is ground it can go rancid in a month in hot weather.   You are better off storing the whole grains and either fermenting or just soaking overnite.

rws:  after the family or local dogs, the number 1 killer of backyard chickens is being overweight.  Whole or cracked corn is like crack to chickens - they'll eat it to the exclusion of other grains and bugs.   It's considered a 'hot' food as it takes a lot of energy to digest and is great as a light treat before bed in a cold night but otherwise don't make it their main feed.   I know our grands and great grands used to feed corn but their chickens had lots of bugs, grasses and weeds to pick from on the farm, too.

Chickens, ducks and geese will also eat many of our local weeds and grasses, both medicinal and not:  dandelion, plantain, clover, mullein, spiny amaranth, blackberry, wild grape, wild strawberry, any of the mints.   Plant a few vines of berries and grapes and let them have the low hanging fruits and leaves.  The leaves of anything from your garden, except nightshade (tomato, potato, eggplant, etc).   Sunflowers are easy to grow - the Black Oil SF being the most nutritious for them.  During molting I also throw a carcass or several of leftover duck/chicken/goose - they'll strip it bare in a couple of hours - they love the extra protein.   DO remove the carcasses before nightfall, though, so as not to attract racoons.   Grow extra melon, cukes and hard squash - the curcumin helps keeps internal worms away.  Keep out a dish of cleaned, crushed eggshells - they'll eat what they need.

[RWS]

The suggestion to grow Amaranth looks like it might be viable.  It looks pretty and I have plenty of sun zone 7.  I could plant a pack of seed in the Spring and get all the seed I need.  It is an heirloom so I can use the seeds generated for the following year.  Now to decide on a couple other types of seed so that there will be a variety.

https://www.edenbrothers.com/store/amaranthus-pygmys-torch.html?msclkid=20e1be0c6f551a378d84defb937b5b83&utm_source=bing&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=Shopping%20(SNK)&utm_term=4581046488354733&utm_content=General

I have some sugar drip sorgum seed in the freezer somewhere as I grew some for seed several years ago.  My problem will be keeping the deer from eating it all up.  I have a back property line with the National Forrest of 793ft.  There is a lot of deer sign and bear also.  Both a problem for farming.

[Fixit]

Another part of the solution is growing plants for them to browse  but fixed to where they can't eat it up. Things like clover and chick weed with wire around and over it so that they can reach in but not get to all of it.  Some who have water features can grow high protein plants like duck weed or water hyacinth.Not contained growth is important as they can  e invasive.

[Abigayle]

R.W.S. Be sure to plant the amaranth a good distance from your garden, as it is very invasive.  You won't have to worry about saving the seed, as it will self seed.  Of course, you are always safe to save some in case you have little rain, when it should be self-seeding.  Always good for barter, when people run out of chicken feed..
Fix it, I wanted to plant clover in one of the 10X10 runs off the chicken coop, but then we sold.  I am thinking since it has been used as a run for several years, clover, or whatever, would grow really well.  Yes, good point on the control, as they can eat huge amounts of greens in a day, if allowed to do so.  They will also soil it.

[YellowRose]

I grew amaranth last year, and decided harvesting it was way too much work for human consumption.  But if you were just going to throw the entire head in with the chickens, that makes it a lot easier.  Amaranth was certainly easy to grow, just not easy to harvest.  I didn't have issues with unwanted volunteers coming back this year, so maybe it is only invasive in certain areas?   

For protein, you can try a black soldier fly bin.  Keep it away from the house, because they do stink a bit.  I have seen some folks that, instead of having the ramp drop into a container to be fed to the chickens later, just have the end of the ramp drop off into the chicken coop.  The chickens would hang out under it hoping for a treat to fall out of the sky.

[Abigayle]

Our warning on Amaranth being invasive came from our old college friend, who was the head of the Iowa something or other, way back before we all retired.  Of course, Iowa dirt can grow anything with little effort.  When friends come to visit from there and ask if they can bring anything, we always laugh and say, a truck load of dirt.
Like the clover that can be  rationed while it grows, so can amaranth.  Chickens love a challenge, and will jump up and grab it off the plant.  It might be fun to grow a row along the inside fence line, cover it with chicken wire until it is ready and watch the fun.  I do miss my chickens, it is a month now and I had to buy my first eggs in many years.  They were up to 3.59 a dozen!  When I had eggs, I would see them for $1.69.
Cyrus, our 115 lb Dutch Shepard, chased a huge coyote out of our yard this week.  Our chicken coop will have to be highly protected, as coyote can climb. Apparently there is a group of three, all large, that live on the other side of the lake.  There is also one of those poisonous huge lizards.  Thor killed a copper head last week.  With these new discoveries, I try to carry a little something with me, outdoors. Only problem with our last location and chickens were hawks, but we never lost one, our neighbor did, but they don't have a dog and had young chicks running  around, unprotected.

[YellowRose]

I may have to try that, growing amaranth with the chickens. 

[Fixit]

Another grain to look at is millet .It is a short cycle grain . O.e types plant to harvest in as little as 10 weeks. Depending how far south you could get 3 or 4 crops in a year. Feed grain plus straw for bedding.