Hello can anyone advise me on a homemade chicken feed recipe? I'd like to grow the required grains at home and mix them myself. What would this entail? Thanks~ Michelesmelodyfarm.

-- michele rae padgett (michelesmelodyfarm@yahoo.com), August 12, 2001

Answers

Chickens can do fairly well on most all types of grain, it does not have to be mixed or even cracked, unless they are peeps. Straight fed corn is fine, as well as oats, millet, sunflower seeds, just about any type of seed grain. They don't like the taste of soybean much though.

If you want top egg production, it is necessary for a 16% protein level, which requires the addition of soybean meal to a mix, and mollasses to cover the nasty taste of the soybean meal, which is bitter. This is why most folks just buy their chicken feed mix.

I compromise to be frugal, I feed a horse sweet feed grain mix to my heavy breed laying hens, it's 12% protein and I get a few less eggs than the 16% mix, but the 12% horse feed costs 4.95 per 50 pounds, and the 16% laying mix costs 7.50 per 50 pounds, and the chickens really prefer the horse feed!!!

A lot of folks around here just feed whole ear corn, still on the cob, to their free range chickens and they do fine, not alot of eggs, but enough for them.

-- Annie Miller in SE OH (annie@1st.net), August 13, 2001.

I feed my hens milo and corn, supplemented with dog food. I've found that a little dog food (cheap stuff) is great to increase egg production. And it is also a big help in keeping them laying in hot or cold weather.

-- Lois in KS (loiskimb@hotmail.com), August 13, 2001.

There are balanced feed rations listed in Joel Salatin's "Pastured Poultry Profits" and in a book whose title slips my mind by JD Belanger (c'mon, you Belangers, what was the name of that book, Small Livestock? Or something ...)

Go to the library and check them out if you feel the need for a "recipe".

-- Sojourner (notime4@summer.spam), August 13, 2001.

Try www.lionsgrip.com/recipes.html for chicken feed recipes. I found this site when I did a google.com search for "Joel Salatin pasture poultry". If you do the same search you'll come up with all sorts of info.

-- Cathy N. (keeper8@attcanada.ca), August 13, 2001.

i have to agree with everybody else i live on a farm with cow and poultry and i have found that it is very important to keep a well balanced diet for egg production i have also learned that the hens need a certaint amount of daylight to produce better eggs. i also have made my own recipe for peeps 2c. cherrios 1c.corn flakes not the frosted stuff then after that you can add chex rice crispie and such to add texture. then put it in a bag and crush it all up you can doubble or triple the recipie for the needed amount

-- drew (ata1hunt@aol.com), August 20, 2001.