Growing Your Chicken's Own Feed?

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MsBagawkbagawk

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7 Years
Jul 10, 2012
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Has anybody ever done this before? What did you grow? Do you think it saved you enough money to be worth the extra time? What is the best miller? What improvements did you see in feather shine, look, health, or their laying?

I don't have a lot of money, but I don't want to give up my chickens, so I was wondering if this would be a better option. Thanks!
 
Are you talking about replacing commercial feed with home grown grains, ground up and supplements added?
On the farm I grew up on my grandfather grew his own scratch grains and bought feed as well. Presently I use the cover crop grains from my garden to make a scratch. During the summer when the garden is producing they get they spoils and some of the weeds. I'm sure it saves some money. But its tough to say how much, as I also let them out to find some of their own food.
 
Yes, I would like to replace as much commercial feed as possible with home grown grains, even if I still have to buy some supplements. However, I would like to have as much of it be natural as possible.

I'm sick of buying them pellets, because they look so processed and the chickens don't even like the taste! But I do have to buy them the Layer pellets because otherwise they don't lay near enough to earn their keep. I want to know how I can make as much of their food from my own garden, and still get them all the nutrients that they would be getting from a $15 bag of feed.
 
I grow corn for my hens, mostly because of GMOs. I still buy pellets because I don't have equipment to plant and harvest a great quantity of grain crops. I also grow sunflowers, buckwheat and oats in small plots. I plant extra squash, both summer and winter and an extra dozen sweet potato plants, I can't really say it saves me tons of money but my birds seem very healthy. It is extra work for sure. I always fill any extra space with cowpeas for us and the chickens. I buy wheat and oats from the feed store and sprout them. Feed bill does go down in the garden season but don't get a great amount to stock for winter. Hope that helps with some ideas.
 
GardenWeasel,

Thank you for the ideas, even if it would just be a portion of their food from my own garden I think it would be worth it. I'm going to punch some numbers, using the plants you listed and see if I can get our feed bill down to $0.50 a chicken per month.
 
We grow some grains for our chickens and though we didn't have a vast area to work on, I was happy with the crop and the money saved! Only problem there is it's a summer-only crop

We also grow lots of greens for them, which we give them with the scratch grains. No commercial layer food. They do free range on a large pasture though.
 
I live on a small suburban lot, have 17 chickens that live in 2 seperate coops/runs, and grow collards, alfalfa, and mangels (beets) specifically for the chickens. I'm also growing Purple Majesty millet (a type of pearl millet) both for ornamental and chicken feed purposes. I have romaine lettuce, watermelon, zuchinni, tomatoes, eggplant, green beans, yard-long beans, and cucumbers which I plan to share with the chickens. I had snow peas earlier in the year which I shared with the chickens too (they love the vines just as much as the pods). Since they can't free-range I feel that the greens and veggies are important in their diets, and they do get greens every day. Collards are really easy and productive, I just pick off the lowest leaves, and they seem heat tolerant (it's 105 here today!). The alfalfa is a perennial planted in a 4' x 8' plot, it's also easy and care-free and I just cut it with scissors whenever I feed it.. As for the mangels, I pull off leaves occasionally for them and plan to feed the roots to them over the winter. On the lettuce, I'm still harvesting from the spring plantings, just cut off the tops about 6" above the ground and the tops continue to grow and the chickens don't care if it's bolted. I also have some nice-sized dandelions tucked among my flowers and veggies that I harvest for the girls occassionally. I usually rotate each day what greens they get.
 
Thanks for the info! Definitely going to try the alfalfa, they love it when I give some to our goats, and I heard it makes the yolks better.

Finished with the numbers and it looks like I can save $330 a year by replacing half of their diet with stuff I grow myself! I'm still working on paying back my parents for the food they've had to buy, but they've also used almost 300 dollars in eggs for their restaurant, so.... They might be more in debt to me.

I'm working on fixing up an unused shed on our property to become a greenhouse, that way I can have greens all through the winter, but who knows when that will really happen... Looks like I'll be working on pulling out a 30' by 30' plot of Day Lillies for a chicken garden for the rest of the year. (I don't know why but the people that used to own our house thought they needed that many Day Lily Plants...


I really appreciate the suggestions, keep em coming!
 
We have a large oak in our front yard. I plan to gather acorns this fall for the chickens; not sure how many I'll have due to this drought. I've read that acorns have varying levels of bitterness based on variety.Don't know how much the chooks will like mine, but it costs nothing to try. I'm especially eager to try the acorns since they are a good source of protein, and protein is typically the most expensive component of feed.
 
Yes, I grow all kinds of stuff for my flock! Here's a partial listing, since I'm bound to forget something and may find something else new to feed them tomorrow:

Azolla (a floating water fern--duckweed is good too)
all kinds of garden greens
bananas
cassava (cooked)
mangels (aka fodder beets)
coconut meat
soldier grubs
random overripe or surplus orchard fruit

and to a lesser degree mostly:

pidgeon peas
comfrey
breadfruit (cooked)
taro (cooked)
sweetpotato (cooked)
squash of various kinds (usually cooked)
sometimes the offal or scraps leftover from making stock from the animals we raise for food

and also not grown on our property for chicken feed per se but byproducts or things acquired for free that are fed occasionally:

loaf ends or crushed or moldy bread products from a local deli
freezer burnt tomatoes, overripe fruit, expired food or other tidbits from local grocery
random kitchen scraps from our household

Approximately 2/3 of what they eat comes from home-grown or salvaged sources (the rest is OG layer pellets usually, sometimes chick starter, which is higher in protein). I supply oyster shell free-choice on the side. The only major difficulty I have found is being able to supply them with enough regular protein this way, although it's certainly possible, especially if you are able to free range with plenty of insect habitat around (I am not). Having access to meat scraps or offal or to a dairy would be grand too.

You might be interested in perusing the many great contributions to this thread I started sometime ago: https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/615228/home-feeding-ideas-and-solutions-discussion-thread

Cheers,
Sky
 

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