[Clarebelle]

I have been feeding my poultry a grain based food which I mix myself using a recipe given by another TAS member for the last two years. They are also free range and I am happy with their overall health and happiness. However, when it comes to butchering we have noticed that the birds seem to have quite a lot of yellow fat in the body cavity and around the organs. We had this issue last year and subsequently reduced their daily ration but it was hard to find information about just how much each bird should be getting per day with it being a homemade mix.

This year we have had the same problem so I am wondering if the recipe needs tweaking;

We currently feed them a mix of 2 parts wheat to 1 part flaked barley and 1 part cracked corn.

Any advice is much appreciated!
Does anyone have any suggestions as to how we can might improve on this mix?

[Marches Farmer]

Yellow fat suggests to me that the proportion of corn may be on the high side and that they are laying down fat around their internal organs suggests that they're getting too much feed anyway.  What breed of bird and for how long are you feeding this ration before slaughter?  Do you start them off on chick crumbs followed by growers pellets?  What age do you kill at? 

[chrismahon]

I agree with MF, the proportion of corn should be halved and the percentage made up with sunflowers, because that diet seems far too low in protein to me. Yo are aiming for 15-17% and looks like you are only at about 10%. A local breeder adds salt and oystershell to his mix, but salt should only be a tiny percentage.


Worth looking at the contents of a brand of rearers pellets and comparing that to the mix you are using.

[Castle Farm]

Nothing wrong with the diet.Your taking the birds to far and wasting feed.
.

[Clarebelle]

Thanks for the input everyone. They are a mixed flock and I just let the hens go broody and hatch out what they can. They do get started on chick crumb and growers but move onto the same ration as the rest of the flock within 8-10 weeks. I try to get them dispatched by 20ish weeks but this doesn't always happen so they do tend to go on longer than is ideal.

Mixed opinions on a potential deficiency of protein in this diet? I'm not sure I would be able to order in sunflower seeds from my local agri merchant.

[Marches Farmer]

Is there a particular reason why you're mixing your own ration rather than using layer's pellets?

[Castle Farm]

Sunflower seeds will push the cost up a great deal and not give you any better finish than the diet your giving them.


Layers pellets are for layers and contain god alone knows what. The whole idea of rearing your own table birds is knowing what they are eating.


Feeding commercial feed will produce birds the same as supermarket bought.

[Clarebelle]

Castle farm has pretty much spelled out my reasons for choosing to mix my own food, I want to have control over what my birds eat. I am open to any suggestions on improving the ration I give them but I wouldn't want to switch to a commercial feed.

[clydesdaleclopper]

There is a very useful discussion of mixing your own feed in Ussery "the Small Scale Poultry Flock" which recommends various things you can use. I do remember that it said not more than 30% of the mix as wheat.

[farmers wife]

I have to say its not a great ration as in over all nutrition lacking in omega, oils, salt etc  I have had commercial organic mix from B&W feeds in Dorest and hi peak in yorkshire.  I am a firm believer in kelp. My layers have a good helping of seaweed and proboitics (I have stopped probiotics as they have some raw left over milk now), all veg waste which is organic as they adore all cabbage and all sorts of bits - apples, peelings etc. Even some left over meat from when processing or meat in the back of the freezer. In general my birds are pasture raised so they get grit and other natural minerals however they are indoor now over the winter so they will get the shell.


I use organic as I am a firm believer to know what goes into foods and def has to be GMO free.  I looked into making my own feeds but it worked out far too expensive.  Many American sites have endless good information on rations (this is layers not finisher) eg
20 lb whole corn,30 lb whole wheat, 5 lb crimped barley, 5 lb whole oats,5 lb black oil sunflower seeds,4 lb millet, 2 lb kamut, 10 lb lentils, 4 lb sesame seeds, 3 lb flax seeds,2.5 lb kelp meal, 2.5 lb crushed crab shell, 2 lb alfalfa pellets, .25 lb livestock salt, 2 lb crushed limestone, I also feed oyster shell free choice and kitchen vegetable and meat scraps.
I pay around £400 per tonne bag incl delivery.  I opted not to go for fish meal due to the sourcing and environmental damage it causes.  Sunflower seeds are expensive and should only be feed as a supplement as they are 24% protein.
Would you consider the commercial mix direct from the mill - organic?

[Clarebelle]

Thanks Farmers Wife, I use a poultry spice which I add to the mix along with olive oil to help it stick to the grain. They also get veg straight from the garden and also scraps of meat/fat, from our own home processed animals. They free range all year round and are never shut inside. They also get unpasteurised whey from a local business. I am not so much worried about the micronutrients in their diet, it's more the bulk of the ration I'd like to perfect if needed.

The kelp is interesting, we live on the beach so I can get kelp for them anytime.

[Clansman]

There's nothing dodgy going into commercially milled feeds.

The problem with mixing your own ration is that it needs to be properly balanced out so they get the proper amount of everything they need within the ration.

If you're feeding purely just so you you can see what they are getting then this isn't so much of an issue.

If you are feeding with one eye on the feed costs then feeding an imbalanced diet can easily cost you a lot more than feeding a milled ration.

If the birds aren't getting enough of something in the diet they'll just eat a lot more of it until they have what they need, and they are quite capable of eating a very large amount of feed to do so.