The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Livestock => Poultry & Waterfowl => Topic started by: Liz M on December 09, 2013, 10:34:13 am
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Helo - I haven't been on for ages! My local supplier of chicken feed has gone out of business and she made a great chicken mix for me. I can now only get all the separate ingredients which is OK as I want to make my own as it will be a lot cheaper, but I don't know how much of each to make the mix - anyone got any 'recipes' I can use ??
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What sort of chicken mix was it Liz? a mixed corn or a pellet?
Is it for layers or growers?
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It was a mix of maize corn barley and wheat.. I think. I give them a pellets separately. They are layers.
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This isn't a recipe as such, but looking at our mixed grain it looks mostly wheat, some barley and even less corn, proportionally speaking, I'm sure there's a Delia out there that can be more precise.
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I did a lot of research into this and there are a few bits that you really should have in there. One of them begins with M but I can't remember the exact name right now. Apparently can lead to big problems if they don't get it like cannabalism etc.
Have a look at the ingredients on a bought bag and see if you can work out what each bit is for I guess? Another thing I learnt from a big poultry guy is that chickens will eat until they get all the proteins and vitamins they need, not until they are full. So a high quality feed may actually work out cheaper than a cheapo one as they will eat a lot less of it. At the moment we are sticking with A+P Smallholders as although it's expensive, the eggs are lovely and it seems to keep them all happy. We did have a foray into cheaper feed but ended up with fishy tasting eggs and a sudden increase in egg eating which has been a pain to reign in. Our customer seem to like the fact that the birds are fed on GM free feed too.
That said, there is no reason you couldn't make perfectly good feed with enough research and access to the right ingredients.
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I did a lot of research into this and there are a few bits that you really should have in there. One of them begins with M but I can't remember the exact name right now. Apparently can lead to big problems if they don't get it like cannabalism etc.
Liz is already feeding pellets which should contain all they need, i think she's just looking at creating a mixed corn ration as a supplement
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Ah OK. That's got to be a lot simpler.
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Chickens here get a handful of wheat and sunflower seeds as a treat in the late afternoon (4:1 mix). The sunflower seeds raise the overall protein level and the wheat is a slow release (carbohydrate?) to keep them warm during the long night. They love it. We have a bag of mixed corn as well but they are not that keen on it and all the maize in it makes them too fat anyway.
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This sounds like a good idea. I used to give our hens sunflower seeds occasionally, but hadn't thought of doing it regularly with the corn at the end of the day. I used to give mixed corn but was never sure about all that maize. Though ours didn't seem to get very fat!