Chicken feed

[plantoneonme]

What exactly are the ingredients in a good chicken feed? In what ratio's should each type of food be for the best chicken nutrition? Is it possible for a small homestead to grow their own? Inquiring minds what to know. Kim

[Fred's Fine Fowl]

When it comes to feed... hm, this is a sticky wicket when giving advise...

It's a matter of feeding for survival... chickens are great survivors... or premium health and of course, anything in between...

I'll share something that many don't know...
You know, everyone seems to want to know the percentages of this and that, as a portion of the final "mix"... but, did you know that not all corn has the same nutrition? Not all wheat flour middlings, fish meal, ground oats or dried whey are the same in different states nutritionally? The age of the feed effects the vitamin/nutrition content.. so, percentages are raised or reduced based on "current" quality.

I'm not here to talk you out of it, just want you to truly consider the complexity of individual feed formulation. Ranging birds are good at filling nutritional gaps.. but what if your birds are in a confined run? What then? Kitchen scraps?

I think of a chicken eating bugs and worms... which they seem to do all day long, garnished with green tidbits from this and that. Then there are the minerals.. ever watch a chicken snatch up a rock, then drop it in favor of another one? They are taste testing it... nibble nibble.. nope, nibble nibble yep (down it goes).

A confined bird, after many years of nutritional research, has fairly complex dietary needs. That is, if you are wanting to keep your birds in top condition. Prepared rations are the easy way out and probably, in the end, the least expensive. Do you have the time and space to grow just for your birds?

If your birds don't get the proper amount of salt, just for example, expect illness to sweep them. How are you set for manganese sulfide? Or, vitamins A, D, Riboflavin, or source of B12? You are feeding an omnivore, animal, vegetation and minerals are all required to meet it's design.

A chicken required approximately a 1/4- 1/2 pound of quality feed per day per bird. I've seen people load their birds with bread... Oy!

yellow corn meal generally makes up around 40% of most feed

If mixed with ground wheat... then the corn percentage is reduced by the presence of wheat....pulverized oats, around 20%, unless you add ground barley, then that is divided with the oats... soybean meal is another good bulk source... If you were mixing a ton.... 85 pounds of bone meal, 30 pounds of limestone, 20 pounds of salt (iodized)... oh and this is the list if you are having them on pasture...

Their requirements increase if they are to be confined?

My friends buy in the ingredients by the ton and mix and match at their farms... lots of storage space required and if any part of your stored ingredients get wet, or spoil... you can't feed it. It's a loss.

Winter will come along and you will have to provide all the feed your birds require, that's when poor diets show in the general health and well being for the most part.

My advise, is for those with small flocks, to buy in prepared balanced rations for the proper age of the birds...

Fred

www.FredsFineFowl.com

[plantoneonme]

I figured it would be difficult to get the proper feed on a small homestead but I was having one of my bad insomnia nights and just got to thinking....is it possible to be truly self-sufficient? The first thing that came to mind was food and chickens being one of the sources. If I didn't want to have to purchase feed, was it possible to grow my own. The I would want goats for milk and rabbits for food and maybe a yearly cow...I guess the space would have to be pretty large.

Then as I got thinking later, I realized there is not way to be completely self-sufficient because I would still need a way to earn money to pay things like the dreaded taxes :eek: Kim

[Kevin]

Fred , So are you saying , if you truly free range your birds, these nutritional requirements are not as severe. The free range chickens will more or less seek out their nutritional needs.Kevin

[Fred's Fine Fowl]

Free Range means so many different things that I can't actually say what is and isn't available to the chickens.

But in general, it's true that prepared rations are less critical, if there is adequate forage for the birds on range. This gets somewhat complex, as the flock owner should be familiar with the dietary benefits of clover types, grasses (rye for example), insect density/populations and many other considerations.

I've visited many chicken farms, and am amazed at the sparse pickings on some properties. So, for example, even the amount of available space may not be relevant, if it's sage, or sparse where greens are concerned.

This is also why free range egg nutrition is so often challenged... what's the "range" consist of? Because of my ranging flocks, we use no chemicals anywhere on this property... and beneficial plants are encouraged and cultivated for the dietary needs of the birds... examples would be kale, corn, tomatoes and a variety of greens, even rhubarb (chickens nip the leaves to control internal parasites).

My feed bill drops by 2/3 during the growing months here. The breed of bird also has a great deal to do with their "range smarts" and propensity to forage.

So... in summary, assuming the free range area, or fenced paddock system, consists of beneficial plants and bugs... the formulated ration becomes less critical as compared to those birds caged or in confined runs.

I spend hours observing where various birds roam, what they dig into and favorite plant materials. I have to tell you, different breeds even converge on differing materials.. it's a puzzle at times.

Today for example... the Sumatras and Rhode Island Reds are in the woods raking through undergrowth. Barred Plymouth Rocks are in the clover fields on open ground, along with the Americaunas, while Rose Combs and d'Uccles are scouting around the oak trees... the Emus are following my dog to see what he eats (';')...

Cochins and Partridge Rocks are hanging out around the feeders and drinkers... little or no foraging going on around those rascals...

does this help you?

I hope so,

Fred

www.FredsFineFowl.com

[Kevin]

Fred, This really does help, and makes perfect sense.Thanks , Kevin

[boyd3]

Fred, I've watched your youtube videos for the first 3 weeks of your Emu's. I was curious what you use them for.

It may be right there in front of me on your website, but I am curious about these birds because I know virtually nothing about them. Cute little buggers though :p

[Fred's Fine Fowl]

Some of you may or may not know, that among other things, I'm a Poultry Technician... What's a Poultry Technician? Glad you asked....

A poultry technician does a lot of bird testing, inspecting and handling various species that fall under the control of the Dept. of Agriculture. I enjoy it a great deal and like meeting people and understanding birds in general.

I was asked to come and draw blood from Ostrich. Hmmm. Well, a 7 foot tall bird, possibly over 200 lbs and can kick you to the point of breaking a leg. They are in a group known as Ratites..... flightless birds, from Ostrich (largest) down to the Kiwi... smallest. I was ashamed to admit that I had not idea how to wrangle an Ostrich... you know, march up to them, with a sock over your hand, as the big male charges, pull his neck towards you and slip the sock over his head and then calmly walk him to the fence and draw blood and read his micro-chip. It's not like nabbing up a chicken or duck.

So, long story shortened... I thought I should have direct experience with large birds of this family. The Emu is the most friendly and easily managed, so Emu it is. I am in the midst of a life study of the Emu and this requires that I hatch, rear and observe their critical stages of growth and development. As well as behavioral traits. I have footage of their key stages and next up will be maturing, mating and fathering chicks. The male of the species does the incubating and tending/rearing of young. The females are larger and lay only in winter.

As you may imagine, they are a six foot tall spectacle on my property and quite out of place in this Pennsylvania landscape. I keep them for all the reasons above.

As an agricultural venture, they are, over the past 20 years in the U.S., reared for leather, emu oil, feathers and meat (which looks like steak). I think lots of folks jumped on the investment band wagon, without truly understanding the costs and found themselves with empty pockets in the end. Some do make a go of Ostrich and have found it profitable...

The female Emu also makes a drumming sound, which can be heard for over a mile. This resonation, or pulse, is also something I want to make a record of, in audio as well as video. You'll see this on YouTube eventually as a 10 minute short.

It takes me a long time to complete a observation based study, but that's what I'm doing. Regarding Emu, or Regarding Ratites, may be my next DVD release...

Thanks for asking.

Fred

www.FredsFineFowl.com