# soy free chicken feed recipe



## advancecourage (Jul 5, 2010)

Anyone have one? I have looked everywhere can cannot find a soy-free ration with enough protein. I have both layers and meat birds. Thanks!


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## tinknal (May 21, 2004)

Well, I haven't been banned in awhile...........


This sounds to me like a politically motivated question (and no, not political in the traditional sense).


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## Apryl in ND (Jan 31, 2010)

I feed mine whole grains and deer meat. They love it and it's great for them!


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## suelandress (May 10, 2002)

I feed mine a mixture of grains, alfalfa pellets and fish meal.


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## advancecourage (Jul 5, 2010)

No so much politically motivated as health motivated. I have been involved with the Weston A. Price Foundation and I am therby not a big fan of soy protien. I am also not a big fan of Monsanto and it's strong arm tactics to dominate the seed industry and force farmers to raise GMO corn and soy. That being said, I am not obsessive compulsive about it and will use it if I have to, I would just prefer to avoid it if at all feasible. 


I am certain that colonial farmers did not use soy in their feeds and they were able to successfully raise livestock. It seems that this info has been lost to us. I asked my father-in-law about how they raised livestock in Italy (he was a farmer there before coming to America), and he does not remember much (he is getting up there in years). But when I asked him about feeding grain to cows, he looked at me like I was an idiot. What! Feed grain to cows, that is the stupidest thing he ever heard in his life! My, oh my, times have changed!


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## Cyngbaeld (May 20, 2004)

The problem these days is in sourcing some other protein than soy. Formulas can be worked out easily enough, once you know what protein source you will be using. Also, many grains are not nearly as high in protein these days as they were prior to modern farming methods so that requires finding additional protein.


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## Cyngbaeld (May 20, 2004)

http://www.hort.purdue.edu/newcrop/afcm/quinoa.html
Here is some reading for you.


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## bruce2288 (Jul 10, 2009)

Tankage, fish meal, dried distillers grains, blood meal, cottonseed meal are all high protein. See what you can get and what it costs, probably none as economical as soybean meal except DDG.


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## Cyngbaeld (May 20, 2004)

Be careful of cottonseed meal. There have been livestock deaths associated with GMO cotton and it is not necessarily going to be on the label.


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## chickenista (Mar 24, 2007)

Also.. cotton is one of the most highly sprayed crops around. The herbicide/pesticide content could be very high.
I also am searching for a soy-free/soy-low feed source.
My desire is not political in any way.
I switched from Layena to a local feed grown by a local farmer. I like supporting local and it is cheaper and the birds love it.
BUT... we butchered some roos and these had handfuls of deep yellow fat INSIDE the body cavity. It was gross and hard to remove and made the *juices* way too greasy for gravy for mashed potatoes.
The only change in my poultry practices was the addition of a soy based feed.
I am now officially looking for a new way to feed. I can't sell a bird like that.


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## Cindy in PA (May 13, 2002)

I found soy-free feed locally through an Amish farmer who is a Fertrell dealer. He adds fishmeal & crabmeal. I consider myself so lucky that he has started to mill it. All local grains except the peas come for S Dakota. I like his regular feed, but am trying to get away from soy. I am in SE PA.


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## PulpFaction (Jul 23, 2009)

The people my friend just bought her chickens from fed only grains (oats and barley) and oyster shells and whatever they got free ranging and from kitchen scraps. They were farmers in Romania before they moved here, claimed the hens reliably laid an egg a day, and lasted much longer than her friend's birds but did develop more slowly. Julie is continuing that diet with good results so far, and I'm planning on trying it too.


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## PrettyPaisley (May 18, 2007)

Countryside Naturals. Chickenista-if you want to share on an order I'll be happy to go in with you to reduce shipping prices. http://www.countrysidenatural.com/

I get my soy-free layer feed, broiler feed and rabbit feed from them. Now that we have goats I plan to get my goat feed as well. I choose to feed my animals and family soyfree for the same reasons as OP.

I did learn from this site that there might not be enough protein in the feed so I supplement with whey and grassfed beef liver. I'd love a source for fishmeal!


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## texican (Oct 4, 2003)

Ground meat scraps, cheeses, cottage cheeses, milk, soured milk, clabbered milk, road kill. Even experimented with maggot feeders (worked great, the smell sometimes was too much)... chickens love fresh 'wigglers'. Fish carcasses. What they won't eat goes into the wiggler bucket, to feed the wigglers till they fall out and are consumed. What am I saying... they'll eat anything that's presented to them. Inside of bodies (brains, bones) where they cant peck, will get cleaned by wigglers.

Now, if your talking 'commercial' supplements in exchange for soy (satan's favorite vegetable) I can't help you.


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## chickenista (Mar 24, 2007)

Thanks for the offer, Paisley, but I have a lot of birds and we live a fair ways from each other.


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## momofseven (Oct 10, 2008)

Hmmm... don't know why this didn't post the first time....

OP...what is "enough protein? for you? You can feed a lower non-soy feed and you'll still get the eggs and your grower birds will grow a little slower.

Also, check out this link. www.themodernhomestead.us. Mr Ussery has tons of useful info on feeding chickens w/o soy.


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## olivehill (Aug 17, 2009)

chickenista said:


> I switched from Layena to a local feed grown by a local farmer. I like supporting local and it is cheaper and the birds love it.
> BUT... we butchered some roos and these had handfuls of deep yellow fat INSIDE the body cavity. It was gross and hard to remove and made the *juices* way too greasy for gravy for mashed potatoes.
> The only change in my poultry practices was the addition of a soy based feed.
> I am now officially looking for a new way to feed. I can't sell a bird like that.


Happen to have a Layena tag handy? I'm curious...

I really cannot imagine Layena is NOT a soy based feed. Purina is a low-cost company and Layena is a sun fresh product which means they had to get their protein from an economical plant source... I have my doubts it's anything other than soy. 

I could be wrong... but... it just doesn't seem likely. ???


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## chickenista (Mar 24, 2007)

Aha! And there in lies the rub..
no one has any idea what is in Layena.. it just says plant proteins and grains.. no idea wheat grains or plants.
But for me it was price and supporting local grower/miller. 
Sadly though I am not happy. 
Layena may have soy in it, but it never produced the large amounts of fat inside the body cavity..
The search for a good feed mix continues...

and sadly there are few living bugs and greens because of the screaming heat and lack of rain.


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## MaggieJ (Feb 6, 2006)

This link has been posted before, but it is always worth another look.

http://www.lionsgrip.com/chickens.html

Raising earthworms and mealworms can boost the protein for your chickens. There is also a kind of mealworm called superworms that are sold as reptile food. They are bigger and sound easy to raise.

http://www.geckotime.com/how-to-breed-superworms/

http://hubpages.com/hub/Superworms


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## suelandress (May 10, 2002)

chickenista said:


> and sadly there are few living bugs and greens because of the screaming heat and lack of rain.


Just leave some dirty dishes laying around  The flies will come!


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## Allen W (Aug 2, 2008)

chickenista said:


> Aha! And there in lies the rub..
> no one has any idea what is in Layena.. it just says plant proteins and grains.. no idea wheat grains or plants.
> But for me it was price and supporting local grower/miller.
> Sadly though I am not happy.
> ...


That is a typical least cost ration label. They will use what ever combination of products they can source to make the ration as cheaply as possible and still meet the percentages listed on the label. it is a safe bet that there is some Soy in the mix.


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## olivehill (Aug 17, 2009)

Allen W said:


> That is a typical least cost ration label. They will use what ever combination of products they can source to make the ration as cheaply as possible and still meet the percentages listed on the label. it is a safe bet that there is some Soy in the mix.


Exactly. I'd bet a good share of my savings there is not only some soy, but that a darn good portion of the protein routinely comes from soy. Soy, in the U.S., is cheap plant protein. The reasons for that we need not get into, it is what it is. 

My guess would be that the reason the local milled feed resulted in greater fat deposits was not the soy content -- since Layena surely is soy based as well -- but that it was likely less concentrated nutritionally and had a poorer (not that I'm a huge fan of purina, but still...) nutritional profile which resulted in the birds eating more calories to meet their needs. The excess was then stored as fat.


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