# What to feed



## Minelson (Oct 16, 2007)

I currently feed my chickens layer pellets. I read the ingredients and it says processed grain products. I am assuming that has corn and soy in it. They also get boss and occasional bird seed for a treat and scraps from the house. I want to get away for corn and soy because of GMO's. We don't eat the chickens but we do eat the eggs. What can I feed them as a staple food? Would Oats be good? They free range when the weather is nice. Thanks!


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## farmerDale (Jan 8, 2011)

Wheat is good. Oats is too low in protein, and less digestible than wheat due to the hulls. Barley would be between these two in feed value. None of these crops are gm. With that in mind, they may have higher "herbicide residues" than the gm feeds, as the gm feeds require much less chemicals to grow, so it may be a toss up if that type of thing is of concern to you. Make sure to use a hard red spring as it has more protein than the others. Field peas are a good protein booster at 24 or so % protein, but availability and palatability can be an issue. They alson need to be crushed or rolled...

Without being accused of trolling, may I ask what your concern with gm is though? That the chickens will eat the genes, they will pass through to the eggs, and hence to you? Just curious. 

It is tough to feed chickens to be healthy, and maximize production without a scientific blend of ingredients formulated for this purpose. It is tough to avoid gm crops these days. Do what you wish, but again, without sounding like I am itching for a debate, the "risks" of gm crops are dramatically overblown. Animals and people have been eating them for many years. The animals have had several generations of production, and aside from a few dubious, unsubstantiated claims, the health of animal agriculture has never been better.

If you must avoid gm, try wheat with some other higher protein supplement. field pea, non gm soy, etc. Cheating on well prepared and scientifically proven feeds, will cost you eggs and efficiency. Of course we are all not pushing for the best efficiency either. I personally want to maximize my animals, so they get top notch feed and mineral packages. Cutting corners rarely pays IMO.

Best of luck, regardless of what you do!!!


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## Minelson (Oct 16, 2007)

Yes Farmerdale...I decided I want to avoid the GM. I don't want to have my animals eat it either. It just doesn't sit well with me  I would feel better about eating my eggs if my chickens were eating something that wasn't genetically modified. Too science fiction for this ol gal  I just have 18 mini bantes for entertainment, bug control and eggs. Mostly entertainment lol! 

Thank you for the advice


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## farmerDale (Jan 8, 2011)

Fair enough, I do appreciate your response. As a crop farmer, who grows gm crops in my rotation, I appreciate knowing more about the concern out there from a consumers perspective. 

Do you have any access to wheat at all then? I hope you find what you need to make those banties lay!!! I get the entertainment factor. Life on a farm with no animals would be much, much more dull, hey?


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## Minelson (Oct 16, 2007)

Well there is the whole wheat dilemma too! I read the book ''Wheat Belly'' and took my self off of wheat for back problems and arthritis. I do not recall seeing any wheat available at the feed store but never really looked for it. Would oats be ok?? with the boss and scraps from the house? I don't need a lot of eggs, it's just hubby and me (oh and the dogs get one once in awhile) I currently have a 50 lb bag of oats in the house. Thank you for the info!


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## farmerDale (Jan 8, 2011)

Hey, sorry I missed the boss part. What is boss? I never heard of it before. Oats is short on protein. Hens need in the 16 to 18 percent range to thrive and lay well generally. Wheat is 14 ish, barley 10 ish and oats also 10 ish. And oats have a high hull or indigestible portion. You could sure use oats, but I wouldn't expect a real high performing flock using it. I throw my hens oats for scratching through, and they eat it well enough. Its just short on the protein.

Again, what is "boss"?


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## jwal10 (Jun 5, 2010)

black oil sunflower seeds....James


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## farmerDale (Jan 8, 2011)

Thanks! I never heard of them referred to as such. They appear to be about 16% protein. With oats and the boss, you should do fairly well.


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## rxkeith (Apr 13, 2009)

we buy an organic mix for our birds from the local feed and seed store. check your local supplier. if they don't carry an organic product, they may be able to order one for you. it will cost more. my chickens seem to be doing ok on it. my only issue with the organic mix is there are more fines in it. i am not sure if that creates more waste than normal or not. the chickens, i have 15 hens started laying thanksgiving day, and have laid all through the winter. i get 9 to 13 eggs per day.


keith


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## Allen W (Aug 2, 2008)

"I read the ingredients and it says processed grain products. I am assuming that has corn and soy in it."

It has what ever they bought cheapest that week they could make the ration out of that meet their label. More then likely little of it was whole grain either.


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## Lazy J (Jan 2, 2008)

As FarmerDale mentioned you can rely on wheat, oats, and barley as non-GMO sources of carbohydrates for your chickens. You can get protein from field peas which should be available in the Dakotas. You could use Canola meal but that likely has some GMO canola in it.


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## Lazy J (Jan 2, 2008)

Allen W said:


> "I read the ingredients and it says processed grain products. I am assuming that has corn and soy in it."
> 
> It has what ever they bought cheapest that week they could make the ration out of that meet their label. More then likely little of it was whole grain either.


Most feed mills have a limited amount of space and bin capacity, as a result the ability to change the base ingredients of feed is limited. If the plant uses corn as their main carbohydrate then they will stick with that ingredient. 

What changes is the proportions of the ingredients, we call it best-cost formulation. The feed recipe has a recipe with requirements for nutrients and limits on the level of feed ingredients. For example a layer ration might have a lower limit on corn of 200 #/ton and allow a range of 50 to 300# of DDGS.

The companies I work(ed) with want to maintain a certain level of consistency in their products so the customer and the customer's livestock are happy. Having rations that contain one ingredient this week and none the next results in dramatic changes in color, consistency, and flavor which we don't want.

I am sure there are some feed mills that change their ingredients willynilly to be the cheapest without regard for quality of the final product, but thankfully I don't work with any that follow that principle.

Jim


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## Allen W (Aug 2, 2008)

Lazy J

All I know for sure is that since Kent closed the Evergreen plant in Ada, OK I haven't found a decent chicken feed. I was using their fixed layer ration, corn and SBM and getting predictable results.


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## jamesdaclark (Aug 2, 2012)

We feed an organic layer pellet, but we live in California so organic (non-gmo) is pretty easy to come by. Modesto Milling in Modesto CA. It is expensive but for a small flock that eats less than 50 pounds a month I don't mind. Organic eggs cost $4.75 a dozen at the store, still a bargain for me to buy the organic feed.


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## Minelson (Oct 16, 2007)

Thanks for all your help on this!


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## "SPIKE" (Dec 7, 2011)

I'm still thinking about what I want to do different about feeding the chickens. I really do not want to give up the lay pellets. I am going to try to get specific information about the ingredients.
I will be doing something different for sure about the scratch grain, as it is mostly corn with some wheat and milo.
Wheat alone is more expensive and I am not yet sure what other grains I can get beside oats.

SPIKE


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## Awnry Abe (Mar 21, 2012)

I would think the BOSS would be a bit pricey. I won't quibble with FarmerDale's numbers re: Protein. I am sure they are spot on. But I will throw in this *VERY* anecdotal piece of evidence. This last summer/fall we went through the proverbial egg drought. We have a good sized flock and I couldn't beg an egg out of them. I happened to have a bag of 50 lb of oats along with a very poor area of pasture just outside of the chickens daily domain. I sewed the oats just to get something in the ground to keep the soil from washing/blowing away. The oats never made it because once they sprouted, the chickens went on an all-points search and destroy mission and ate every last sprig of oats that had germinated, as well as anything that still resembled a whole seed. Within a week they were laying machines. I can't figure out any other stimulus change that got them laying again, other than the oats.


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## farmerDale (Jan 8, 2011)

That is interesting. Cool that it worked for you. Oats are definitely a loved item around my coop. Wo knows, my egg factory may be in such fine form from the diversity my hens get, not so much any specific protein ration???


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## Awnry Abe (Mar 21, 2012)

One other thing that bears mention. We have GM free layer mix available down here. I don't know if it is available up there or not, but at least someone is going through the effort to market it. Due to the laws of supply and demand, it considerably more expensive than the GM equivalent. The last time I bought it, it was $24/50 vs. $17/50. 

I understand your GM concern, and have my own with respect to species tampering. I would like to keep our diet pure and "original recipe". But I ended up rationalizing that GM inputs are entering these free-ranging omnivores feed chain whether I like it or not, so I may as well save myself a few pesos. However, I would not hesitate to spend the extra $7 if I thought it that important.


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## GrannyCarol (Mar 23, 2005)

You could try feeding sprouted oats instead of just plain oats. I've read that sprouting makes a lot more of the feed value available to the poultry and is much healthier. Also that making fodder out of various grains really increases their value to the poultry, but is a lot more labor intensive. 

I keep considering sprouting some leftover wheat I have as a treat and supplement for layer pellets in the winter. My ducks love their green food!


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## Mulegirl (Oct 6, 2010)

Are there any opinions out there on whether or not to hull the sunflower seeds? I'll be growing some Mammoth sunflowers this summer, and figured I'd do my best to save the heads for the hens, since they do love the hulled sunflower seeds they currently get as a treat (alternating with the much more expensive but jump-in-the-air-tasty dried mealworms they occasionally get). Do they tend to go for the in-shell seeds?


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## Awnry Abe (Mar 21, 2012)

Sunflower seeds are very good for chickens. It makes them feathers nice and preenable. Ours eat them whole in the shell, although I am sure they wouldn't complain if we gave them shelled/cracked. They get them here more or less on accident. The last pumpkins of the year just went out a couple of weeks ago. They were wrotten and deflated, and the seeds were sort of hard. They seeds were the first thing the picked out of the pile. I think a nice small pile of BOSS would be a good treat to them.


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## Dead Rabbit (Oct 30, 2010)

I personnally am not that worried about GMO

my wife has gone off wheat. after reading about wheat belly. i have cut way back on it also. there is alot of truth to what is written about it..

a suggestion for feeding:

soak your oats till fermentation occurs. this will up the protein significantly. it will soften the hulls, and fowl like the taste better once they are fermented. or just soak them for a few days. w/o fermenting. they still like it better, and the hulls are easier to digest.

use a dog food, high in protein, that contains no wheat, soy, corn. non of these products are that good for dogs or any living being for that matter. there is much better out there. soak the dog food over night in water, esp. if its large pieces. fowl will love this also.

you can feed sunflower seeds whole. they can eat it, and will eat it. 

use floating fish food pellets. high protein, and i havent seen where it flavors the eggs. ive used it for yrs. periodically. im not sure of ingrediants. but quite sure it will have GMOs

i still use pellets/crumbles, just for the ease of feeding, and its the cheapest route to go. ROCKIN ROOSTER has a 5 grain scratch. it has milo, corn, popcorn, peas, boss. its pricey but if you want something easy to use, and not worried about to much corn..........course im sure its GMO


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## tentance (Aug 16, 2012)

I can't say i know a whole lot about chickens, just thought i would throw in that sorghum was $36 for 50 pounds this winter, rye about the same. the other grains simply were not available at my ranch hand, currently the only grain supply in town. 
some people also feed their chickens dry cat food, in addition to the dog food and fish food mentioned above.
the family and i are tossing around the idea of having a couple chickens. on one hand, i have to feed them and buy food for them, on the other hand, organic eggs. i don't have the room on this suburban lot to grow any of their food, especially since i'm growing as much as i can on the rabbits.
there is a lot of discussion on the rabbit forums about sprouted grains. apparently sprouting increases the soluble nutrition by like 1000%, so is a lot better for your birds and other animals. makes all the nutrition more digestible.
also, if you haven't already checked it out, duckweed and azolla are tiny water plants that are crazy high in protein. Yes, i did just say, CRAZY HIGH! Its insanity! more protein than alfalfa and peas. but it grows in water. and its weight is largely water, so when you harvest you have to know that only a fraction of its size is actually the plant. reportedly, chickens love it!


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## bama-newsteader (Dec 2, 2011)

We buy Countryside Organics layer feed as we are concerned about GMO also. It is pricey, around $30/bag, but we dont have that many chickens so one bag lasts us a month. The chickens also free range so the feed supplements their foraging. I also feed flax seeds with the hopes that that will boost the omega-3's in the eggs. So far so good!


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## dbarjacres (Feb 2, 2004)

The last chickens I had hated oats. They'd pick out everything else and leave the oats.

I'm surprised those hens started laying so heavily on the oats, as I know show people will take away their mash/crumbles/pellets and put them on oats only to force molt. ?


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## Fat Man (Mar 9, 2011)

My flock loves oats.


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## Mulegirl (Oct 6, 2010)

dbarjacres said:


> The last chickens I had hated oats. They'd pick out everything else and leave the oats.
> 
> I'm surprised those hens started laying so heavily on the oats, as I know show people will take away their mash/crumbles/pellets and put them on oats only to force molt. ?


Are there different kinds of feed oats available? The ones we get (from Tractor Supply) are meant for horses, and are hulless. They look just like the oat groats I grind for baking.


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## jwal10 (Jun 5, 2010)

Oats sprouted with any/all milk products added. I buy/trade/barter the oats from a neighbor. He grows oats for hay and combines 10-15 acres every year. My hens love it and lay well....James


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## Awnry Abe (Mar 21, 2012)

Oh! Minelson, I know you raise goats. Do you make cheese? We soak oats in whey for the chickens. They go gonzo for it.


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## Truckinguy (Mar 8, 2008)

When I butcher rabbits my chickens get some of the offal which would increase their protein intake. I also have a dozen worm bins going and they get worms from time to time. I guess this wouldn't be an option for someone who only has chickens but adding some animal protein to their diet would help them. In the summer they get all the bugs they can find.

I have 12 hens and have been getting 6-9 eggs a day all winter with irregular supplemental lighting. I feed them a mix of layer pellets and scratch grains but they dig through the pellets to get to the scratch and only eat the pellets when everything else is gone. Makes me think I'm wasting my money on pellets...


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## Cindy in PA (May 13, 2002)

I have grain free dog food that I could use when I'm feeding the organic vegetarian feed, but all the fish food I've seen is loaded with soybean meal, so it defeats the purpose of Non Gmo. Is there any fish food without the soybean meal?


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## dbarjacres (Feb 2, 2004)

Minelson doesn't milk her goats, they're just pasture ornaments.


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## Minelson (Oct 16, 2007)

dbarjacres said:


> Minelson doesn't milk her goats, they're just pasture ornaments.


And hood ornaments LOL!!!


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## "SPIKE" (Dec 7, 2011)

Okay, that gets the best picture of the day award!!! LOL

Chickens will probably start getting oats instead of regular scratch grain. I still have not decided to give up the lay pellets. Other grains just cost too much (wheat, milo, barley, flax, BOSS, etc.)When spring gets here, they may get no grain and they can just look for their own treats! They need to keep it clean jn the goat and pig areas anyway.

The BT GMO corn seems to bother me more than the RR GMO crops. I guess it is because the BT is a pesticide, even if it is an organic pesticide. I use BT in my garden, but it is not like being genetically part of the plant. It will wash,come off.
Most all pelleted feeds have soy in them to boost protien levels. The guy at the co-op said their lay pellets are all natural. I said "yes, but that does not mean there are not GMO products used in making them." He did not argue that.

SPIKE


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## bowen012 (May 8, 2013)

Here is a link to a homemade chicken feed that uses no soy or corn. If desirable it can be made organic. It's pricey compared to commercial standard feed, but usually runs cheaper than commercial organic feed. I don't mind it so much because I eat (my family are vegetarian) many of the items that are ingredients so we have them anyway.

To get more mileage out of your feed, I'd suggest fermenting your feed (even if you don't use this, and feed bagged pellets or such, fermenting has benefits for you and your poultry).


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## BigHenTinyBrain (Apr 4, 2013)

Worms! You can have a small worm fctory even in a suburban yard nd feed your flock on wiggly and exciting worms (and feed your worms on scraps).


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