5 Acres & A Dream: Alternative Feeds for Chickens

Making an attempt to make the meals funds stability with rising meals costs has turn out to be a
little bit of a problem today. It is brought on me to investigate and re-evaluate our
weight loss program (which is not a nasty factor), as a result of now, I’ve to ask myself what my
value limits are for the issues I normally purchase.

I am very grateful to have a backyard, fruit bushes, and smallholding livestock.
However there is a concern too, as a result of among the heftiest value jumps have been
for livestock feed. So I am analyzing their diets too, and asking, what are the
alternate options for feeding our animals?

Properly, how a lot meals does a rooster want? There are numerous solutions to that
query as a result of it is determined by the age and sort of rooster. Manufacturing
estimates are normally round 4 to six ounces per rooster per day if the chickens
are getting all their dietary wants met by business feed. However what about
chickens that free vary and complement their very own weight loss program? How does that issue
in? I do not know a method to calculate that, however I can let you know that as a result of
of our various feeding strategies, our chickens eat little or no pelleted
meals. In truth, they
a lot favor the opposite issues we provide them.

So this is what we do to assist reduce the feed invoice. As a heads up, you will not discover
that it conforms to what lots of the specialists say. However we now have wholesome, blissful
chickens and feed them for virtually free. So these items undoubtedly work.
The hyperlinks will take you to my weblog posts for extra data.

Alternate options to free-ranging. 

Grazing beds.
We grow fresh grass in these beds, which the chickens trim enthusiastically.

Any grass seed will do; chickens simply love recent greens. Often, we transfer
the mattress to a brand new location, and let the chickens scratch up no matter they will
discover within the dust.

Gathered greens and herbs. Generally I take my hand sickle and trim
tall grass for them. Additionally, I collect weeds and herbs: chickweed (a favourite),
clover, parsley, dandelion, plantain, purslane, bee balm, wooden sorrel, basil,
borage, marjoram, chervil, chives, cilantro, mint, echinacea, dill, comfrey,
lemon balm, marigold flowers, hyssop, lemongrass, oregano, stinging nettles,
nasturtium, purple deadnettle, rose, smartweed, sage, yarrow, tarragon, thyme,
raspberry leaves, thyme.

Root crops. Dangle a turnip, carrot, beet, candy potato, and many others. the place the chickens can
peck it, and it’ll amuse them for fairly awhile.

Winter squash. These are simple to feed. I reduce them in sections and let
the chickens peck out the seeds and flesh.

Surplus melons and overgrown cucumbers. These could be fed the identical method.

Compost.
Moving our compost bins into the chicken yard
was probably the greatest issues we ever did. 

It is much less work for us they usually love scratching via it. What’s particularly
wonderful, is that there seems to be some form of symbiotic relationship
between chickens and compost. With solely minimal turning on our half, our
compost works up way more rapidly than chickenless compost piles. It is virtually
like magic. (In truth, my
How To Compost With Chickens
is one in all my hottest eBooks. See cowl under, or comply with that hyperlink for
particulars.)

Can we do something particular about what goes into the rooster compost pile? No.
They eat what they need and ignore what they do not need. So all kitchen and
canning scraps go into the compost, together with dried, crushed eggshells, moldy
cheese, and meat scraps. Shockingly, we do not separate out espresso grounds and
onion skins (massive no-nos within the rooster knowledgeable world) as a result of the chickens
do not take into account them meals and depart them to decompose on their very own.

Eggshells, dried and crushed as an alternative of oyster shells for calcium. As
talked about above, these are fed by way of the compost. I do know some folks fear this
will trigger chickens to turn out to be egg eaters, however I’ve by no means had a rooster but who
was good sufficient to have a look at a jigsaw puzzle of crushed egg shells and mentally
work out the items may very well be reconstructed into eggs.

Cooked eggs (scrambled or exhausting boiled). Further eggs could be fed again to
omnivorous livestock! We particularly appear to finish up with an extra of duck
eggs, which I hardboil, then chop shell and all into small items for the chickens.

Surplus dairy. Apparently, chickens cannot digest milk, however they will eat
cheese, yogurt, kefir, curds, and whey. Since we now have goats, we regularly have
surplus milk, so this is a superb method for it to not go to waste.

Homegrown grains and sunflower seeds. The factor about grain for
chickens, is that it does not need to be processed. Wheat for instance. Toss
some wheat heads into the rooster yard, they usually know precisely what to do with
it. Rising grain for chickens is far much less labor intensive than rising it
for people. Ditto for sunflower seeds, set a head out they usually’ll care for
the processing. 

Moreover grass grains (wheat, oats, barley), small grains similar to amaranth or
sorghum are simple to develop and simple to feed. I toss complete seed heads into the
rooster yard they usually do the remaining. Corn normally must be cracked to make it
consuming measurement for chickens.

Sprouted grains and fodder. Each of those can stretch the feed funds
loads. Additionally, they’re very wholesome.
We feed sprouted grains
when the basis tails are about half-an-inch.

Sprouted mixture of wheat, oats, and black oil sunflower seeds.

We feed fodder
when the grass has grown about three inches tall. They eat grass, grain, and
roots.

Similar combine as above, allowed to develop into grass.

I am unsure how a lot it decreases the feed invoice, but it surely undoubtedly boosts
vitamin. And the chickens like it.

Grubs. Any time I dig anyplace, I preserve a small bucket helpful to toss grubs
into. The chickens adore these, and I hope it helps preserve our insect inhabitants
down as effectively.

Earthworms. The chickens discover these within the compost, however for anybody
working towards vermiculture for castings, this can be a nice approach to handle the
earthworm inhabitants.

Different bugs and bug larvae. Some folks elevate mealworms or solder
fly larvae for rooster feed. I’ve by no means tried both. If we ever discover a cache
of larvae, we scoop it right into a bucket and take it to them. Additionally they love
crickets, however these aren’t simple to catch and transport! 

How do I do know they’re getting a correct weight loss program? How do I do know it is correctly
balanced? Properly, they get protein, carbohydrates, fat, recent fruits and
greens, and all from zero to minimally processed sources. They’re vivid
eyed, considering life, have good weight, shiny feathers and agency egg
shells. We nonetheless preserve free alternative business feed obtainable, however each single
rooster (and the Muscovies) favor the goodies I’ve listed above. 

Should you’re considering studying how you can combine your personal feed rations, I’ve
one other little eBook that may educate you ways to try this,
How To Mix Feed Rations With the Pearson Square. It contains lots of data on self-sufficient livestock feeding for a
number of species.

These are the guide talked about above. Their titles hyperlink them to their particular person webpages (and the place to seek out them) or you may go to Kikobian.com for a whole checklist of titles.

Prepper’s Livestock Handbook
is one other of my books that emphasizes various feeds for self-sufficiency. The hyperlink is to its webpage, the place yow will discover extra data.

Again to the subject at hand. I’ve at all times had a aim of self-sufficient chickens,
which implies feeding them from the homestead and never shopping for feed. So, I’ve collected and experimented with lots of concepts. As with all issues,
nonetheless, what I do and the way I do it are behavior. The way in which costs are proper now could be
serving to me change my habits. As they are saying, there is a silver lining to each
darkish cloud.

Alternative Feeds for Chickens © April 2022 by Leigh at http://www.5acresandadream.com