Chickens require a diverse diet that provides both energy-rich grains and protein foods to provide balanced nutrition. Our easy chicken feed mix offers all these components.
Plant proteins like soybean cake, peanut cake and cottonseed cakes offer excellent palatability and nutritional benefits; therefore they should make up 10-20% of any mixture. Fish meal or meat meal feed may also play an essential role and contribute 5-15%.
Contents
Ingredients
At its heart, one of the advantages of homemade chicken feed is being in control of what goes into it and customizing it for each chicken’s specific needs. By including ingredients like garlic powder which promotes egg laying ability; kelp meal which contains calcium and minerals; or diatomaceous earth which keeps away worms – you can ensure optimal health and well-being for your flock.
Other ingredients to include include oats, which provide a protein-rich source of energy; field peas which offer more protein and carbs than corn; and flax seeds which provide omega-3 fatty acids, B vitamins, and minerals – these combinations may also be used to create mash, crumble, or pellet feed depending on what your flock prefers and their age range.
If you have the time, soaking and sprouting grains or seeds will unlock an abundance of essential vitamins and nutrients that your chickens can easily absorb into their system, increasing protein, vitamins, and enzymes that could benefit their overall health.
Preparation
For optimal chicken feed mix results, the right proportions of ingredients must be used. Common examples of such components are cracked corn, sorghum, barley, wheat and oats; you could also incorporate kitchen scraps for extra nutrition.
Utilizing a poultry feed mixer helps ensure that all the ingredients are mixed evenly and nutritionally balanced, which ensures an ideal chicken mash feed product can be packaged and stored.
Chickens require essential vitamins and minerals in addition to protein for overall health, and these can be obtained through vegetables as well as egg shells which provide calcium, or fish meal which provides calcium, sodium, and phosphorus.
Storage
People who raise chickens tend to enjoy doing everything themselves, from mixing feed by hand to raising their birds themselves. While this requires time-intensive effort, this also gives greater control over the end product.
Homemade mash can be easier for chickens to digest and less expensive than commercial pellets, while adding special elements like grit, oyster shell, salt, buttermilk powder and probiotics makes your mix more appealing or can address specific nutritional needs of your flock.
To avoid spoilage of feed, it’s essential to store it dry and out of direct sunlight. Humidity promotes fungal growth that can turn pelleted feed into mush or even cause it to spoil altogether. An insulated bin may help if your area experiences big fluctuations in temperature fluctuations; ventilated containers also release excess moisture that builds up within your feed supply – metal barrels work best as they don’t react with its components, while plastic ones should suffice provided they are rodent-proof.
Nutrition
Chickens require a combination of vitamins, minerals, carbohydrates, and proteins in their diet to thrive. Commercial blends have been designed specifically to meet this need; it may take a bit of trial-and-error for your flock to find its optimal blend.
Based on your coop’s needs, supplements or boosters such as fish meal (for protein) or sea kelp (for minerals) should not exceed 10% of its feed mix.
Your primary task should be selecting a high-quality whole grains or cracked grains blend that provides adequate proteins and carbohydrates, particularly proteins rich in essential amino acids such as methionine and lysine, that cannot be produced in chicken’s own bodies; these must come from their diet instead. You could also include additional sources of protein like chopped kitchen scraps like yoghurt, carrot peelings, apple cores or egg shell grit – excellent sources of phosphorous for strong bones and healthy feathers!
