Chickens require food, water (assuming free access), bedding and regular deworming as well as occasional treats like weeds, perennial greens or even worms.
Many farmers and homesteaders opt to make their own chicken feed at home to save money on expensive commercial feeds, while at the same time controlling protein, nutrients, meal worms or black oil sunflower seeds as treats for their birds.
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1. Deer Corn
Deer corn is one of the least costly ways to create chicken feed. Plus, it attracts deer onto your property – perfect for keeping predators at bay from plants not intended for consumption by animals!
Deer corn is generally more cost-effective than regular hog or cattle feed, and can be purchased at most outdoor stores. Deer use it to supplement their natural food sources through fall, winter, and early spring until nature renews them again.
Chickens are omnivorous birds that love all sorts of foods, with grains being an especially essential source of energy. Although you can purchase flavored deer corn in bags, plain varieties are best so as to avoid adding unnecessary amounts of sugar into their diets. Earnst Grain & Livestock offers 50-pound bags that come clean shelled allowing you to save even more money by buying in bulk; its products feature select whole-shelled corn that has been triple-cleaned to reduce foreign material and dust particles for reduced dust particles for maximum savings!
2. Kitchen Scraps
Wilted lettuce, soft berries and other items found in your garbage can can save a considerable amount of money on chicken feed costs. Simply ensure to only offer your flock nutritious food items that fit within safe-sized pieces and use these food sources alongside your standard chicken food formula or grain formulation.
Fruit, vegetable and other scraps can all be fed to your hens without issue (please refer to table scraps list for specific examples), though remembering to avoid anything fried, sugary, salty or moldy as this will harm their health. A quality commercial chicken feed will provide additional nourishment while clean fresh water should always be available.
Local food sources such as smoothie shops, restaurants, co-ops or farmer’s markets may offer leftover vegetables, fruits and wilted greens that could provide your chickens with nutritious sources of nourishment. Before taking steps to transition your flock from commercial feed, be sure to secure multiple alternative food sources – scraps can serve as tempting treats to flocks that tend to fill up on them instead of more nutritious foods such as their feed.
3. Eggs
The egg produced from unfertilized chicken eggs is an abundance of essential vitamins and proteins – even unfertilized eggs are an excellent source of calcium, iron, potassium, vitamin A, D, riboflavin, and thiamine! Don’t throw away those yolks either – they contain more protein and fat than egg white and contain lecithin as an effective emulsifier!
Save all of your eggshells and grind them up for your flock’s consumption; they need the calcium from this extra calcium source to produce strong egg shells. Hens can also benefit from eating arugula, chickweed, dandelion greens, purslane and lamb’s quarters for an added calcium boost. Veggie garden scraps not intended for human consumption such as cabbage tops, carrot peelings and potato peels provide excellent sources of proteins; however due to being complex molecules consisting of amino acids, chickens need these foods in their diet – therefore making deer corn or homemade feed mixture may be cheaper options.
4. Trash Can
An old galvanized trash can has many non-trash uses besides garbage collection. One such use is to hold organic fertilizer in the garage with its lid to keep vermin out. I have also utilized my trash can for growing cover crops for the garden which saves me money and gives chickens something new to do!
Wilted lettuce, soft berries and stale bread can all make great chicken feed for your flock if you call ahead and call your local restaurants and bakeries beforehand to ask if they have anything they cannot sell due to being soft or unappetizing.
Mill is trying to address food waste by creating a smart bin that turns kitchen scraps into commercial chicken feed. While not an ideal solution, this may help change consumer behaviors while cutting down costs for feeding chickens and saving energy when shipping food over great distances.
