Chickens require many key components in their diet for proper development and wellbeing, so making your own feed will allow you to ensure they receive balanced and wholesome nutrition.
This recipe is designed for laying hens as it provides extra calcium for strong egg shells. In addition, kelp and garlic powder add additional health benefits.
Contents
Protein
Chickens require protein for energy. This can come from various sources including grains such as barley, wheat or oats; kitchen scraps (cabbage peelings, carrot peelings, yoghurt scraps or crushed egg shells/grit) as well as supplements like meat and bone meal, fish meal, animal grade brewer’s yeast or dried seaweed.
When selecting ingredients for chickens, be sure to select organic varieties and consider their availability nearby. Also ensure enough water is available as this is a key nutrient for them and helps digest food more easily as well as regulate body temperatures. It is also vital that you monitor how your flock responds to new feed – make sure they’re getting all of their necessary vitamins!
Carbohydrates
Chickens are energy-producing creatures that rely heavily on carbohydrates for sustenance. Therefore, grains like wheat and corn are popular ingredients used in homemade feed recipes for chickens.
Grain foods provide not only carbohydrates but also important microminerals and macrominerals that support muscle, nerve and bone development. Since chickens do not normally receive these essential minerals from natural food sources, supplements must be added as part of the chicken feed mix to meet this demand.
Homemade feed may include other high-quality carbohydrates, such as sunflower seeds and brewer’s yeast (an excellent source of protein, B Vitamin and folic acid). Many poultry enthusiasts also include flax seeds in their feed to increase Omega-3 fatty acid production in chicken eggs.
Fats
Many people choose to make their own feed in order to better understand what their flock is receiving and ensure it contains only natural, organic ingredients that meet their flocks dietary needs. Although worthwhile as an experiment, creating your own mix can be both challenging and time consuming.
Chickens require an assortment of nutrients in precise proportions for good health and wellbeing, which necessitates extensive nutritional research. Nutritionists specialize in creating balanced rations to fulfill these specific requirements for poultry feed production.
Protein is essential to chickens’ overall wellbeing, providing energy and the building blocks required to form bone, flesh and feathers. A high quality source can be obtained through legumes like soybeans, lupins and peas as well as animal products like fish meal or pork blood meal.
Minerals
Chickens require more than protein, fats and carbohydrates for optimal health; they need minerals, vitamins and energy as well. When free range chickens forage for food they get most of these essential nutrients through foraging alone; otherwise a balanced poultry feed must be provided in their enclosures.
Homemade poultry feed recipes can provide an economical solution to provide chickens with essential nutrition, yet creating them requires time and storage space to maintain fresh ingredients.
Supplementing homemade chicken feed with oyster shells is an effective way of adding calcium, while mineral premix can ensure that all essential minerals are consumed by your flock. Finally, probiotics may improve digestion and nutrient absorption while supporting healthy gut bacteria in addition to supporting overall animal welfare.
Vitamins
Chickens require vitamins to support normal body functions and production. Vitamin deficiencies can lead to various diseases or syndromes.
Vitamins can be divided into two main categories, microminerals and macrominerals, both providing essential support to bone health and muscle functions, protein formation, enzyme activation and energy metabolism.
Vitamins can be easily added to a homemade poultry feed recipe using ingredients like flax seed (which contains omega-3 fatty acids and proteins) and animal grade brewer’s yeast, which contains B vitamins as well as around 25% protein. Kelp granules provide additional sources of vitamin A and B; limestone or oyster shells offer calcium. Lastly, mineral premix products provide additional sources of minerals.
