Best/Easies Grains to Raise for Chickens

[digitS']

There you go, '4acres! Personally, I like all those ideas!

Corn is primarily an energy food. They do need some energy and it is expensive for them to metabolize it from protein. In fact, protein is likely to be the most expensive part of any feed and, I'm sorry to say, it will probably be seriously deficient in our table scraps. I tried to keep track of what scraps were actually going out to the birds once and realized that we usually ate the protein and threw away things that are just high in calories. A chicken needs about as balanced a diet as people do. Imagine feeding them the amount of meat that an average American eats! (Hey, we Americans eat just about our weight in meat each year. If you have 100 chickens weighing 7 pounds each . . !)

I would really be interested in fermenting and sprouting research, '4acres. It is kind of getting "out there" in what folks can do but chickens eat sprouted grain and they eat silage. Silage can be of varying composition and nutrition. We shouldn't be afraid of low-protein vegetables. Critters need their vitamins and foods dense in water have just that, water. Water is an important nutrient .

Steve

 

[897tgigvib]

Here's another idea that might add a little or a lot of chicken feed: Find any old vacant spots that can get at least a little water, and broadcast some whole seed bird feed and help it sprout and grow once in awhile. It'll have millet and maybe Sorghum, dent corn, sunflowers, wheat, and who knows what else.

Kale is easy to grow in a patch, or whatever else brassica you might have a lot of extra seeds of, not all working to make it head up, just to grow. Same thing with lettuce. Sorrel makes a great tough as nails perennial patch, and so does horseradish, and you can have goodies like Thyme or cilantro or whatever herbs they like. I'd kind of think that chickens to eat getting fed a lot of rosemary would taste extra yummy. not sure, just guessing! Probably make extra flavorful eggs too...

If it isn't possible to grow and range all the food for them, at least they'd get a good percentage of homemade cheaply produced food.


Another good reason to save seeds, even some of the weed seeds! Sorrel for example, has a wild cousin weed that grows around here, and so does chicory, both listed in manuals as survival foods.

 

[MyKidLuvsGreenEgz]

While corn is fairly easy to grow, I don't give it to my chickens much. It takes a while to process which keeps them warm in the winter. It also slows down production of eggs. I usually feed corn only in the winter.

When I have an overabundance of eggs and can't sel the extras, I do some cooking: eggs (mashed-up shells and all), a little cheese, flax seed, canned veggies and some kind of flour (sometimes gluten-free, sometimes whole wheat, etc). Sometimes oats or rice. Make the chickens some "pancakes" and freeze the extras. Good protein, good calcium, good veggies, and more.

Raising for the chickens this year: millet, amaranth, sunflowers, and greens. I too hate spending so much on feed.

 

[baymule]

What about pumpkins and winter squash? They would keep well for the winter and would be good for them to eat. I grow broccoli in the winter and I snap off the lower leaves for their greens. You mentioned turnip greens, don't forget the turnips too, they are high in protein.

What does a 50 pound bag of whole oats cost in your area? You could sprout them for the chickies!

 

[Jared77]

Now that I have found my favorite dual purpose breed

I want to know what her favorite dual purpose breed is

 

[thistlebloom]

Now that I have found my favorite dual purpose breed

I want to know what her favorite dual purpose breed is

Oh, me too!

 

[Chickie'sMomaInNH]

ever thought about magels or fodder beets as they're also called? i think Baker's Creek sells them in small packets. i know Johnny's Seeds sells them but it is a huge packet.

 

[Kassaundra]

I both sprout and ferment grains for my chickens, there are a couple of very informative threads on BYC about both fermenting and sprouting, they are both very good ways of making the nutrition already in the grain more bio-avalible.

I also grow insects dubias and mealworms. My dubia colony is a big success and my chickens get dubias several times a week, a very high food/protien source for my girls. I am having more issues w/ the meal worm colony. I am about to start an outdoor colony of red wiggler composting worms which I plan on using as another protien source for the girls. I have thought about growing fish, but so far the expense has seemed more then it is worth, but I keep researching and brainstorming I may eventually come up w/ a shoestring method of raising enough to make a diff in my girls diets.

I think your best bet would be to raise fodder/silage rather then grains. Comfrey is an excellent green high protien perinial, my girls have manage to kill it out in their area, so I need to reorder and plant outside of thier area and bring it to them. I am also going to get the more invasive type maybe it will stand a chance against the hoarding mass of chickens. Note many American sources talk about comfrey as poison, but Europeans have been feeding it to their animals for centuries w/o issues. And the "bocking 4" variety is sterile seeded and bred specifially as animal fodder.

 

[retiredwith4acres]

My chosen breed, BucKeye! They are big birds, friendly, great at foraging, medium eggs and very pretty. The roosters will weight 9 pounds at less than a year old and am getting about 8-12 eggs a week with 3 hens. They don't waste food either.

I don't know the price of wheat at this time. I plan on checking on all that as soon as I have a few minutes, I have 12 hours of teaching basket weaving today with only 4 hours of sleep.

Thanks for all the comments, it really helps me a lot. At least, I know I am not the only one wrestling with this problem.

 

[897tgigvib]

I'm kind of thinking if you do a little of each, grow some grains, grow some greens, get some worms and grubs going, you'll do great