I haven’t written in awhile. I’ve been meaning to tell you about my solution to the feed problem, but it’s just that time of year. Harvest season is a busy time of year whether or not you have a garden to harvest.
I wrote a couple posts about this already, so you may or may not be tired of me talking about it. However, what you feed your birds is an important topic. Garbage In, Garbage Out as the saying goes.
To recap: I was fed up with Purina crumbles because of the plastic bag issue, and I found that even though the organic layer feed came in a paper bag it only came in a meal form, which wasn’t practical for me. Backyard hens need to be easy to maintain for us working folks. The more time and energy we have to expend dealing with their upkeep the less time we have left over to spend enjoying the birds or doing other things at home.
We get the following recipes mixed at Bourn feed in roughly 50 pound bags. Each bag, along with the correct amount of kelp (roughly 2 lbs), is approximately $22-24, depending on grain prices. Bourn needs at least 500 pounds in their mixer for it to work so I’ve had to recruit many other people to be able to do this.
Summer Recipe:
[pounds: product]
40: whole corn
80: soft wheat
60: hard wheat
80: oats
100: sunflower seeds
50: millet
50: field peas
40: flax
20: kelp granules (sold and fed separately)
Winter Recipe (Nov-Apr):
80: whole corn (increased ration for added warmth)
80: soft wheat
60: hard wheat
80: oats
100: sunflower seeds
50: field peas
40: flax
20: kelp granules (sold and fed separately)
Gives us about 16.5% protein content year round!
Also, always ALWAYS allow free choice (do not put it in their feed) of grit and calcium. Sand is NOT grit, egg shells are NOT grit. Grit is made up of very hard small stones, in the feed stores it comes as granite, but often yard pebbles will work too. Calcium can come in the form of oyster shell (most common), ground up egg shells, or certain limestones.
The kelp adds trace vitamins and minerals unavailable in this limited diet. The kelp comes in little granules, which can be difficult to get the hens to eat. I’ve found that if I put it in something wet and then stir in some of the grains and top it all with a handful of the grains they eat it right up. Others have had luck putting it in yogurt, which your hens have to be trained to eat, but once they know its food they will devour yogurt.
Everyone who bought feed on the last order says their hens LOVE it. I still had some commercial feed and made the mistake of feeding my hens the whole grains before finishing off the crumbles. What a mistake! Now I’ve got 30-40 pounds of crumbles that they won’t eat.
This recipe has only 8 ingredients, all of which we can get at grain prices. A more varied diet would be better, but it also has to be priced reasonably in order for all the people in the buying club to afford it.
Bourn doesn’t carry organic grains, as around here people wouldn’t buy it, but they do try to buy from non GMO and pesticide/herbicide free farmers.
If you are interested in getting in on an order, please comment on the post or I think there is a place on the blog that you can send me a message. I’m not trying to make money on this venture, just to get the best available feed for my hens and offer that same chance to others.
