Fodder is a cheap / free source of fresh food for your chickens that you can grow all winter long. Fodder is basically sprouted grains that you feed to your animals. You can use wheat berries, sunflower seeds, oats, and even barley.
How much feed should I give my chickens each day?
What Factors Affect a Chickens Appetite?
- Climate. Although your chickens have feathers, they don’t have tiny little coats to keep them warm in the winter time.
- Breed. Breed can affect a bird’s appetite in two ways, body size and foraging. ...
- Feed. ...
- Food Delivery. ...
What foods are bad for chickens?
What Not to Feed Chickens From the Kitchen
- Anything Containing Caffeine or Alcohol
- Anything Salty
- Anything Sugary
- Avocado (controversial, certainly avoid the skin and pit)
- Butter
- Candy and Chocolate
- Citrus
- Fried Foods
- Junk food such as chips and pretzels
- Ice Cream, Sherbet, Frozen Yogurt
What should chickens absolutely not eat?
What food kills chickens?
- Avocadoes (mainly the pit and peel) As with most of the things on this list, I was able to find several people who report feeding avocado to their flock without ...
- Chocolate or Candy.
- Citrus.
- Green Potato Skins.
- Dry Beans.
- Junk Food.
- Moldy or Rotten Food.
What is the best food to feed chickens?
- Eggs – It’s always easy to whip up scrambled eggs in the morning. Perhaps, you can make some for your chickens too. ...
- Chicken – Like how chickens provide protein to humans, chickens are also good protein sources for chickens. It’s delicious! ...
- Shellfish – Yes, chickens are into seafood too! Shellfishes are good sources of proteins for the flock. ...
What is the best human food to feed chickens?
Lettuce, kale, turnip greens and chard are great greens options. Watermelon, strawberries, and blueberries make healthy snacks for chickens when fed in moderation. A few flock favorites include: Vegetables: Lettuce, beets, broccoli, carrots, kale, swiss chard, squash, pumpkins and cucumbers.
What should I feed my chickens everyday?
Chickens love fruit and vegetables, and you can give them this daily. Our girls love vegetable peels, bananas, apple cores, carrots, and broccoli. You are safe to feed chickens pretty much any vegetable or fruit except any raw green peels (such as green potato peel) and any citric fruits such as oranges and lemons.
What can I feed chickens instead of feed?
Chickens will enjoy grains like bulgar and wheatberries or more common grains like corn, flax, cooked rice, and raw or cooked oatmeal. Toss scratch -- a mixture of cracked corn and grains including wheats, oats and rye -- into the chicken run to keep them happy and busy searching for treats.
Can chickens eat rice?
Chickens can also have other foods from the kitchen such as cooked white and brown rice, plain pasta, bread, oatmeal, and quinoa. Chickens love to eat seeds and dried morsels. These include goodies such as sunflower seeds, sesame seeds, cracked corn, chicken scratch, mealworms, raisins, barley and oats.
Is bread good for chickens?
Foods that are Safe to Feed Your Chickens Bread – Bread, in moderation, can be fed to your chickens, but avoid moldy bread. Cooked meats – Meats should be cut into small pieces. Corn – Raw, cooked, or dried corn can be fed to your chickens.
Can chickens eat uncooked rice?
Contrary to popular belief, rice is safe for consumption for chickens whether it is cooked or uncooked. If you're going to cook it, make sure to avoid adding extra sodium in the form of seasonings.
Can chickens just eat grass?
Typically, chickens can only digest young, new grass. Therefore, they tend to only eat the very tips of grass blades. While grass is nutritious, it does not provide chickens with everything that they need. Therefore, grass-eating chickens will need to have their diet supplemented with other foods.
How do you make cheap chicken feed?
10 Cheap Chicken Feed Ideas For Feeding Your Flock On A BudgetLet Your Chickens Free Range. This is my favorite cheap chicken feed option. ... Sprouted Seeds Or Fodder. ... Fermented Seeds. ... Deer Corn When It's In Season. ... Kitchen Scraps. ... Leftover Eggs. ... Sunflower Seeds. ... Bugs And Grubs.More items...•
What's the Best chicken diet?
The foundational chicken diet depends on species, age of bird, and why you raise them. In general, the faster the growth, the higher the protein requirements. These fast growers would generally be meat birds. For birds intended to be layers or breeders, a slower growth curve is beneficial to give a chance for really robust internal maturation.
What to Feed Chickens – Treats and Other Supplements
What else can chickens eat? Remember that everything you feed in essence dilutes your basic ration. These are supplements, not your primary feed.
What Not to Feed Chickens
CAUTION – WATCH OUT FOR MOLD. Do not feed any product that is growing all but the smallest amount of mold. Chickens can get a condition called aspergillosis, partly because of their unique anatomy including air sacs. We once found a pocket of mold– triple eww! — inside the lung of a turkey. (No, we did not eat that bird!)
Don't Stress About What to Feed Chickens!
Start with a balanced ration, and then relax and enjoy your birds. With very few exceptions, your feathered friends can eat almost the same things that you do. Remember, as in life, moderation is the key.
Cost-Free Options
All the foods in this category can be offered to your chickens without even touching your wallet. You already have them in abundance, and until now, you’ve probably been wasting each of these items, unaware that you could turn them into food for your chickens.
Low-Cost Options
The items in this section aren’t free, but they’re very affordable. However, they take a bit more work to prepare, which is the trade-off you have to make for the low cost.
Things You Can Grow
If you’re looking for a replenishing food source, you might consider growing your chickens’ feed. Many plants can be easily grown and offered to your chickens as a healthy and sustainable feed source.
Things In Your Cupboard
In this section, we’ll cover the items that might currently be in your cabinet that could be used as chicken feed. Check the back corners of the pantry where the light hasn’t shined in a few years, you’ll probably find one of these choices!
Proteins
18. Peanut Meal – The only downside to peanut meal is that it might be possible for the peanuts to affect the eggs of your chickens, which would be bad for anyone who suffers a peanut allergy.
Chicken Feed and Supplements
We’ll start with the obvious, what can chickens eat? Chicken feed of course!
Feed Chickens Bugs
There’s no denying it, one of the the best things you can feed to chickens is bugs!
Feed Chickens Weeds and Flowers
One of the most satisfying things to feed your chickens is the weeds that pop up in your yard and garden!
Feed Chickens Kitchen Scraps
Food waste from the kitchen is an unfortunate fact of life, but it doesn’t have to be a problem when you have chickens!
Feed Chickens from the Garden
If you have a vegetable or herb garden, or even an orchard, your chickens can reap the benefits!
Basic Feed Requirements
Over many years now the poultry feed industry has researched and refined the essential nutritional requirements of poultry, from chicks to adult, from chickens to quail, turkey and others. The feed that they produce is formulated to maximize the growth and egg laying potential of each bird. Needless to say this is a huge improvement over the way our great-grandparents would have fed chickens! Back in the ‘old days’ chickens would have to survive on what they found in the barnyard and any offerings from the farmers’ wife. Research has shown that many nutrients are needed by all birds to a greater or lesser degree, your feed should include:.
Chicken Feed Terminology Explained
Chicken feed has several key phrases and if you don’t know them the feed bag labels will likely confuse you! Here’s a list of the most frequent terms:
Other Types of Chicken Feed
Feed for Meat Birds If you are raising meat birds, you will know they require a much higher protein content to keep up with their rapid development. If you don’t give them sufficient protein they will fail to thrive and you may have significant health problems with them. The life of a broiler chicken is very short, sometimes as little as 5 weeks before they are culled.
Chicken Treats and Snacks Advice
Your hens come running to greet you when you get home, when you leave the house and any other time that seems good to them.
Making Your Own Chicken Feed
Some folks like to make their own feed – I say more power to them.
Chicken Feeders 101
Once you have found the perfect feed, you will need to get a chicken feeder to place the feed into. If you have kept chickens before, you will know that they will eat off the ground; they don’t care! However, a chicken feeder will prevent waste and helps to keep feed fresh. You have two main types of feeders:
Summary
There are several other things to think about when you are buying chicken feed. Here in the US many folks these days want their flock to have organic feed (no GMOs). In the UK, Europe and Australasia you don’t have that particular problem to worry about. Some people want their feed to be organic, soy or corn free.
Nutritional needs of chickens
Before we get into the recipes, it’s vital to be aware of the nutritional requirements that chickens need to thrive. Although chickens are generally hardy birds and expert foragers, they still need a healthy balance of vitamins and minerals to grow properly, stay healthy, and produce healthy, delicious eggs.
Simple Chicken Feed for Laying Hens
This recipe is formulated for laying hens but is versatile and can be used for all your other chickens too. The ingredients are inexpensive and easy to find and can be found in bulk to save you money.
Final Thoughts
It can be stressful to be responsible for the nutrition of your backyard flock, and feeding them the correct ratio of nutrients is essential. But chickens are hardy creatures, especially if they are free-ranging, which is highly recommended. They are proficient at eating what they need and leaving what they don’t.
1. Free Range
The easiest way to give your chickens a free, balanced diet is to let them free range for their food. Most breeds of chickens will do just fine foraging for their own food.
2. Kitchen Scraps
Chickens are omnivores – they eat both meat and vegetables. So you can feed your chickens with confidence, knowing that most of what you eat is just fine for them, too.
3. Restaurant Scraps
Another idea to garner free chook food is to make a visit to any small, local restaurants and ask them for their leftovers from their salad bars and buffets. If they can’t save it to serve the following day, they have to throw it out. You’ll be doing them a favor by saving on their dumpster costs.
4. Compost Pile
Some savvy chicken keepers have figured out that you can safely feed your chickens from the compost pile, especially if you put one right in your chicken pen. Yard waste, vegetable scraps, and anything else you routinely compost can go right on the pile.
5. Extra Eggs
If you have a large flock, what do you do with all those extra eggs? Or the eggs that are too dirty to eat or sell? Feed them back to your hens, of course! Scrambled, poached, or hard-boiled, they aren’t picky at all. This will give them some extra protein which will boost feather production, especially during molting season.
6. Weeds
You may hate all those weeds popping up in your garden and flower beds, but your hens will enjoy them. Things like dandelions, purslane, crabgrass, thistles, and even plantain are delectable to your birds.
7. Yard Waste
Yard waste, like grass, leaves, and bush clippings, is often collected and take to municipal sites. Skip this step and drop it into your chicken pen. It’s a great source of vegetable matter and home to lots of creepy-crawlies that your hens will love to munch.
1. Sweet corn
Sweet corn is a delicacy your chicken will love. You can give them the ears right from the garden, or the leftovers after canning. Chickens will also love those ears that might be overripe.
2. Sunflower seeds
Growing sunflowers will give you large heads with lots of tasty seeds. You can dry them out for you and your family, or give them to your chickens. Some chicken owners simply break the sunflower heads apart and give them to the chickens fresh.
3. Pumpkins
Growing pumpkins in your garden makes for some tasty treats for the family. Chickens will also enjoy the seeds. As a bonus, the seeds can provide natural de-worming and parasite control for the chickens.
4. Mint
Often known as “yardus interuptus” as it will take over anywhere it can, mint will provide a natural insect repellent for your chickens. Toss a few fresh leaves in their nesting boxes and in their coop for a sweet smell, too.
5. Cucumbers
Also natural parasite control for chickens, cucumbers are already in most home gardens. Add an extra plant near your chicken run and allow the vines to climb over fencing. This will give the chickens a treat fresh off the vine, anytime.
6. Wheat
Even on a small homestead, you can grow wheat. 1,000 square feet will yield you a bushel of wheat berries. However, since most of us don’t have that kind of space, you can plant seeds in rows 1 inch apart, and seeds 1 inch deep and harvest enough for a treat for your flock.
7. Calendula
Another great insect repellent, this bright yellow-orange flower is known to be one of the best garden companions out there. They are thought to help make the yolk a brighter color when you scatter some petals throughout their run.
