# Growing your own chicken feed



## Bobbb (Jan 7, 2012)

So, anyone around these parts growing their own chicken feed? You want to learn me who you do that? Well, do you?

Chickens like sunflower seeds, right? How many many pounds of sunflower seeds per chicken per year?

Share you wisdom with me. Thanks.


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## *Andi (Nov 8, 2009)

It is called "free range" ...


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## zombieresponder (Aug 20, 2012)

My uncle grows dent corn for chicken feed. He leaves it on the cob and then uses a corn sheller that belonged to my great grandparents to strip it off the cob when he needs to feed. He also grows a little bit of wheat from time to time and turns the chickens loose on it when it's ready.


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## Bobbb (Jan 7, 2012)

*Andi said:


> It is called "free range" ...


I always assumed free range had to be supplemented. Is free range totally free range + scraps?


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## Bobbb (Jan 7, 2012)

zombieresponder said:


> My uncle grows dent corn for chicken feed. He leaves it on the cob and then uses a corn sheller that belonged to my great grandparents to strip it off the cob when he needs to feed. He also grows a little bit of wheat from time to time and turns the chickens loose on it when it's ready.


Do you mean wheat in the field before any processing?


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## *Andi (Nov 8, 2009)

Bobbb said:


> I always assumed free range had to be supplemented. Is free range totally free range + scraps?


I know more than a few folks that free range and give only garden/table scraps ...

No "chicken feed" from the feed store.

Edit ... to add ... that is down here.


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## kejmack (May 17, 2011)

My chickens get all the bugs and greens they can eat. They are good foragers and eat a lot of plants. They also get table scraps. They do get a laying ration from the store. I used to grow my own corn and scratch grains but I don't have the time or energy any more. It takes a lot of time to thresh the grains and crack the corn. Plus, you have to grow a lot of corn to provide a year's worth of feed. What corn I grow now goes to us, not the chickens.


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## lazydaisy67 (Nov 24, 2011)

Yeah, I grow my own chicken feed.....it's called my garden! :gaah:


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## zombieresponder (Aug 20, 2012)

Bobbb said:


> Do you mean wheat in the field before any processing?


Yep. He will cut it down with a mower(either sickle bar or brush hog) or a hand sickle. That's it, no further input on his part.


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## LincTex (Apr 1, 2011)

I have 10 hens on only 1/8 acre, so I get them some supplemental feed, but only a natural/organic? type I found not far away.

I do plan to grind my own. I have a pellet mill for wood pellets, I need to buy a different die to make feed pellets.


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## Jimthewagontraveler (Feb 8, 2012)

Learn about" chicken tractors"
Make one big and one skinny enough to fit between the rows
in your garden.
Chickens raised from 3 olds can be taught to come step into 
Your hand and be placed on your shoulder/head etc.
Start with 5 babies in a very large aquarium in your bedroom.
Feed them often from your hand.
It will be a short time till they jump on top of the food in your
Hand.
Hide them often when fed and watered well under your 
beard/shirt.
Prepare for this by having enough clean tshirts for a small 
army.
If there are complaints about the smell then you are not
cleaning the cage often enough and will be damaging the 
Babies lungs.
When they can jump/fly out they will be done training.
It is also a good idea for your dog to have access to see and hear
Babies until they can get out.
If you can arrange for a cat to sneak in and attack them so 
Dog/ babies can see you beat the cat you will cement the bond.
After making cat disapear have cuddle time with dog and
Babies.
After this they should run to you even as adults and make a scream very few humans ever hear when in danger.


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## k0xxx (Oct 27, 2011)

lazydaisy67 said:


> Yeah, I grow my own chicken feed.....it's called my garden! :gaah:


That's pretty much us, also. Last year they feasted on all of the tomato worms that invaded our garden, as well as any of the other pests that we could give them. Then they got all of the bug damaged vegetable and melons, the parts of plants that were pruned or damaged, and the scraps as we harvested and preserved. Once the garden was spent, we let them run free and eat what they could find, before we started throwing the old plants into the compost heap. We also grew sunflower, and a small patch of wheat. Over the last few years we have also raised worms (the castings are great for the garden) and crickets to supplement the vegetable and grains.


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## Griff (Jan 12, 2013)

We tried growing Quinoa, Corn, and Sunflowers in the veggie garden, but realized too late that the drip irrigation came from the house water supply, which is kinda salty from the softener system. Oops. With a different feed this year, we're also going to try adding Millet. 

For now, ours run around the orchard and livestock areas. Guess you'd call that "free range." They get lots of bugs in season, and clean up whatever feed the critters nose out onto the ground, scratch for grubs under the hay at the feeders, etc. We give them layer pellets but they don't seem to eat very much much. Kinda funny to watch them fight over freshly-dead mice from the traps, too. Nothing gets wasted...


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## cowboyhermit (Nov 10, 2012)

We traditionally have fed chickens a diet of mostly wheat, aside from what they get on their own, they do quite well on it. We grow it ourselves and use a hammer mill but that is with all the equipment so not really what you are asking I think.
Free range is great, definitely the way to go but in the winter here you need to give them something, especially if you want them to produce. Maybe we should be raising ruffed grouse


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## gypsysue (Mar 27, 2010)

You folks in the south can do a good job of free-ranging your chickens and growing things to feed them. :congrat:

Here in the north where we have a very short growing season, and things like corn won't grow, it's nearly impossible. We've grown grain and hand-harvested and threshed it. It's a big job. If I were having a type of small critter just for meat, I'd do rabbits in the north. It's a lot easier to raise what they need, on a small piece of land without farm implements. Even a patch of alfalfa is easy to grow, cut, and dry, plus they'll eat about any garden scraps, and branches from shrubs like willows and pines.

For what it's worth, even here in the north we can free-range chickens. Ours walk on the snow, which piles up 1-3 feet deep most of the winter, and they eat the seeds on grasses and other plants, which are easier to reach from the top of the snow. They also eat dried up berries (non-edible to humans) and rose hips in the woods around our place, plus they get exercise instead of sitting in the coop and pen all winter. No, it doesn't freeze their feet. We've never lost a chicken to deep cold or snow.


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## LincTex (Apr 1, 2011)

Chicken Feed Maggot Bucket

http://www.permies.com/t/990/chickens/Maggot-Feeding-Station-Poultry

http://www.themodernhomestead.us/article/Feeding-Chickens-Maggots.html


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