# Chicken Feeding



## lilmissy0740 (Mar 7, 2011)

I know I have seen it somewhere on here. But I just can not locate it. Someone said they use grains and other stuff to supplement their chicken feed to save on cost. What all do you give to your chickens besides garden scraps. I have chickens that free range on about 1 acre everyday. But I a looking to save on feed costs.
Any ideas?


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## cajunmeadows (Oct 21, 2011)

free range and scraps should be enough with a small amount of grain. check their bodies make sure they dont loose alot of weight and you can increase or decrease as you see fit.


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## Emerald (Jun 14, 2010)

I can not free range due to my area but I feed them grass clippings and scraps from the kitchen and mice from the traps.
But I found that if you give them a scoop of whole corn every day they laid more eggs and ate less of the expensive feed for me. The scratch grains around here tend to have a lot of cheap and nasty millet and my chickens wouldn't eat it and the little birdys in the area did.. I am not gonna feed the wild birds my expensive chicken scratch so switched to the whole corn.. and whole corn is cheaper than cracked and the scratch.


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## lilmissy0740 (Mar 7, 2011)

Thanks! I want to get them use to eating this way just in case SHTF and I cant get feed. But I dont want to make them sick or starve either. They get lots of scraps. Heck yesterday was making mac and cheese, just got my noodles cooked and was cooking the cheese mixture, knocked my noodles onto the floor. I was so mad but they were very happy.


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## Emerald (Jun 14, 2010)

I am clearing and cleaning the small freezer that is part of the fridge.. it is all mainly small things of leftovers that were too good to throw out but now have been in so long that they can't even be recognized. My big deep chest freezer I clean and rearrange stuff about two or three times a year.. while I won't eat some of the freezer burnt stuff the chickens love it.. and it has been hot so I just thaw it a bit and dump it out frozen.. They pecked and picked at it all afternoon.. I have three more shelves..  The vac packed stuff is fine but the ziplocked baggies and little tubs of soup.. not so much.
I am making a vow to just feed those little bits and bags of stuff right to the birds instead of putting it in the freezer. No more crammed full freezer of unrecognizable stuff..


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## lilmissy0740 (Mar 7, 2011)

I do the same with zuchinni every year. When I cant give anymmore away, I chunk up and freeze and feed it to them off and on.


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## goshengirl (Dec 18, 2010)

Thanks for this thread - so timely! I have both chickens and a freezer that needs defrosting.  

It's our rookie chicken year - need to learn more about what to feed them besides the store-bought feed...

We'll end up with lots of stuff from the garden this year - do any of you dehydrate stuff to feed to the chickens later on? I can see how having chunks of stuff in the freezer would be refreshing, but we're mighty short on freezer space (even with two extra freezers). If I fed them dehydrated veggies, would it be best to rehydrate the veggies before giving it to them? (so that there wouldn't be a problem with the veggies rehydrating on the inside of the bird)? I'm thinking specifically of cucumbers, since we planted a boatload of cucumbers around the corn to keep the racoons away, but we're really not a big cucumber eating family.


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## Hooch (Jul 22, 2011)

I have 5 hens and a huge backyard for them to "free range" on most of the time. This is my first year having chickens and it seems they eat just about everything. Between the dog and them I really havent had any issue with leftovers to the point where my compost pile is getting smaller. 

One thing I have been doing for them is making homemade suet cakes. When I cook up hamburger for the dog food I pour the greese into a small round ceramic container and them pour the hen layer feed into it, enough to make a "cake" and then let it cool. I give them a bite of it about every other day. They love it and so does the dog...he tries to sneek a bite too


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## Emerald (Jun 14, 2010)

goshengirl said:


> Thanks for this thread - so timely! I have both chickens and a freezer that needs defrosting.
> 
> It's our rookie chicken year - need to learn more about what to feed them besides the store-bought feed...
> 
> We'll end up with lots of stuff from the garden this year - do any of you dehydrate stuff to feed to the chickens later on? I can see how having chunks of stuff in the freezer would be refreshing, but we're mighty short on freezer space (even with two extra freezers). If I fed them dehydrated veggies, would it be best to rehydrate the veggies before giving it to them? (so that there wouldn't be a problem with the veggies rehydrating on the inside of the bird)? I'm thinking specifically of cucumbers, since we planted a boatload of cucumbers around the corn to keep the racoons away, but we're really not a big cucumber eating family.


I would say to rehydrate it with boiling water and then have a bowl for them out in the pen/coop so that you can give them the veggie in the warm water(so that any nutrients in the water will get in them also..) I had about 3/4 of a bag of rabbit pellets from when my daughter had a pet bunny and they were just sitting there in the shed and during the winter I just put about two cups in a big stainless bowl that got really dinged up when it fell off the top of the car on the way home from family reunion one year(wonder how that happened? gotta love teen boys and their idea of pack the car ) I would put boiling water over and those things puffed right up! and the chickens seemed to really enjoy that green roughage in the winter. I left the extra water in that too. Tell folks that you have chickens and if they get buggy cornmeal or buggy oatmeal to just keep it for you .. I would add a scoop of that with the rabbit pellets and it really makes a big jellied kinda lump.. serve it warm to them in the cold of winter and they go bonkers.


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## goatlady (Nov 7, 2011)

The only time I feed my hens laying feed is to get them kicked into the laying mode at 5 months of age. After that they free range and depending on the season, they get cracked corn supplemental feedings, a handful in the summer and a scoop full in the winters if we have a lot of snow. They lay regularly as they should, and lay for years for me. My Black Astrolops are going on 6 years old and still laying like 2-year pullets, 1 egg every 24 hours like clockwork.


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## Emerald (Jun 14, 2010)

I have several hens that are over 5 years old and then the age goes to 4 and then 3 and now new pullets that are about 5 months old and should be dropping eggs soon(I think one is already laying eggs as I had a smaller brown egg that had a hard/hard shell. 
of the old hens I have about 16 or so.. and 18 new pullets and I am getting 6 to 8 eggs a day mainly from the older ladies. Sure in the hot heat they may slow down and it seems they take longer during the molt to recover into laying and for about a month in the late winter they kinda stop altogether laying eggs but in the spring and early summer they lay pretty dependably for older ladies. 
Treated well they lay eggs long after most books claim they will. I offered to give a couple of the older girls to my one sister in law and she out and out claimed that after the first year they will not lay eggs any longer.. I guess her claims of having chickens before was either false or she didn't manage them properly. Who knows. I just figured that a couple hens would be perfect for her to get used them them again and get eggs right off without going thru the hassle of finding just two or three pullets. She outright refused to take them as she thought I was just trying to screw her over... yup.. right.. free chickens=con job.. sheesh..


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## Possumfam (Apr 19, 2011)

Emerald said:


> I can not free range due to my area but I feed them grass clippings and scraps from the kitchen *and mice from the traps*.


Who'da thunk? NEVER, NEVER, NEVER would have thought to catch mice to feed the chickens - NEVER. Learn something new every day!


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## cajunmeadows (Oct 21, 2011)

They are pretty hard on smaller snakes as well!


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## lilmissy0740 (Mar 7, 2011)

I too have hens that are around 5 and new ones that are just over 1. They love to eat! lol. Mine lay exceptionally well. Winter time they do slow down and/or stop. But that is the way their bodies were designed. We all need a break. I have some wheat that came up in the garden from putting down straw around my plants. They love that!
It is so hard to find non-gmo grains.


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## Emerald (Jun 14, 2010)

Possumfam said:


> Who'da thunk? NEVER, NEVER, NEVER would have thought to catch mice to feed the chickens - NEVER. Learn something new every day!


On one of the chicken forums they have people who get a 5 gallon bucket hang it up high over the chicken pen and they put fresh road kill in it and it has holes drilled in it around the bottom. As it rots and the flies find it they lay eggs and then you have maggots.. well the maggots will drop out of the bottom and the chickens gobble them up quickly. Probably only works in the spring summer fall tho.. too cold for flies in the winter here.
To me that just sounds gross. but maggots are good protein for them.


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## Freyadog (Jan 27, 2010)

First off my chickens will not eat whole corn. we do buy whole corn and grind it for them, then these spoiled rotten girls and boys will eat it.

during the winter months we save from winter hunting the hearts, livers, gizzards etc. and freeze the extra and feed that during the winter with grain. Plus when Thumper is cutting up the meat he throws out a lot of stuff to them. they clean that fresh meat down to the bone.


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## Emerald (Jun 14, 2010)

Freyadog said:


> First off my chickens will not eat whole corn. we do buy whole corn and grind it for them, then these spoiled rotten girls and boys will eat it.
> 
> during the winter months we save from winter hunting the hearts, livers, gizzards etc. and freeze the extra and feed that during the winter with grain. Plus when Thumper is cutting up the meat he throws out a lot of stuff to them. they clean that fresh meat down to the bone.


Wow.. the first time I gave whole corn to my girls they did look a bit bewildered but after a couple ate it and made the choot choot noise that means it's yummy they all chow down.
I've given them some of ornamental corn before of all colors and they will eat the yellow first and then go for the other colors.. 
I'm thinking about seeing if they like fresh killed bunny. I found one out eating my darn potato plants. killed one whole bush and they also killed several stalks of corn that had sprouted from over throw in the chicken pen. I just let those go and then harvest it for the chickens.. I think it is the water in the plants. it is so hot and dry here that the wild animals are getting thirsty. I am going to put a little gate on my spiral and see if that keeps them out. and put some water out there in a shallow dish.
I had problems with chipmunks one year due to the same reason.. they would bite a hole in the tomatoes and then just lick the juices out.. and the silly buggers bit almost every low tomato.. ruined many of them.
And I can't believe that you feed the choice bits to the chickens.. I love heart and gizzards and liver.. yum.. I even like chitlins as long as they are done right.(which I, can not do.)


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## kappydell (Nov 27, 2011)

as my grandmother said when I asked her what to feed chickens..."they'll eat anything - garden trimmings, food scraps, meat, veggies, grains, insects, grass, whatever you have. chickens are easy." wish we could keep them in our town. She supplemented the farm income during the depression by selling fresh chickens to the local restaurant and hotel on a weekly basis.


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## neldarez (Apr 10, 2011)

I have a bucket of sm. white beans that I purchased in 99 and I cook the girls up a batch every week and give to them. They have decided they don't like beans anymore, that is about as spoiled as you can get! The go nuts for the grass clippings and plants I throw them.........it's been so hot here, over 100 for a week now, that I put my sprinkler on mist today and the girls soaked themselves.......One of these is an egg eater. I had taken care of the one and there is still one at large....you would think they are so well fed that it wouldn't even cross their little pea brains to eat an egg........go figure.


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## Emerald (Jun 14, 2010)

I've been spraying the pen down off and one during the day as it is just too hot for them.. 96 today and then it got all dark and growly and looked like we might get rain and darned it if didn't split and go round us AGAIN!!!:gaah: 
And the water we have been leaving out was going down by half in a couple hours so we kept filling it.. went out to check and saw that not only are the bunnies drinking the water there was a murder of crows out there! squawking and cawing, I'd heard them in the mornings before and I catch them in the compost sometimes but it must be dry if they are drinking out of little plastic mushroom containers sat around the garden. 
I still have a couple shelves to clear and boy they loved the hunk of "Vam" that got too freezer burnt to eat. they were pecking at it and by the time it got smaller they were playing chicken version of keep away.. like the worlds worst football players.
I am having a bit of a problem tho.. the new gals do not want to come out of the coop. a few have overcome their fear and go out but most hide in the hot coop.. to the point I have been putting water in there for them.. but they have started laying.. yesterday I got a smaller egg and today I got a small one.. son cracked the smaller one open and it was almost all yolk and not a lot of white. and the shell was HARD.. you sure can tell the new eggs from the old. some of my hens you almost can't squeeze them at all.. paper thin.. I put some oyster shell around but I think it may be culling time.


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## Jack Aubrey (May 24, 2009)

Man! There are some seriously awesome ideas here! I've been sitting here, going through this thread jotting notes so I will remember these ideas ! Something I stumbled across recently is a Black Soldier Fly Composter. I liked the idea, and one afternoon while taking some scraps to our compost tumbler, I saw a BSF on the tumbler. Before reading about them , I would have thought it was a wasp.
Anyway, there are some very expensive BSF composters out there on the web, and I'm sure they work, but a quick Google search and Google Images search showed DIY composters that would work as well. Here are a couple pics I grabbed off Google images I'm going to try to construct. I like them because I already have most of the components on hand. Maybe you all could check it out ! JA http://blacksoldierflyblog.com PS there are some great Youtube vids on how to build a BSF composter as well !


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## Billyboy (May 3, 2011)

If you mix your own feed, whether you grow it or buy it, you could sprout your whole grains in the winter. You can easily find organic, non-GMO COB (corn, oat, barley). In our area it's around 20 cents a pound or $340 a ton. 

We'll feed our over-winter laying flock (around a dozen) 1/2 a five gallon bucket full sprouted grains every day (if we remember to start one everyday) and they lay all winter (sometimes -20). We have a continuous assembly line of five 5 gallon buckets in various stages. We just throw it on the floor of their coop and they'll scratch like it's spring. The extra nutrients from the greens makes those yolks nice and orange. 

We'll also throw in a flake or two of alfalfa if the weather gets real cold. The extra calories from the 'hot' alfalfa helps along with the activity of fighting over leafy greens.


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## lilmissy0740 (Mar 7, 2011)

Billyboy, please explain sprouting in a bucket. I wish GMO grains were easy to find around here.


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