Saving money on chicken feed

    The real cost of raising chickens comes from buying their feed.  That's why I like the idea of saving money on feed.  I saw these videos on how either chicken poop or chicken milo feed can be used to grow maggots.  It looks pretty easy.  I would opt to use the feed.  The end product is going to be a mixture of maggots and whatever the maggots were feeding on, and the chickens will eat the mixture.  I don't think the chickens should eat their own poop, but them eating chicken feed mixed with maggots would be fine.  If you wanted to use chicken poop and then separate the chicken poop from the maggots, you'd have to rinse it off, and it might be hard to rinse away without losing the maggots along with it, since the poop is partly solid.  And what a yucky job.  You don't have to rinse if you use the feed.
    The way this can save money is thus.  The maggots will weigh about as much as the feed they ate.  Maggots are about 46% protein by weight, whereas feed is only about 11% protein.  And the protein in the feed is of lower quality than the protein in the maggots.  So by feeding the chicken feed to the maggots, you quadruple the protein value of the feed the maggots ate, while the value of the feed the maggots didn't eat (but are still wallowing around in) stays the same.  So you get a net doubling of protein value of the feed.  Protein is the most important nutrient chickens need to grow and produce eggs.  Another thing is that maggots are the chickens' favorite food.  They'll eat every last maggot.  When it comes to their feed, they don't like it as well.  They throw it around and waste a lot of it.  So I'm thinking a person could save 50% off of feed costs by growing maggots, and have bigger, healthier chickens.  
    The only other way I know to save money on feed is to buy it in bulk.  I saw this site where if you order 2000 pounds of organic feed, it costs 50% less per pound than buying it by the 50-pound sack.  That's where you'd have to know a lot of other organic chicken farmers in your area that you could split the shipment with.

The chicken farmers are probably already buying 2000 lbs of feed as they might have a way to safely store it to keep bugs and mold away.

Have you thought of growing microgreens for your chicks?

Have you thought about growing your own chicken feed?

Some folks use microgreens, sprouted grains, and even fermented grains.

Here are some threads that might be of interest:

https://permies.com/t/76861/Feeding-Chicks-day-ready-lay

https://permies.com/t/8472/feed-chickens

Chicken tractors let the chickens harvest their own greens and bugs, if you have the space.  They also love all manner of kitchen waste.  Our feed bill for 4 hens comes in at less than $10 a month.

Here is a good one from Justin Rhodes on ways to reduce feed bills.

The biggest issue in my climate is feeding chickens in the winter.  In the summer, my chicken food bill is minimal.  Even this time of year, mine free range and would much rather eat things they find.  Winter is another story all together here.  I'm going to try drying comfrey into "hay" this summer as well as growing lots of squash and pumpkins to feed them, but I'm still working out additional strategies.  They really love cooked squash, but I need to do more research to make sure their nutritional requirements are being met.  I will still need to buy food, but I'd like to buy less of it.

Meal worms and the like are great, but it isn't really feasible to grow enough to really offset the food.  We raise quite a few meal worms and still only have enough for chicken treats.  Worm bins would help, but they have to be inside here and it's one more chore that I may not stay on top of, so probably isn't really ideal.

Trace is right about food in the winter when it is hard to source.

That is why I like to recommend microgreens.  Look at all this potential chicken feed:



Growing Microgreens

When I was researching the nutritional requirements of chickens in order to find ways to grow all their food, the problem I kept running into was not a lack of protein, it was a lack of minerals. When using home-grown food, I actually had to work to keep the protein levels low enough, because too much protein can kill a chicken.

Calcium was the biggest problem, although magnesium was a close second. I recommend finding supplemental calcium sources, such as clam or mussel shells, animal bones (pressure-cooked or soaked in vinegar until soft enough to mash), or limestone if it's fairly pure, along with drying and crushing eggshells to feed back to them.

I still haven't found a recipe that would give the chickens 100% of everything they need, but I've gotten close.

The bulk of their diet should be greens.

Second comes carbohydrates. That includes things like squash and potatoes, along with corn or other grains.

After that, a mix of bugs and high-protein seeds like sunflower or pumpkin seeds.

Another way to get them protein is with legumes, but some legumes will need to be cooked first. Chickens love boiled beans, mine go crazy over them. They'll even ignore treats like sunflower seeds and focus entirely on the bean soup. As I recall, 1 part legumes to 3 parts starchy grains like corn or wheat, gives you a balanced protein. (Double check that number before relying on it, I'm going by memory here.)

If using a dry calcium source like oyster shell, you can have it available all the time. If using a "wet" source like bones soaked in vinegar and then mashed, I'd suggest mixing a little in with other foods.

It's hard to give the exact proportions, because some foods are denser than others, some are dryer than others, etc. But, I'd aim for at least 4 parts (by weight) green leafy vegetables, 2 parts carbs, and 1 part proteins.

One of these days I need to dig out my old research and try to pick up where I left off. If I ever do come up with a home-grown menu plan for chickens, I'll post it.

Anne Miller wrote:Trace is right about food in the winter when it is hard to source.

That is why I like to recommend microgreens.  Look at all this potential chicken feed:



Growing Microgreens

Microgreens are something I really need to look at.  I've seen people mention it in the past, but I don't know anything about it at all.

Ellendra - Interesting, my chickens will not eat cooked beans at all. Their favorite treats are meat, fish, cheese and eggs. They like tender greens but won't eat stems unless that's all that's left.

    Ok, this looks like a reply to just one message but that's because they won't let me post anything else on this thread unless I'm replying.  This is really a reply to everyone.
    Thanks for posting about the other threads.  Yes, those other threads do have some useful info.  I can see why sprouting feed grains or using them to grow microgreens (in the winter) might be useful, as it would increase the protein content and digestibility, as well as provide greens in the winter.
    It's true meal worms don't produce enough worms to make up for the amount of grains they're eating.  Maggots are much more efficient.  I think it's going to be hard to attract enough flies to grow maggots in the wintertime, though.  Maybe it would work if I could create a "fly house" that stays warm enough for the flies to live and breed in winter.  It wouldn't have to be very big.  Maybe a greenhouse would work.
    One other thing I've been using that works pretty well is a "junebug light".  In June, our porch light attracts junebugs all night, which hit the light and then fall to the ground.  We put a big funnel and a bucket under the light, and it fills up with junebugs which we feed to the chickens the next morning.  I was thinking about expanding this operation and having lightbulbs outside the chicken coop at night which could collect all sorts of flying insects throughout the summer.
    I think feeding egg shells to the chickens would be a good idea.  I've tried just crunching up the shells with my hand and throwing them out there.  Most of the time they don't eat it.  Why do you have to cook the shells?
    That chicken tractor might be a great idea.  It would protect chickens from predators and keep the mice/varmints away from their food.  I have a problem with my chickens attacking each other, though.  And how do you keep digging animals and snakes from getting under the tractor?