Chicken feed - I'm going for it

Hello there! I saw this awesome video of a guy making feed pellets from grass clippings (I hoped not treated grass😳). Making feed was a thing I have been wanting to do, but I could figure out how to grow all the ingredients. You guys mentioned a 3 part ration (greens, bugs, grains), and my chickens certainly enjoyed it, plus the best eggs we've ever had.
I'm getting a pellet mill and gonna give it a try with grasses (grazing field mix) and seeds/grains. I'll see about trying mealworms again. Nutrition Data (website) has this great recipe creator that will give you the nutritional label. If anyone is interested I can post the results, and I would appreciate feedback, experiences and kind opinions 😊. And if anyone has links to vet or professional production references, those are welcome too.

very cool.
it reminds me of many many years ago I did a story about Louisiana pride catfish company. they had an extruder and made their own catfish pellets to feed the ponds with. kind of like a giant meat grinder, not that complicated and really awesome stuff. but I have always had a keen interest in mechanical stuff.

Yes please post your results, I have fed chickens and ducks a home made mix, the ducks did grow and the old breed chickens continued laying, but the red american chickens (production layers) couldn't cope with it, and the next batch of ducklings that were fed a commercial concentrated feed grew much faster and put on more fat than the first batch. I obviously didn't get my mix right, part of the problem I think was that they would NOT eat the alfalfa pellets which were there to bring up the protein content.

any pictures of pellet mill?
not to go off topic but it might not be so.
there is a pretty good size sawmill nearby and they have mountains of sawdust.
I had this crazy idea of trying to maybe make a machine to press sawdust into pellets for use in stoves or oven or something like that.

bruce Fine wrote:any pictures of pellet mill?
not to go off topic but it might not be so.
there is a pretty good size sawmill nearby and they have mountains of sawdust.
I had this crazy idea of trying to maybe make a machine to press sawdust into pellets for use in stoves or oven or something like that.

You can buy machines that do that, so you should be able to find plans somewhere. Round here they are normally PTO machines so that saves needing an engine.

Tavonna Nira Sivertsen wrote:Nutrition Data (website) has this great recipe creator that will give you the nutritional label. If anyone is interested I can post the results, and I would appreciate feedback, experiences and kind opinions 😊. And if anyone has links to vet or professional production references, those are welcome too.

Great site for information about human food, but I found it lacking when you stray from the list of things people eat. Bugs in particular are hard to find nutritional information for. At best, some places tell you the amounts of fat, protein, and fiber in the bugs. But if you want to know the exact trace mineral levels, that's harder to find.

re using grass in your pellets - that rings alarm bells for me.

I recently had to autopsy one of our birds that got ill and died over 48 hours. I discovered that she had guzzled grass clipping and they had tangled and impacted in her gizzard. It was completely impacted and she was unable to swallow.

While they may get some nutritional benefit from grass, they are unable to digest the cellulose and fibers may cause what I saw.

Sorry for the delay!
Here's the video and photo of the model I will be going with

bruce Fine wrote:any pictures of pellet mill?
not to go off topic but it might not be so.
there is a pretty good size sawmill nearby and they have mountains of sawdust.
I had this crazy idea of trying to maybe make a machine to press sawdust into pellets for use in stoves or oven or something like that.

So true. I am looking that up since meal worms are a big thing in Europe now. So I am thinking I will find a more detailed list. Our tractor supply has strict rules on labeling feed contents to include macro/micronutrients. So I'm gonna contact them since I recently saw they added large bags of mealworms.

Ellendra Nauriel wrote:

Tavonna Nira Sivertsen wrote:Nutrition Data (website) has this great recipe creator that will give you the nutritional label. If anyone is interested I can post the results, and I would appreciate feedback, experiences and kind opinions 😊. And if anyone has links to vet or professional production references, those are welcome too.

Great site for information about human food, but I found it lacking when you stray from the list of things people eat. Bugs in particular are hard to find nutritional information for. At best, some places tell you the amounts of fat, protein, and fiber in the bugs. But if you want to know the exact trace mineral levels, that's harder to find.

Understandably so. The pellets here are far more processed. Chickens aren't supposed to eat grass clippings. I am not sure why your chicken did that - poor dear. Mine are particular to only snip the tips off of grass. From a video I saw once on YouTube, feeding blades of grass like fodder generally comes with the warning that whole grass blades should not be served to chickens.
I'm planning a mixture of grassed (which becomes completely pulverized in the pelletizer), along with the grains and dried meal worms. I'm utterly excited as I have made some blends I think work well with my chickens that are based on the seasonal variety of food they would eat if foraging.

Michael Cox wrote:re using grass in your pellets - that rings alarm bells for me.

I recently had to autopsy one of our birds that got ill and died over 48 hours. I discovered that she had guzzled grass clipping and they had tangled and impacted in her gizzard. It was completely impacted and she was unable to swallow.

While they may get some nutritional benefit from grass, they are unable to digest the cellulose and fibers may cause what I saw.

I wonder if the grass guzzling came as a reaction to being sick?
My own chickens have had grass clippings available to eat, but they seem indifferent.
Same is true of onions and citrus.
They have a lot of other choices,  so even special treats like comfrey only get so much attention.

The pellet mill is exciting!
I rely on my birds to make food and yard waste into compost, but it would be great to be able to same some of the abundance for leaner times.
Right now I find myself keeping garbage picked pizza and cold cuts in the freezer for them!

The prospect of converting biomass into pellets seems useful for feed or fuel.
I've been hanging out at a wood gasification forum, they have an interest in cheap ways of pelletizing charcoal and biomass.
Tumbling moist char and binder in a cement mixer apparent forms "pellets" of some sort.

Eureka!

I found some information with a few trace minerals. However,  I think I'm just going to send my batch to a feed lab to get true totals.

Ellendra Nauriel wrote:At best, some places tell you the amounts of fat, protein, and fiber in the bugs. But if you want to know the exact trace mineral levels, that's harder to find.

Tavonna Nira Strømsengbakken wrote:So true. I am looking that up since meal worms are a big thing in Europe now.

For those under EU rules feeding mealworms or any other insect/meat/fish any kitchen scraps to poultry is illegal if you want to sell or give away eggs or meat.  I believe the only way round this is via an inspected fodder production facility. Here you are not even allowed to advertise them as chicken feed, although I can see many places do.

bruce Fine wrote:any pictures of pellet mill?
not to go off topic but it might not be so.
there is a pretty good size sawmill nearby and they have mountains of sawdust.
I had this crazy idea of trying to maybe make a machine to press sawdust into pellets for use in stoves or oven or something like that.

Not to be a killjoy, but if it were economically feasible to make pellets from sawdust on a small scale every backyard sawmill operation would be doing so.  That virtually nobody bothers should be telling.  Getting rid of the sawdust is a big pain for those folks.  Most just dump it on their burn pile where they dispose of the off-cuts and other waste.  

The big sawmill operations can do that sort of profitably, but for them just getting rid of the sawdust in a way that costs less than hauling to a landfill is a win.  They don't necessarily have to make a profit on selling the pellets, they just have to lose less than the next best alternative.  Some also run boilers that can burn the sawdust and other wood waste and they use that heat to run their kilns.  

I'll get some picures of a hammermill and a pellet mill that a friend has placed on the same trailer to make wood pellets/feed. He is still fabbing up the power supply. They both came with one cylinder diesel motors and he is creating one combined power source.  He bought the units new from China. I'm not sure if it is going to be profitable but he is enthusiastic. With the hammer mill he can use chips to create material to feed the pellet mill. The unit is portable so he can take it to a remote location.

Absolutely true, sir!

I'm not selling eggs or meat. The pellets are for providing the most optimal health and enjoyment for my chickens. We have the chicken eggs (and eventual jerk chicken) for private consumption. I am wanting to test my feed for confirmed information and data on the nutrition I provide. As my farm is
RED Farm, the publication of this information may be something agricultural researchers and lawmakers will need later on concerning regenerative and integrated agricultural systems in the EU. On a side note, I must say the rule is quite odd as free-range and pastured poultry are in a sense 'fed' insects via providing access to forage.

Anyhow, I love and appreciate your input Skandi Rogers. It's always informative and helpful.

Skandi Rogers wrote:

Tavonna Nira Strømsengbakken wrote:So true. I am looking that up since meal worms are a big thing in Europe now.

For those under EU rules feeding mealworms or any other insect/meat/fish any kitchen scraps to poultry is illegal if you want to sell or give away eggs or meat.  I believe the only way round this is via an inspected fodder production facility. Here you are not even allowed to advertise them as chicken feed, although I can see many places do.

Andrew Mayflower wrote:
Not to be a killjoy, but if it were economically feasible to make pellets from sawdust on a small scale every backyard sawmill operation would be doing so.  That virtually nobody bothers should be telling.  

It would matter on the context of the producer, to be honest. Additionally, these mills are common in Asian and African countries, to include very low income regions for production of pellets (feed or wood). As far as feed, it's cheaper to produce than to buy. If you have saw dust, straw, or grass clippings, you can make these pellets quite easily and cheaply (electricity and initial investment).