HEChicken
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- Jan 25, 2011
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I've been reading several of the threads about alternative feeds for chickens. Although I am someone who prefers to do things as naturally and traditionally as possible, BYC'ers convinced me that while chickens can (and certainly used to) survive just fine before commercial chicken feeds were available, they didn't produce as many eggs. That actually made a lot of sense to me, since egg production is such an intensive process that I could well believe a chicken could "survive" by picking through cow and horse manure for undigested seeds, but that they wouldn't have the reserves necessary to produce more than a few eggs for reproduction each year.
So I have been feeding my chickens commercial feed to supplement what they find on their own (I don't even have a run - they free-range from dawn to dusk) and the kitchen scraps we throw to them.
However I have been reading with interest the threads (particularly Freemotion) of people who feed a combination of 3 or more grains plus a protein source, but have some questions:
1. Since the main reason I got the chickens was for eggs, that remains the most important thing to me. Do you really find that egg production is just as good on this diet as on the commercial feed? (I don't use supplemental light in winter and expect a drop in production during molt/winter so I guess I'm asking about the rest of the year).
2. Someone recently posted a thread like this on BYC and to my surprise were not completely shot down. However several people responded to say that "oats were their least favorite grain". Since people on SS specifically mentioned feeding oats, has that also been your experience?
3. Again on oats. I checked my feed store and can get either whole or rolled oats. My understanding is the rolled oats are not like people rolled oats - they just have the husk rolled off a little more? The whole oats are about 70c cheaper per 50lb which is not huge but if I can get away with getting the cheaper oats, I would. But - if using oats, which should I get?
4. Someone mentioned using alfalfa pellets. I tried giving mine a cube of alfalfa once. I even soaked it. They were not interested. Do they eat the alfalfa pellets any better? Also, alfalfa pellets alone were $23/50lb but they had some Timothy/Alfalfa pellets that were about $8.50/50lb. Would these work? (Because I'm not paying $23, when chicken feed here is only about $13
)
5. Several people mentioned sprouting their grains. There is a whole sprouting thread on BYC and having grown up with a mother often sprouted mung beans, I jumped gung ho into sprouting and bought half a dozen different grains. The chickens were so not interested. Neither was DH. It was really disappointing. DH put sprouted winter wheat on our salads but found it too fibrous to eat (I ate mine but agreed they were pretty fibrous). The chooks pecked at sprouted BOSS, oats and wheat but were completely uninterested in sprouted millet (white and red). So there ended the big sprouting experiment. And that makes me a little more reluctant to try switching since sprouting is rather more time consuming than scooping commercial feed out of a bin and while it would be worth it if they ate it, if I go to all that trouble and they won't touch it.....you can see my point. So when y'all talk about sprouting your grains for them - what sprouts have you found that they will eat? And how do you do it on a continuous and easy enough basis that it works for you? (I had a bunch of jars sitting up-ended onto old mushroom containers on my kitchen window sill, but those were small amounts only).
Sorry for all the questions. :/ Most of the grains I looked at were roughly $3/50lb cheaper than layer feed. There would be a large initial outlay to end up with 150-200lbs of grains, but then I wouldn't have to buy for awhile and overall it would save me some money, I think - but only if I can find a combination that they eat and on which they still lay well.
So I have been feeding my chickens commercial feed to supplement what they find on their own (I don't even have a run - they free-range from dawn to dusk) and the kitchen scraps we throw to them.
However I have been reading with interest the threads (particularly Freemotion) of people who feed a combination of 3 or more grains plus a protein source, but have some questions:
1. Since the main reason I got the chickens was for eggs, that remains the most important thing to me. Do you really find that egg production is just as good on this diet as on the commercial feed? (I don't use supplemental light in winter and expect a drop in production during molt/winter so I guess I'm asking about the rest of the year).
2. Someone recently posted a thread like this on BYC and to my surprise were not completely shot down. However several people responded to say that "oats were their least favorite grain". Since people on SS specifically mentioned feeding oats, has that also been your experience?
3. Again on oats. I checked my feed store and can get either whole or rolled oats. My understanding is the rolled oats are not like people rolled oats - they just have the husk rolled off a little more? The whole oats are about 70c cheaper per 50lb which is not huge but if I can get away with getting the cheaper oats, I would. But - if using oats, which should I get?
4. Someone mentioned using alfalfa pellets. I tried giving mine a cube of alfalfa once. I even soaked it. They were not interested. Do they eat the alfalfa pellets any better? Also, alfalfa pellets alone were $23/50lb but they had some Timothy/Alfalfa pellets that were about $8.50/50lb. Would these work? (Because I'm not paying $23, when chicken feed here is only about $13
)5. Several people mentioned sprouting their grains. There is a whole sprouting thread on BYC and having grown up with a mother often sprouted mung beans, I jumped gung ho into sprouting and bought half a dozen different grains. The chickens were so not interested. Neither was DH. It was really disappointing. DH put sprouted winter wheat on our salads but found it too fibrous to eat (I ate mine but agreed they were pretty fibrous). The chooks pecked at sprouted BOSS, oats and wheat but were completely uninterested in sprouted millet (white and red). So there ended the big sprouting experiment. And that makes me a little more reluctant to try switching since sprouting is rather more time consuming than scooping commercial feed out of a bin and while it would be worth it if they ate it, if I go to all that trouble and they won't touch it.....you can see my point. So when y'all talk about sprouting your grains for them - what sprouts have you found that they will eat? And how do you do it on a continuous and easy enough basis that it works for you? (I had a bunch of jars sitting up-ended onto old mushroom containers on my kitchen window sill, but those were small amounts only).
Sorry for all the questions. :/ Most of the grains I looked at were roughly $3/50lb cheaper than layer feed. There would be a large initial outlay to end up with 150-200lbs of grains, but then I wouldn't have to buy for awhile and overall it would save me some money, I think - but only if I can find a combination that they eat and on which they still lay well.
I'm going to have to bring home a mouse for my hens.
My understanding is that the rolled oats at the feed store are not at all like human "rolled oats". Someone said they look just like whole oats but the husks are a little more detached. 
