| Archive for Downsizer For an ethical approach to consumption |
| dangerous |
Layers' feedHi there.Has anybody a recipe for homemade layer's feed? Lots of american sites on google but the ingredients are mind boggling. My chooks free range and get table scraps. They get Garvo which they love but won't eat the pellet portion. I have to mix it with tuna and hot water!!!! Getting fed up with it and impossible to get other people to do that if I am away. Thanks a lot |
| Piggyphile |
I know that this is not what you are looking for but I liked this article
http://www.makeitmissoula.com/2012/07/eliminate-the-cost-of-chicken-feed/ |
| Woodburner |
I don't make my own, but I do economise a bit by providing alternatives. All in one feed costs a lot for what's in it; there's quite a lot of ash or limestone which is very cheap bought separately. Also, I keep a very mixed flock; cockerels, growers, hens in lay, hens out of lay, broodies, and two different breeds and some crosses, so there's a lot of different dietary requirements going on too. I give them all the same mix of about two parts wheat, one pellets, one peas, sometimes with a handful of whole sunflower seeds, but not in ages now, as money is tight, and they've got a good area to forage in. At first when I started this they went crazy for the wheat, but after a few days of always having wheat available, they lost interest in it and went back to pellets, eventually they settled down to a fairly regular proportion of each. The silkies leave more pellets than the sussexes, who eat more peas and pellets, so in the afternoon I often swap the bowls over! Sometimes I just give them a few handfuls of whatever they've eaten most of out of each bowl.
Also, remember that in the old days, there would just be a few dozen hens with a whole farm to free range over, and they just got a handful of wheat each, morning and afternoon, so depending somewhat on the breeds you have (some breeds are really good foragers others next to useless) and what area and what's in it, you may not need to feed them much at all. Piggyphile, I really like that article, thanks for the link.  
I'm going to have a go at growing 'forage leys' when I've fnished the current project. |
| chez |
Mine do well on adlib wheat and rolled peas when they are 'properly' free-ranging. |