Farmers and homesteaders who aspire to greater self-sufficiency often want to make DIY chicken feed. It is often cheaper to make your own chicken feed, especially if you grow the ingredients yourself. Plus, if you mix your chicken feed from bulk ingredients, you'll be able to control its exact composition.
Forage or Grain Crops
Sunflowers, dent corn, alfalfa, clover, sorghum, amaranth and buckwheat make great forage crops for chickens. These crops are high in protein and fiber. If you are building your soil through cover crops, allow your chickens to come in and eat the remaining greens after you harvest the crop.
The easiest, quickest and least expensive are lentils, and they're the ones I make most often for my girls (and boys), together with mung beans. They're fast to sprout, don't go mouldy and everyone who's ever been in my flock has always loved them (with the exception of one particularly picky hen, Henrietta).
Sprouts are a great treat for backyard chickens who may not get to free roam or can serve as the sole food source for your flock. You must provide a vitamin/mineral mix if your chickens will only be eating sprouts.
Chickens like to eat table scraps, and most of the leftovers from your meals are safe for them to eat. Table scraps alone don't form a balanced diet for your chickens, so feed them and moderation and use them as a supplemental treat, not the main course.
Lettuce, kale, turnip greens and chard are great greens options. Watermelon, strawberries, and blueberries make healthy snacks for chickens when fed in moderation. A few flock favorites include: Vegetables: Lettuce, beets, broccoli, carrots, kale, swiss chard, squash, pumpkins and cucumbers.
In addition to green food, turn-of-the-century chickens ate rations comprising grains, protein from milk or meat, and scraps from the family's table. “Bits of bread, cheese, meat, cake, pie, doughnuts, all kinds of vegetables are served up to the hens,” Field wrote. “Nothing in the way of food comes amiss.
If you overfeed your chickens, it could cause obesity, which can then lead to a range of health problems such as mobility issues, pressure sores, and becoming egg bound. To prevent these health conditions — some of which can be fatal — it's important to feed your backyard chickens the right type and amount of feed.
6. How much do chickens eat? On average, a laying hen eats about ¼-pound of feed per day or 1.5 pounds of feed per week. If you're buying a 50-pound bag of feed, it would feed your chicken for about 33 weeks.
Chickens can eat a variety of different types of fodder, including sunflowers, clover, buckwheat, radish, millet, peas, turnips, parsnips, wheat, oats, and barley. All of these grains become up to 40% more digestible when sprouted, soaked, or turned into fodder.
An adult chicken kept in an enclosed run can last 4-5 days without food if the animal has access to water. Without access to water, chickens can survive up to 48 hours when temperatures are cool but no longer than 12 to 16 hours during a heatwave.
Most backyard chicken keepers that we know feed scraps to their chickens. But this doesn't mean that scraps are good for chickens. In fact, many chicken health problems are caused by poor diet. Feeding scraps to your chickens can cause deficiencies and ill-health.
Commercially raised insects like Dried Mealworms and Dried Black Soldier Fly Larvae are disease- and parasite-free. They are safe for your chickens and contain all of the nutritional benefits of insects, including essential amino acids.
Good choices include leafy greens, cooked beans, corn, non-sugary cereals and grains, berries, apples and most other fruits and vegetables. Despite often voracious appetites and a willingness to eat just about anything you might give them, there are some foods to be avoided.
Whether you choose to raise your own or buy them, feed them fresh and wriggling or dry and powdery, the worms are an excellent means to provide sustenance to your chickens! Red Worms are packed with all the nutrients that most livestock or pets benefit from.
Cedar. While pine shavings are a great option, cedar wood is aromatic and can cause respiratory issues. Cedar shavings are often more expensive and harder to find than pine shavings, anyway. Avoid using cedar shavings in the coop.
We need to remember that chickens are omnivores. This means that they have the ability to eat greens, fruits, and many meats. Because they are omnivores, the majority of foods in those categories are safe for chickens to eat. So yes, chickens can eat bananas peels.
Can Chickens Eat Carrots? Yes. Carrots are full of nutrients and can be served raw or cooked. The greens are also healthy, but should be chopped for easy eating.
Keep in mind that there are some plants that are toxic to chickens. These include rhubarb leaves, horseradish, onions, unripe tomatoes and green potatoes. The leaves and stems of tomatoes and potatoes are also toxic to chickens.
Specific types of food that hens should not be fed include raw potato, avocado, chocolate, onion, garlic, citrus fruits, uncooked rice or uncooked beans [2].
Research has shown that not only can foraging replace chicken feed, but it can also increase the amount of unsaturated fats the chicken consumes but the vitamins as well. The only nutritional downfall to foraging for chickens is the lack of calcium.