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12 Homemade Feed Recipes-Give Your Chickens An Organic Diet

If you have chickens at some point your thoughts should turn to homemade chicken feed. Chickens are healthiest and happiest when allowed to free-range and forage for worms, bugs and greens. You will have to supplement their foraging however, especially in the winter months. You do not have to resort to a bought feed, however. These ‘junk food’ pellets can be substituted with whole grain, organic, non-GMO feeds. Here are 12 homemade chicken feed recipes to give your birds an organic diet that will benefit them and you:

1- Whole Grain 17% Protein Chicken Feed Formula

This chicken feed by gardenbetty will fill a ten pound feeder. In addition, chickens are provided with free choice oyster shells and grit. These are essential to chickens, who need not only the protein but also calcium from the oyster shells and grit to aid digestion. Another healthy recipe for feeding chickens can be found at:

whole-grain-17-protein-chicken-feed-formula
Image via: gardenbetty

2- Organic Chicken Feed To Source From Health Food Shops Or Order Online 

In a feed recipe like this one by home.howstuffworks.com that uses a combination of hard grains and seeds, the aim is to choose so that the overall balance of proteins is correct for your chickens. You can source grains from health food shops or buy them online. Growing chicken feed may be out of your reach but it is often possible to source grains easily.

organic-chicken-feed
Image via: home.howstuffworks.com

3- Bulk Bought Organic Grain Mix For Chickens

If you bulk buy grains then you can make a cheap chicken food like this one by theelliotthomestead which really can rival store bought feed on cost and keep your chickens healthy. You will find another recipe here:

bulk-bought-organic-grain-mix-for-chickens
Image via: theelliotthomestead

4- Chick Starter Feed Recipe

Chicks need plenty of protein to grow. Fish meal in this recipe boosts the protein intake for baby chicks. Chicks will also need grains to be ground at first and will need a balance of nutrients tailored to them. Find one chick starter feed recipe at Whole Fed Homestead.

chick-starter-feed-recipe
Image via: Whole Fed Homestead

5- A General Guideline For A Custom Chicken Feed Mix

When creating your own custom chicken feed mix like this one by smallfarm.about, you should first work out a formula or general guideline that covers the basic necessities of a poultry diet and then add in a number of other items to make sure that all the nutritional bases are covered.

creating-your-own-custom-chicken-feed-mix
Image via: smallfarm.about

6- A Flexible Formula For Chicken Feed

Some grain mix formulas like this one by theprairiehomestead require you to mill your own grains but not all grain mix formulae have to be milled. The mix at the website below is an example of a flexible formula that does not require home milling equipment. If you want an organic, non-GMO mix then you will have to try to source organic corn and wheat in your local area.

a-flexible-formula-for-chicken-feed
Image via: theprairiehomestead

7- A Soy and Corn-Free Chicken Feed Formula

Many chicken owners are realizing the importance of moving to a soy and corn free chicken food like this one by wellfedhomestead. Soy contains potent phytoestrogens that are passed to eggs, most soy is also GM, contains damaging chemicals and may cause long term health problems. Corn is like chicken chocolate, with low nutritional benefit and also, much of it is not organic and chemicals can pass into the food chain. To get some of the ingredients cheaper, you could ask around for leftover grains from local mills.

a-soy-and-corn-free-chicken-feed-formula
Image via: wellfedhomestead

8- Homemade Chicken Feed For Layers

The recipe on the following site is for laying hens and is provided in addition to kitchen scraps and oyster shells. Chicken owners will need to consider whether hens are kept as layers or for meat when choosing a feed recipe. Making your own chicken feed like this one by thefieldandtable allows you to control the process.

homemade-chicken-feed-for-layers
Image via: thefieldandtable

9- Another Soy and Corn Free Feed For Healthier Chickens

There are a number of different recipes that conscientious and ethical chicken keepers can use for their homemade feed like this one by peacefulvalleyfarm. Here is another alternative to commercial chicken food, with all its unhealthy and potentially damaging ingredients:

another-soy-and-corn-free-feed-for-healthier-chickens
Image via: peacefulvalleyfarm

10- Summer and Winter Feed Recipes

One of the great things about concocting your own feed mix like this one by marystilwell.wordpress is that you can alter it depending on the season. Some owners choose to alter the chicken feed throughout the year, changing the balance of ingredients to help chickens cope with warm weather in the summer and cold weather in the winter.

11- Another Homemade Chicken Feed Recipe

The key to creating a successful mix is to educate yourself about the nutritional requirements of your birds and how they can be met. A number of different recipes can be found on forums like backyardchickens.com.

12- Twenty Five Pound Organic and Non-GMO Chicken Feed

It is a good idea to try to bulk buy ingredients and make up a larger mix in one go as this will usually work out cheaper than trying to make up small batches more frequently. You can find one homemade feed mix like this one by gnowfglins for a 25 pound amount here.

twenty-five-pound-organic-and-non-gmo-chicken-feed
Image via: gnowfglins

Ending Up!

Develop your own, organic, non-GMO chicken feed and you will have healthier chickens and healthier eggs to eat. By taking control of what goes into chicken feed, you will also be making sure that you do not contribute to global environmental problems and will be taking one more step towards a sustainable and ethical future.

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About Farhan sheikh

My name is Farhan Ahsan,I am web enthusiast, writer and blogger. I always strive to be passionate about my work. I started my work at the beginning of 2007 by engaging myself with detail reading and exchanging information with others. Since then things and times have changed, but one thing remains the same and that is my passion for helping and educating people, building a successful blog and delivering quality content to the readers. The particular interests that brought me in the world of blogging are gardening, wildlife, nature, farming and livestock.

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