28 Easy Ways to Save Money on Chicken Feed in 2024

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Are you feeling the pinch of higher chicken feed prices? Today, I’m sharing 28 easy ways to save money on chicken feed!

Are you feeling the crunch of the higher chicken feed prices? Today I want to share with you 28 easy ways to save money on chicken feed!

28 Easy Ways to Save Money on Chicken Feed

In theory, raising backyard chickens sounds like a great idea. Fresh eggs, fresh meat, nothing can replace those good things! It is just a natural step in homestead living, right?

Unfortunately, where raising hens used to be more cost effective then buying eggs and meat from the store, chicken feed prices have gone up so high that it’s getting harder to justify it.

Over the years, we’ve found many different ways to save money on chicken feed and lately we’ve been doing more things to help bring down chicken feed prices around our homestead. Hopefully some of these tips will help you!

Free Range Chickens

1. Let your chickens be free-range.

Let your chickens be free-range if you have the space and are able. Unless you live in a very lush, fertile area (not the drought-stricken midwest!), you will still have to supplement with feed, but your chickens will be happier and healthier when they are allowed to roam free.

Our chickens love scooping up grasshoppers and other bugs and plants as they wander around the backyard. Ducks especially love being free range since they love to eat the weeds around the yard, which is fine with me!

Free-range chickens produce eggs with a higher nutritional value and less cholesterol. Not to mention, it’s great for their overall happiness. We’ve found that in the summer, our chickens hardly eat any feed at all. We aren’t able to free range in the winter which is when we supplement with feed.

2. Shop around before you buy.

Just because the local feed store down the road carries chicken feed, it doesn’t mean that it’s the best deal. One might argue that we should stick to the closest stores right now with the price of gas, but we prefer to drive to the store further away and stock up while we are there to make it worth our while.

Watch for chain feed stores’ sales to get an even better deal. It’s usually a good idea to stock up on feed in the spring when the stores bring all the baby chicks in because they have great sales! Store all bulk chicken feed in a cool, dry place away from pests.

Food Scraps

3. Feed Chickens All Your Scraps

Our chickens are totally spoiled. Not only are they free range and have the run of our 20 acres on the homeplace side of our land, they also get all kinds of kitchen scraps from the house!

Fruit and vegetable peelings, stale bread, old food from the pantry or fridge….they love it all. Another thing they love to eat in the fall is the old garden plants. Pull them out of the garden and let the chickens have dessert! I make it a point to take out my scrap bucket each day for my chickens.

4. Try different kinds of feed.

We used to feed our chickens the nice finer grain chicken feed but then switched over to pellets. The chickens didn’t like it at first, but they got over it pretty fast. 😉

With the pellets there is less waste because they don’t fling the feed all over the ground. You could always combine this method with the fermented food method below if your flock really doesn’t like the pellets.

Chicken Feed from the Mill

5. Check for locally milled feed.

If you have a local mill in town, you might be able to purchase grains and feeds cheaper than from the chain stores.

They may be able to mix up your chicken feed for you or you may be able to ask them for a special mix if you have a request of what you’d like to go in the feed. Most mills only sell feed in bulk so keep this in mind when you make the call.

6. Sprout Grains & Veggies

Just like you enjoy sprouts on a salad, you can also make sprouts for your chickens! Chickens can eat just about any kind of sprouts that you can. You can sprout seeds right on your kitchen counter, which is a great option for those with small backyard flocks. Get a Kitchen Sprouter to grow several kinds at once.

7. Make a Chicken Garden

A chicken garden consists of a few things. First, the chicken garden can be filled with plants that tend to attract lots of bugs. If this is how you create your chicken garden, you can let your birds in and give them a full bug buffet.

You can also plant a garden of fruits and vegetables just for your chickens. Some vegetables or fruits you could grow in your chicken garden could be cabbage, lettuce, melons, pumpkins, squash, or anything else a chicken would love to peck and enjoy.

White Chickens

8. Buy Breeds That Eat Less Feed

There are certain breeds of chickens that will eat less and still produce a good amount of eggs. Most breeds that eat less are sold for commercial use, but there are still a few backyard breeds that you can get that will have a good feed-to-egg ratio. If you are planning ahead, you might want to consider these birds:

  • White Leghorns
  • Red Sex Links
  • Rhode Island Reds
  • Isa Browns

9. Raise Mealworms or Worms

If you can raise mealworms or any kind of worms on your homestead, these can be a great protein supplement for your chickens. You can get a mealworm growing kit on Amazon.

Contrary to what it says on the egg cartons at the store, chickens are not vegetarians, and they enjoy meat and protein sources. They will happily eat mice, rats, lizards, or other small rodents if they can. It’s also ok to feed your chickens meat scraps (not chicken meat scraps!) and fishmeal.

10. Grow Sunflowers

Chickens love sunflower seeds! If you are able to grow sunflowers where you live or have access to someone who might have extra sunflower seeds in their fields, this can be a good opportunity to save money on chicken feed costs.

Feed sunflower seeds as a hearty treat along with their food.

Fodder

11. Fodder

Fodder is probably one of my favorite ways to save on my feed bill. Not only for poultry but other livestock as well.

I have a full guide on growing fodder here.

12. Fermented Feed

Fermented feed is very easy to do and can be a great way to get “extra” feed from what you already have, make chickens eat pellets or crumble that they don’t normally like, and to boost nutrition and digestion.

To ferment your chicken feed, place the feed in a bucket or jar and cover it with water. I like adding a little apple cider vinegar to get the fermentation going. Leave it undisturbed for about 3 days. After this time, you may see some bubbling at the surface…this is just a sign that good fermentation is going on! If you keep multiple jars going of this at all times, you will have feed for each day.

Fermented feed is a great source of probiotics for your flock.

13. Utilize Your Compost Pile

Chickens can not only gain extra food and bugs from your compost pile, but they will also add to the compost and help decompose it.

If you leave your chickens in an area where they have access to your compost pile, they will happily eat the scraps that you leave on it. They will also dig bugs out of manure. While doing this, they will leave their own manure and scratch the pile around for you. This means less turning work for you and the addition of more manure. It’s a win-win!

Mouse

14. Keep Pests Out of Feed

You can lose a lot of chicken feed if you allow pests such as mice to get into it. Try and store your chicken feed in a large container (like a large garbage can) with a lid so that rodents can’t get into it.

If you buy bulk feed, try to put it somewhere that won’t let mice in. We keep ours in a sealed shipping container.

15. Get Free Food From Restaurants

If you know anyone who owns a local restaurant, grocery store, or other food service establishment, ask if they will keep their kitchen scraps for you. You could also provide a container for them to fill that you can come pick up when it’s full.

This is a great way to get more scraps for your compost bin or for your chickens for free.

16. Grow Your Own

If you have enough space and resources, you could always grow your own chicken feed. If you can grow grains like wheat, barley, or corn, you might grow enough to put together some or all of a healthy, nutrient-dense feed.

Eggshells

17. Serve the Chickens Calcium You Already Have

Eggshells are a good source of calcium, but you don’t necessarily want to teach your chickens to peck on eggs. No need to worry; grind up some dried egg shells and place them in a free feed area or mix them in with their other feed.

This won’t help you save money on chicken feed, but it can be a replacement for oyster shells, which will still save you money with your chickens. Here are more tips on What to Do With Eggshells.

18. Maggots and Black Soldier Fly Larvae

This one might make you a little queasy but don’t worry, you don’t have to “grow” these unless you really want to.

Chickens can glean nutrition from nutrient-dense maggots, and black soldier flies larvae by being allowed to be in the pasture with cattle or other livestock. They will pull these bugs out of the manure as a supplement to their feed. Not only will they help clean up your pasture by dispersing the “piles”, you will also have less flies.

19. Feed Bargain Produce

If you don’t have a source for free scraps from a food service place, you still might be able to find bargain produce. Ask around at a farmer’s market or at your local grocery store and see what they have that is in less than perfect condition. These leftovers can be great for animal feed!

Chicken Feeder

20. Make Sure Your Chickens Aren’t Wasting Feed

I mentioned above that we switched from crumble feed to pellets to get our chickens to stop wasting feed, but what if your chickens waste feed no matter what?

Consider only feeding them at certain times of the day and do not let them free feed. This way they will be hungry when it’s time for supper and should eat everything they are given. This also makes it easier to portion and control the amount of feed you give them on a daily basis.

21. Feed Leftover Milk Products

If you have any milking animals like cows or goats or if you make your own cheese, you can always feed your chickens (and other animals) the milk products that you aren’t going to use.

If your chickens don’t want to drink the milk, you can mix it in with their feed to make mush. You can also make clabber. Milk or whey is a great way to get extra protein to your chickens and fill them up.

22. Make Sure Your Ladies Are Productive

If you have chickens that are too old to be productive and are no longer laying, it’s time for them to either go to a new home where someone wants them as a pet or time to go in the stew pot.

It’s hard to move through your chicken flock and make these decisions, but unless you are ok with keeping chickens as pets, flocks will need to be turned over every couple of years to keep them active and productive.

Rooster

23. Get Rid of the Rooster

Unless you really need a rooster and have broody hens, there is no need to keep one. Roosters are large and consume a lot more food than a hen. Only keep your most productive birds and let someone else wake up to the rooster every morning.

24. Portion Your Feed

If you stop giving your chickens free access to feed during the day, you will be able to portion out your feed to make sure that none of it goes to waste.

Fully grown chickens need about 1/4lb of chicken feed per day. Measure this out the first time, multiply how much you will need for your flock, and only give them that amount of feed each day.

25. Let Them Eat the Weeds

We may not like them, but the chickens do! When you are done weeding your garden, take the bucket of weeds and feed it to the chickens. They will not only eat the weeds, but the bugs on them as well!

Lamb’s quarter is a great plant that is considered a weed that most of us having growing in the yard. Chickens will munch on this like it’s lettuce. Clover and dandelions are also good “weeds” that chickens love to eat.

26. Consider the Holidays for Free Food

After many holidays comes the opportunity to get a large amount of free food for your chickens. After Halloween you can find free pumpkins, after Christmas or Easter you might have friends with leftover ham, turkey, or other holiday leftovers they’ve already eaten way too much of.

Think about the foods that come along with each holiday and ask around after the holidays to see what you can gather for your ladies.

27. Feed Brewers Grains

If you have a brewery close to home, ask if they ever give away their spent brewer’s grains. These are a great supplement to your animal feed!

Baby Chicks

28. Sell Extra Eggs or Chickens

The market is hot right now for both eggs to eat and chickens to lay the eggs. In my area, a laying hen will sell for $20-$25. One dozen eggs can sell for around $4-$5. If you can sell any of these things, use the money to buy feed for the rest of your flock.

If you have broody hens and a rooster, take advantage of this and sell the chicks they produce. Or grow the chicks for a few months and sell the pullets.

We personally sell extra eggs to pay for all of our chicken feed. We never have an issue selling extra eggs!

Chickens eating out of hand

What About Homemade Chicken Feed?

I feel that homemade chicken feed is a highly personal decision. If you feel like you want to feed your flock your own chicken feed and you have the means to get those grains at an affordable price, it might be worth the hassle of mixing your specific mixture.

Make sure that your feed contains the correct amount of nutrients, vitamins, minerals, and protein for your flock, or you will have issues with them laying. It may be best to talk to your local farm vet before mixing up your own feed to make sure that you have the nutrition values correct.

Personally we’ve opted to buy chicken feed and to supplement as needed as we do not have access to low cost grains like organic barley, wheat, oats, or corn.

What are some ways you save money on chicken feed prices?

More on Raising Chickens

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Me and Kady

Merissa Alink

Merissa has been blogging about and living the simple and frugal life on Little House Living since 2009 and has internationally published 2 books on the topic. You can read about Merissa’s journey from penniless to freedom on the About Page. You can send her a message any time from the Contact Page.


This post on How to Save Money on Chicken Feed was originally posted on Little House Living in August 2012. It has been updated as of February 2024.

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65 Comments

  1. You can also feed the inevitable cracked and broken eggs back to them..just hard boil and grind them up.

  2. I have read that corn is like candy to chickens. They love it but if they eat too much, it will make them overweight and they won’t lay as well. Merissa, have you ever seen the feed on sale besides in the Spring?????

  3. Ask at your local grocery store what they do with produce that they have to get rid of. I guarantee your chickens won’t care if you’re giving them slightly moldy zucchini or cucumber, or lettuce that’s a bit squishy. The stores here are willing to give you truck-loads if you ask for it!

    We don’t have chickens right now, but we had for years and years (just moved, haven’t gotten the new coop together yet). We bought some pellets (it lasts longer than the “good” food and has the same nutrition level), some corn (mixed in and for a “treat” to get the hens back in the coop at night), lots of scraps, and whatever bugs we found on plants in the garden.

    1. If you find a grocery store that will give you the old produce, consider yourself lucky. I have asked my local store and it is not allowed there.

  4. How do you keep your free range chickens off your porch and cars? Ours love our porch and come up and leave “presents” all over. My hubby is ready to coop them up again!

  5. Amy Mantei, I don’t but they pretty much stay off. Occasionally I’ll have one up on the deck but they know that’s the cats domain so they stay underneath instead!

  6. Thanks for sharing. I hope to be able to get chickens in a year or two when we can buy a home of our own.

  7. Thanks for the ideas. I’m going to pin this! We give our chickens our veggie scraps and veggies that are starting to go bad. They love them. I wish we could let them free-range, but the dogs would eat them. 🙁 Hopefully one day we can build them a bigger enclosure than just the run they have.

  8. I buy most of my chicken feed at Rural King. I watch and try to stock up when it’s on sale also. One thing I found was Stock Sweet Feed. It’s 12% protein and the chickens love it. I just add some in with their regular layer pellets and grain. Most times a 50 lb bag is like $7.00 but sometimes they have a buy on/get one free deal. When this happens the stock up is one. It really stetches the feed and I’ve not noticed and reduction in egg production.

      1. This isn’t chicken feed, it’s stock sweet feed for live stock. I’m in southern IL. Orschelon’s (think I spelled that right) has good deals on feed also. 16% layer crumbles or pellets are like $10 per 40 lb bag, corn is about the same. It’s not purina, it’s the store brands but my birds do great on it and have execellent production. The sweet feed has good stuff in it like corn,wheat,barley,and molasses. If you feed them to much they tend to poop alot though but to supplement their feed is great. I bounce between Orschelon’s and Rural King, whichever has the better deal on feed. You can look both up online and find if they’re close to you.

  9. This isn’t chicken feed, it’s stock sweet feed for live stock. I’m in southern IL. Orschelon’s (think I spelled that right) has good deals on feed also. 16% layer crumbles or pellets are like $10 per 40 lb bag, corn is about the same. It’s not purina, it’s the store brands but my birds do great on it and have execellent production. The sweet feed has good stuff in it like corn,wheat,barley,and molasses. If you feed them to much they tend to poop alot though but to supplement their feed is great. I bounce between Orschelon’s and Rural King, whichever has the better deal on feed. You can look both up online and find if they’re close to you.

  10. We free range now and the chickens are super happy when they get scraps. Can’t keep a compost pile because the chickens eat it all! 🙂

    We do seperate our mother hen and baby, but that’s just because I was advised to do so by the woman who gave me my first chickens. They eat mostly grass, but I give them some grower feed. I wish our prices were as nice as Don’s! 🙂

  11. I was going to buy the organic chicken feed from Azure. With shipping costs that are outrageous elsewhere, this seems to be the best buy. Do you use their feed also?

    1. We use feed from Azure and it’s great, the price is a little lower than our locally made organic feed. We have also learned that pellets are helpful in reducing waste and spreading weed seeds around the backyard.

  12. Hi everyone! I just started with my chickens about a year and half ago we got them at a feed store and they started laying eggs in August. My problem is they stoped laying around Feb. are they going to start laying again. We got some more chicks in March and have had a couple of eggs here and there not shur what to do Any ideas would be very appreciated. Thanks

    1. Sometimes we have chickens go through dry spells like that too and we aren’t sure why. Can be a change in the weather or something they don’t like in their barn or maybe some creature is bothering them. We just had an ordeal with a skunk and our chickens wouldn’t lay for a long time.

    2. I put lights on timers in my hen house when the days get shorter so they get approximately 12 to 14 hours of light a day, then they’ll keep laying. Kinda depends on the breed too. Some do lay better through the winter months than others. They should have access to grit/oyster shell all the time as well, that is just good for they overall health. Good luck. I love my girls!

  13. I’ve found that if i hang a light bulb in the chicken house on a timer so they get more light mine lay better in the winter months. I set the timer to come on about 5am and then off about 10pm also an old chicken raiser told me to make sure they have luke warm water at least twice a day. Since doing these 2 thing mine has layed pretty good with only a slight reduction in production

  14. We spoil our chickens too! They especially love the protein and carbs! lol We used to compost our leftovers, but during the gardening season we can’t free range (the chickens would kill our meager garden) so we give much of it to them instead!

  15. Bug bucket. Bugs. I’m against ’em. But the hens need protein and bugs are protein. Yeck. I saw a video on Permies.com that showed a tripod made from tree cuttings and a bucket hanging in the center. There were holes cut into the sides on the bucket, about an inch from the bottom. If I remember this correctly, the guy put icky meat (road kill would work) in the bucket, and then some mulch on the top to hold down the smell. As the meat got really crappy, maggots would drop out of the holes for the hens. Black soldier flies were buzzing around and then hens would snag them, too.
    It’s easy to make a Bug Board, too. Any scrap plywood or wood laying flat on the ground. After it rains, move the board and there are usually tons of bugs underneath.
    And of course, grow some food for them. :o) I throw Scratch grains out into their ‘front yard’. What doesn’t get eaten will grow more food for them (except cracked corn, of course). This year my hens had a great mini ecosystem in front of the coop. Tall plants including weeds, sunflowers, milo, grasses, volunteer tomatoes, etc, in spite of our extended drought. Lots of shade, cooler spaces underneath and more food for them.

  16. Oh! I almost forgot! I get fat trimmings from our meat market for nothing. Then I put them in the freezer to bring out for the barn cats and chickens in the winter when they need more fat. Originally I got it to add to the cats food, then I saw the hens were grabbing it, too.
    I also learned how to ‘whack up’ a deer this past year. I ended up with three of them from hunters that already took what meat they wanted. I trimmed off a lot of small pieces, including rib bones, to feed raw to dogs, cats and chickens. It helped that I had someone there to teach me…kept me from freaking out.

  17. I don’t know about meat or the organic or non-organic fruit and veetgables but I can tell you when we had our chickens and let them roam where they would you could sure tell the difference in the eggs from them and the eggs from the store in both color and taste! Free range chicken eggs are like so rich in flavor you. Very good eating.References :

  18. My concern about feeding any poultry feed is the vitamin K ingredient. I first found out it being toxic when discovered in cat food. I now make all our cat and dog food myself. I was shocked when I found it as an ingredient in chicken feed as well – even the organic feed – even from Azure Standard. I no longer feel good about buying ANY bagged feed and I don’t know how to make my own. I did make my own for the 3 months we had meat birds and they survived quite well – but it was more expensive and I don’t know if it was the correct ratios ect and if laying hens could live on it year round. Check out the ingredients – I don’t have it in front of me – you will have to research it. It is the synthetic Vitamin K – has a long name something like menadione. Then research it – it’s NOT good!

    1. Have you tried communicating with the folks at Azure about it? Chances are they are either mixing their feed themselves or the people who they get it from are a family business and probably Azure members, too. The Azure people own their own farms, and a lot of the bulk grains they sell, they grow. Customer service is generally very responsive.

  19. Sprouts! Chickens love sprouts. You can buy oats, not steamed or crimped, and soak them in a bucket overnight, rinse daily, keep them warm and next thing you know sprouts. We have a bunch of buckets with holes drilled in the bottom, the strainer buckets that sit in other buckets to catch draining water. Our chickens love it when they get sprouts, and it is great feed value. We use the triple clean oats from the local feed store.

  20. We were lucky enough to find a mill about 35 miles from us that sells their own organic feeds 🙂 We also let our chickens free range and they get all of our scraps too. We have such happy healthy birds! When we 1st switched to this feed our chickens that hadn’t layed an egg in months, all started laying within 2 days!

  21. Go to your local brewery and ask about the spent brewers grains!! My girls love it!! Awesome treat to supplement the feed and the free ranging!!! And, it’s free!! You just might need to lay it out on a clean tarp to dry it out for storing it!!

    Evan
    ‘There’s Just Something About Chickens’ Facebook page.

  22. A couple ideas that may work for some of you. Our local Tractor Supply Company store has a price match policy & they’ll even match another stores brand w/theirs as long as it’s “apples to apples”. It pays to call around for competitive pricing. Also, I had a friend who drove 2 hours away to buy organic feed for his layers so he could sell true organic eggs to restaurants. He offset the expense by also buying organic feed for others on his area & selling it for a slight profit.

  23. Where I live we can’t let the chickens free range due to stray dogs – we already lost 5 chickens – I buy day old bread at $ 3.00 for a huge bag – grind it up and freeze it to feed chickens along with the table scraps

  24. I’m over in Ireland..ALL chicken food on my peninsula has GM ingredients 🙁 so I get organic ordered in especially. It 17 euro a 25kg bag so gets costly if that’s all you feed em. We have long dark days (northwest atlantic coast) AND my chickens seem really fussy about scraps…they eat very little of the veggie scraps? They love the dog food? They do roam the fields though so that’s something..:-)
    Might try the light timer thing although to be honest, they’ve always been poor layers so it might have to be the pot and start again next spring..

    1. If you are near the ocean you can go to the fisheries near the shore/dock and collect the fish refuse (if they have / allow).

  25. One way we found to cut down on feed costs (we buy soy-free organic feed due to allergies and 1-25# bag is $40) is to ferment our feed as the supplement to free ranging. It has SO many great benefits and we have seen a decrease in our overall feed bill – even with our meat birds. It cuts down on the really stinky poo, there is little waste and in the summer when bugs are aplenty, we notice they eat less so we save there as well! There are SO many benefits to fermenting I could go on and on!! 🙂

  26. I leave a bucket at a local restaurant each day, the dishwasher scrapes the plates into it and they also put the salad prep waste in there. I pick it up each morning and yeah, boyo, my hens love it! 5 gallons of scraps sure helps out MY feed bill!

  27. Do you have any restaurant friends? We have an Italian restaurant down the road from us that my mom used to work at and they save all their scraps in a bucket for us every evening! It’s great!

    1. Basically you can feed them pretty much anything you would eat yourself. Stay away from rhubarb leaves and dried beans (though they can have cooked). Remember that anything in extreme excess might flavor your eggs too 🙂

  28. We already do these things. We also found that our local feed mill does GMO. So things are being done a bit different because of it

  29. I also feed my chickens wood ash.I just throw it on the ground. I had blue jays eating it like crazy. I learn from watching the blue jays. My chickens do not molt.

  30. Stephanie: No chocolate, avocados, green potatoes, and as Merissa said, dried beans and rhubarb leaves. There are a few insects like rose chafers that I wish they could eat, but are toxic to them, and fortunately they won’t touch them. I also do vermicultute (worm composting) and raise mealworms in bins. Both are great high protein treats, and once begun, almost no cost. A winter treat is a pan of warm oatmeal cooked with veggie and fruit peelings & hard old raisins and some blackstrap molasses. I sometimes scramble up cracked or older eggs, with ground up shells– Oh, they gobble those up! And lots of clean water.

  31. You can contact a local brewery or home brewer for their spent grains from brewing. Usually it just goes to the trash. They may let you take it for free. We give our spent grains to a local couple with lots of chickens

  32. Too much fruit and veggies will mess up egg production. Chickens need protein and with out it there will not be any eggs. I found this out the hard way this summer. I was giving my chickens lots of scraps from my garden and a friends garden. This really limited the amount of eggs they produced. Once we upped their protein, the eggs came back.

  33. I buy the organic, soy free pellets from Azure Standard. Only $22 for a 40 lb bag. Great deal, and they get scraps each day, as well. 🙂

  34. I buy the organic, soy free pellets from Azure Standard. Only $22 for a 40 lb bag. Great deal, and they get scraps each day, as well. 🙂

  35. Our hens live in a tractor (coop on wheels). I plant rye grass for them to eat as they “move” around the yard. I also plant a big patch of wheat/oats for them to eat in the spring and we use the left over straw for bedding in the nesting box. I wish that we could let them roam free, but I have to keep them contained or they would destroy my garden looking for worms! They get lots of scraps and greens from the garden as well as bugs my children find.

    1. I live on a fenced city lot. I have a garden and fence it using the green color one with large squares. You can add another row of fencing on top. Just weave sticks or poles to attach it. Chickens stay out.

  36. I have experimented w/ feeding them wheat fodder- they love it and it is also supposed to be chock full of good things. In our awful cold Indiana winter, it makes for a taste of spring- they love the green sprouts and gobble it down, roots, seed and all. It does seem, however, to be somewhat labor intensive if one doesn’t have an auto watering system. in any case I will be starting seeds soon and the fodder was a stop gap for my green thumb until it was time to start my garden transplants.

  37. Watched a program on You Tube from the BBC called Victorian Farm. They raised mangelwurzels, a member of the beet family, then copped them as feed supplements for cattle, pigs and chickens. We’re ordering seeds this year to give it a go.

    1. Baker seeds sells seed for fodder vegetables. The have mangels, which are a type of beets, a couple types of kale meant for fodder and other things.

  38. We are expecting our chicks next week. I am making my own chicken feed from bulk organic grains, seeds, legumes and fermenting it. I am also sprouting and starting to grow fodder. This way the chicks will have healthy feed, and by mixing, fermenting, growing my own, it should be cheaper for organic feed. We also started a mealworm farm. They will also received food scraps and can free range when we are out with them.

    From what I have read, if you ferment the feed, they consume less because the nutrients are more bio-available with the fermentation process.

    I found most of my organic grains, etc. at Azure Standard…where you can buy 25 lbs and 50 lbs bags. I also got some organic grains & seeds from Amazon.

  39. My chickens LOVE our dog food and sneak into the dog area whenever they can! We however feed them scraps and leftovers. I also crush the eggshells and give it to them. I also used peels from fruits and veggies. Seriously there is nothing these chickens won’t eat. We get a good amount of eggs even though we don’t buy feed anymore. It has gotten so expensive! Our chickens are happy on the scraps and dog food (whenever they can sneak it) we also feed them sweet grass that we pull up out in the alley behind our house!

  40. Our chickens LOVE scraps. They also get into the dog food when the dogs are not around. They LOVE dog food! They lay good eggs as well! They also eat grass and all kinds of scraps from rice to tortillas. They are NOT starving by any means!

  41. I’ve been experimenting with feeding crickets. Raising crickets yourself is completely doable and inbreeding is not an issue with crickets. 2 million people in the world use insects as part of their daily diet and we north americans might want to think about it as well. Big protein source.
    Live well and take care,
    Pete

  42. We also feed our girls scraps and scrambled eggs which they love. We go to our local Farmer’s COOP and buy chicken scratch and laying pellets. The scratch costs us $9.34 for 50 pounds and the laying pellets run about $12.00 for 50 pounds.

  43. HI,
    I’ve been raising chickens for at least 23 years now. and when I was a young girl my parents had chickens too. The timer is a must when the days get short but why have it on during the day?? I set mine to come on at 3 in the morning and it goes of at 7 am. Then when the sunlight hours are at least 11 hours which for me is around May I turn the timer off completely. The feed issue to me if it is any commercial either crumbles or pellets it’s the same thing the commercial growers feed their chickens and you don’t get any better tasting at all. It’s is true that they need protein but stay away from soybeans if at all possible. The corn anywhere is so GMO anymore and cross pollinated it’s about impossible to find it organic even if they say it is. And how can one test it to be absolutely sure????

    1. If you buy the feed from a certified organic facility it must be organic and it must be gmo-free. They have to do testing to keep the certified organic label.

  44. hi there
    Absolutely essential to feed crushed oyster shell or any kind of shell,in France I fed only wheat berries and small amount sunflower(non shelled) seed plus household scraps… my chickens did very well..if the neighbours dogs didn’t kill them
    Wheat is usually cheap or grow your own!