DIY Chicken Feed: The What, How, and Why
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- Опубликовано: 16 фев 2023
- This video demonstrates one way to mix chicken feed at home. This is the mix we use on our laying hens to ensure they receive quality feed and produce excellent eggs. Our hens consist of several different breeds of chicken. Our flock consists of about 20 hens.
The mix includes:
1:1:1 ratio of
Black oil Sunflower
Feed Oats
Corn Chops
1:4 ratio
roasted Soybeans
flaxseed
Who we are:
We are a family of four (soon to be 5) trying to create our own piece of paradise in rural Oklahoma. Nathan practices as a physician assistant and works in family medicine. Tara is a registered nurse. Samuel and Noah are our world.
About the ranch:
Murray Farm and Ranch is located in south central Oklahoma. The farm and ranch was really born out of a desire to grow, raise, and harvest more of our own food. We had motivation to become more self-sufficient. We breed and raise longhorn cattle. Vegetable gardening is central to our mission of providing more of our own food supply.
Channel Goals:
Our principle mission with the RUclips channel is to help educate viewers. So much of this way of life has been forgotten. We would like to shed light on some techniques, skills, and traditions that have been set on the wayside. Our second goal is share our joy of living a simple life on the farm. This way of life is not for everyone. Work can be hard and seem never ending. The end results though will almost certainly leave you healthier and happier. This way of life can seem so far away in the beginning but by taking just a few simple steps you as viewer can become more self-sufficient, resilient, and start your own homesteading journey. Please subscribe to the channel to follow along in our homestead, farm, ranch journey!
For additional content
@murrayfarmandranch on Facebook and Instagram
www.murraylonghornranch.com 
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Wow... Nice information...
It's great video you share...
You did a great job
👍👍👍
Thank you for watching and I am glad you found the information helpful!
@@murrayfarmranch8447 Yes of course, you are welcome
Great content - would this work as grower mix as well or what you add/remove for the growing stage before laying begins?
Thank you for watching! I have never used the ration on young birds. I’ve started it on birds after about 4-5 months. I have considered buying a grain mill so that I could run it through and turn it into more of a crumble mixture as opposed to leaving it as the seed mix. They are reasonable to purchase and would probably be useful for other applications. I believe the magic number for meat birds is around 22-25% protein. I would probably tweak it to hit close to that. The roasted soybeans are the largest of the mixture. My birds seemed a little hesitant on them initially. Grinding then to just a little smaller size I think would fix that issue.
👍🏻
When you say 1:4 ratio of the other stuff do you mean 4 parts of that stuff to the one part of the corn, oats and sunflower seeds?
Sorry that was confusing and sort of misstated by me. If I put in 20 lbs of corn, sunflower seeds and oats, I’d put 5 lbs of soybean and flaxseed
The oyster shell serves as grit as well.
*if you have all hens
I noticed you said they also get organic table scraps. However it doesn't look like the feed is organic. Is that something that is important to you? Just wondering. I see so many vidoes or post like this but never ever yet have I heard any content creator talk about organic feed.
He said organic meaning material containing carbon, aka was alive. Not organic in the growing sense like gmo or whatever.
great video, thanks! At what age can you introduce this feed to chicks? is this feed good for broilers?
Thank you! I start by mixing it in with their starter between 4-6 months of age. The birds love it and my egg production has been awesome. I have not used this on broilers. Broilers on new pasture daily I would think could utilize this but I am not an expert in that area and don’t want to give you bad advice. For laying hens it has been great for us.
Awesome, thanks! There are alot of diy for laying hens, and none that I could find for broilers. The search continues!
@jennifermisquith5606 I think the main thing with broilers is they require a higher protein mix. You could use some of the ideas I have for my hen mix and tweak it so that the protein mixture is closer to 20-25%. Broilers on pasture in chicken tractors are eating all sorts of insects and so forth helping with the protein goals.
How much d earth and oyster shell into the mix?
I put a quart jar of d earth to every 50 lbs of feed mixed. I basically do the same with the oyster shell and watch their eggs. If it seems like they are softer than they should be I start adding some more.
@@murrayfarmranch8447 thank you I’m a newbie. It’s been a dream of mine for years I’m turning 60 this year and I just bought my coop. My goal 8 chickens.
Awesome! Congratulations. When I first transitioned them from normal bag food to what I was making they didn’t really know what to do with it. I had to mix it in with their bag food. Over a couple weeks I reduced the amount of bag feed and added more of my homemade. I slowly increased the amount of homemade and reduced the bag until they were eating nothing but the homemade. They’ve done great on it.
@@murrayfarmranch8447 I’m just starting out we are finishing up the coop and then I’ll go buy the birds maybe as young hens they won’t have any issues. I’ll go from starter to this in a transition as well. Slightly nervous but so excited.
Good luck! Chickens are the gateway
I like everything but the soybean addition. Better to add protein in other ways: other beans, soldier fly larvae etc. Soy is not healthy and can damage chickens. Also think about beans and rice, and beans and pasta, with added herbs for a nice homemade chicken feed that you can sustain most easily on your own. Especially great in winter to help warm them up when served warm.
I've heard many people comment about gmo feeds, but isn't mote important that it be organic? Glyphosate is sprayed on many crops right before harvesting. It's hard not to get gmo seeds that are modified to be resistant to pest and herbicides. But if you are still spraying, then that seems the biggest harm. I never hear post talking about organic feeds.
@benderas6683 thank you for watching and excellent question and set of concerns. This feed is not considered organic. My opinion on this matter is that I am honestly just trying to give them the best feed I can that is easily obtainable. I could probably find a way to feed an all organic diet but it would likely be very expensive in doing so. My birds on this diet look excellent. They are vigorous and excellent egg producers. I have not had problems with flock health. They’re shells are hard and the yolks appear bright and rich. I don’t think this feed is perfect but I think it out performs a lot of your store bought mixes.
Why and how much diatomaceous earth
Thank you for watching. It is added calcium and supposedly a natural parasitic. I add a couple of cups into the whole mixture as I’m spinning it in the mixer. A little of it goes a long way!
Make sure to use the "Food Grade" DE. (It's white, by the way, while the brown DE isn't food grade--it's used for their dust bathing..
My chickens scratch out the sunflower seeds
Mine have a preference for the sunflower seeds also but I find that they will go back and eat the rest. I’m going to see if I can find something to replace the roasted soybeans. They eat them but I notice that mine have a preference for the sunflowers and oats. The soy beans are super high protein so it won’t be an easy exchange.
Bad feed as it is GMO.😢
Grow up