I am literally starting this feed trial today. I was watching other people doing the same thing. I'm currently buying organic layer feed (the same brand you showed in your video as a matter of fact) and spending a fortune but not REALLY knowing what's going on in that food. I think real food is the way to go so I will be doing my own videos on this. Thank you for sharing your experience. I've subbed your channel.
Thank you! It’s been hard to keep up with to be honest every few days having to cook more batches but I want to get back to it. I have also been spending too much on organic layer feed, and I still might do more of that in the winter months and try to keep up with the rice and beans or pasta and beans diet during the other times of year.
Right. So, right off the bat I can see some tweeks that I'll have to make but I'm really interested in getting this figured out. Also I have considered supplementing with this "real food" to stretch my dollar and make it more enjoyable for my chickens. @@onceuponatinyfarm
@@Beepbopboop19I just started this feed trial again, cooking up 1 cup beans, 1 cup whole grain brown rice each day for 10 birds. My birds stopped laying anyway due to cold and lack of light so it’s a cheap way to feed them during this time of year
I raise mealworms for my chickens and I feed them the darkling beetles that lay the eggs of mealworms. They are getting mealworms and darkling beetles. I have about 20 trays of them at various stages and sizes. I did this because I didn't want to rely on commercial laying feed. I also cook up brown rice and many beans. They also get scraps and during the growing months, my chickens get a lot of leafy greens, weeds, grass clippings, flowers to peck and eat. During the winter months I sprout sprouts for them from lentils, rye, barley, black oil sunflower seeds....all organic, and they love the sprouts. They see the quart jars and come running. I have 14 hens that are 2 years old and continue to give me eggs daily. During the winter, not so much, which is expected.
If you cooked the beans and rice in bone broth, it would bump protein and possibly help the shells. I’d just put the bones in the pressure cooker with the rest and skip the making the broth step.
Or if you make homemade yogurt, use the whey to soak them!! More calcium, probiotics and nutrients! It works, just 2 days of giving them this feed every hen that was old enough to lay, laid good solid eggs!
@@main2333 Chickens scavenge. If a chicken finds a dead cow, they will spend all day in the cow. When I butcher the chickens are underfoot looking for scraps whether it be a lamb or another chicken.
When I was growing up my Mama also saved egg shells and all our leftover fruit which she would grind with a hand grinder Long with corn from our garden for our Chickens
Try pasta too noticed my birds feathers are so much shinner when I feed them beans rice pasta and beams and scraps I leave there layer feed and scratch out
yeah mealworms is like chicken chocolate ,mine hate black soldier fly larvae,best to find veg and grain fed mealworms ,many are fed offal which can pass diseases to your hens Sakana is a brand of mealworms for koi,but also great for hens ,they are raised on veg and grains ,can be found on ebay and amazon .
I add seasonings to my hens feed like rosemary oregano sage and garlic powder. I sometimes add sunflower seeds as well. Mealworms for a treat, or sliced boiled eggs and spinach. Apples & blueberries
Spices do wonders for all living creatures extreme benefits in dandelion te flowers and the roots and cayenne pepper major benefits im not sure for chicken with that one but i do believe that herbs and spices the way they can work for us most likely can for other living and chicken actually are good at avoiding what is not good for them well its what ive noticed and I've heard from a source i can't remember the name butvim sure u get me @baocwolefashoo3256
Instead of buying soldier flies. Grab a container and cut slits at the top. Fill it with scrap food and the smell stuff works best. Within 28 days you'll get free soldier fly larvae crawling out. The bigger the container the more larvae. #free
I’ve been wanting to try this! I’ve actually saved up old beef and chicken bones and have them in the freezer I intended to put in a soldier fly bucket eventually 👍
My 22 girls get a mix of corn, oats, dry mealworms, and fish meal in both of the feeders for all day I give them one house meal in the morning, bread, fruit, and veggie scraps, with pasta and beans. They free range from 12pm till dusk. They are extremely happy birds.
Thanks for sharing!! I give my 'herd' of 19 chickens (15 hens, 4 roos!) their organic, nonGMO layer feed, and mix it (periodically) with their scrambled or raw eggs, cottage cheese, yogurt, garlic, cherry tomatoes, cooked sweet potatoes, watermelon, chia seeds, flax seeds, soldier worm larvae, black sunflower seeds, oats, pumpkin seeds, and garden scraps, etc, plus they free range. I kind of mix and match what I give them. I have a big variety of breeds, but am still getting 10 to 12 eggs per day.
My chickens laying eggs they eat cat food ,scraps,whatever bushes they find,wheat and corn feed, as well as bugs and they also dig in the dirt where the cats go poop .rhey sleep in the tree
Egg production will ALWAYS change when you make a big change to their diet. I wouldn't worry about the small drop in egg production for a few days after changing their feed. The best way to avoid this is to mix a small amount of the new feed into their old feed and increasing the amount of the new food each day over a week. Totally not necessary, but it will save your birds stress and keep you in eggs when you change feed.
I cut open a layer hen and all the eggs are forming at various stages leading up to full egg. I'm not thinking changing feed will change if a egg drops or not. Maybe the hen lays 2 eggs in one day after a change in food. But the eggs are already made and ready to go inside her.
Please remember to store your beans and rice correctly; as they can cause illness and death if not properly stored. once cooked let cool to just long enough to reach room temperature then store in the refrigerator. Beans can be a breeding ground for botulism and rice can easily become ripe with bacillus cerus, a bacteria that can cause gizzard erosion, respiratory issues and ulceration syndrome in chickens. Botulism can kill them within hours. Both botulism and bacilla cerus can go unnoticed, as they may not have any color or odor in the beginning stages, but can still be very dangerous. Yes, chickens can die of food poisoning too.
I cook them beans in the winter, cooked outside. During the summer, watermelon and scraps. Autumn, yogurt and scraps. Grass and weeds, banana leafs and Sprouted black sunflower seeds in spring to mid summer.
I’m planning to grow a whole garden to supplement the chickens feed this year. Might have to add millet as well. I already planted a few rows of wheat for the birds!
Great vid. There are a few channels talking about this method, but I went one step further. I started farming my yard (little 125x80), growing black eye and pink eye peas, and others. The greens are a great source of vitamins and minerals as well, especially magnesium (this used to be a livestock fodder but fell out of favor - not sure why as its drought resistant and dual purpose). The green create the most amazingly rich orange yokes too. I also give them daikon radish geens, cooked radish here and there, sweet potato greens and raw ground up sweet potatoes, pineapple almost daily and a cover crop mix; clover, chard, vetch, sunflower, weeds, etc and have a maggot bucket. BSF are native here so we get some naturally in the bucket now and then. I supplement with floating catfish food, as it's 32% protein, which makes up for the lack of protein in the beans and leaves; ~6%. Chickens need about 20%. Even the 16% layer feed is to low IMHO.
For 15 years I raised parrots. When ever they were raising babies, I cooked up a batch of 15 beans and rice. There babies grew fast and it made the process easier for the parents. I am sure it would be good for chickens as well. I am interested in seeing your results.
I grow sweet potatoes as a houseplant and harvest the leaves regularly. They are terrific in an omelet or sautéed with bacon and onion. I don’t even have to go outside to harvest!
Thank you for this! It’s so helpful! I got my first chickens this year and I have 24. They are blasting through the feed at about a bag a week and I’m trying to figure out a more cost effective way to feed them (besides our table scraps). I’ve also watched/heard of the concern over store bought feed. I was looking at bulk pinto beans and brown rice. I guess I will have to see and test out how long it lasts!
We found a way to read our own black soldier fly larvae on our form using Rabbit Manure. I harvest the black soldier, fly larvae and then I take the fries FRASS end up in the garden as a soil amendment.
That sounds amazing and I want to do that! We get so much rabbit manure from our neighbors rabbits I usually just make compost piles with them or incorporate them directly into the garden beds but I’d love to make my own soldier fly larvae
Beans and rice/pasta expand a lot when cooked. Plus, supposedly they eat a lot less of the beans than the feed. Plus a lot of people supposedly get more eggs/healthier birds with the beans.
Layer feed is 27 dollar for a forty pound bag where I live! Tractor supply sells a fifty pound bag of cat food which is 34 percent protein and makes a great supplement for the chickens.
You seem to be wildly overspending on your beans & rice. For example, Costco has 25lb bags of rice in the $15-$18 range depending on what style of rice you want. The same goes for beans, your rice/bean dry cost should be maybe $0.75/lb. I see you were paying $6 lb for beans and $2 for rice. I call chickens a garbage disposal because all the food scraps that used to go down the drain, now feed them.
In general, you'll pay more for "ethnic food" in white neighborhoods than elsewhere. The cheapest place to get your grains is the ethnic markets. Halal markets, Asian markets, African markets. You can get really cheap fresh vegetables there as well.
That TS organic food from my experience is junk. I was mixing my own feed from whole grains -oats, BOSS, corn, peas, lentils, flax etc. and then like you, went through a period of time where I needed to buy a bag of feed. I bought that exact bag of organic feed. My eggs not only went down in production they also got smaller, almost half the size! When I stopped using it and went back to my own mixed whole grain feed everything went back to normal. I will never use it again. I will try your beans and rice idea though to add variety and maybe even cut down on some cost on occasion. Thank you!
We had the same experience. Our birds were not thriving or producing on the bought organic feed. We grow mealworms, duckweed, feed table scraps and the cooked beans and rice, all organic, and they free range over large area with our guardian dog protecting them. Works great!
My concern is the pesticides rice and beans are grown with... Rice is known for arsenic concerns and legumes are one of the many crops doused with glyphosate
That’s always a concern of mine as well, if that’s a big concern to you I’d look to only purchase organic rice and beans which will take away the possibility they are grown with those pesticides
I want to try this too. We buy layer feed and scratch grains we mix with black fly larvae for snacks and oyster shells. We give them watermelon in the summer, lettuce and recently they finished off my jack o lantern, they love pumpkin. Beans and rice seems nice and easy and cheap to supplement their diet.
During winter please dont let water freeze. Chickens need to consume more water to produce eggs. Just add a boiling cup of water in their pan so its not ice cold.
You need to soak your beans overnight, drain, and then cook. The beans have lectins that make them hard to digest. That might improve their laying. Instapot is too fast cooking to reduce lectins.
Onion ends? I heard that anything in the onion family was toxic to chooks. Alsochopped apple is ok but no pips, they contain cuanide which kills them but doesn't hurt us.
Thank you for saying that! Sometimes it still feels weird and awkward talking to a camera but I’m getting better at it, and you definitely should add more chicks and they’ll eat anything they’re my backyard garbage disposal 😂
@@onceuponatinyfarma year later and we are still pouring back over 11 month old video and still learning new things to try out on our girls . Thank you for sharing and your comments are chock full of great information too ! Love your content 🥰🙏🐓
I have too much scraps and they stopped laying. I think they are more f it than their laying mash so be careful not too much. Thanks for the info. Ever tried adding flax meal
Black solder butterfly (BSF) larvae have been used in Indonesia. Because it has a high protein content which can accelerate the growth of poultry animals. We in Indonesia develop BSF larvae from eggs to flies so we always get fresh larvae every day for free😊
I have had my chickens on 3 bean and brown rice for about a week now and I also have been giving them kitchen scraps and oyster shells and their egg production has dropped a ton. We were getting 12-14 a day and now we get 6-8. They also free range so they are getting all the bugs and grass the want. They were also morning layers and now they are laying in the afternoon. I might have to go back to commercial feed.
Yeah I have tried this but have also gone back to a regular organic grain mix, mostly because I don’t have time lately to make the food for them. But I think also mine perform better on a regular feed but just wanted to see how they’d do if I couldn’t access feed for whatever reason.
I've been feeding mine 'broken' rice (rice used for making alcohol) mixed with soybean oil cake (leftovers from soybean press), wheat bran or rice bran, duckweed, wild amaranth, pilosa, kudzu, crushed oyster shell, and kitchen scraps. Also whatever snails, grubs, frogs, geckos etc they catch.
I tried this a while back for my chickens, except I used pasta instead of rice. They ate the pasta and left the beans. They also won't eat greens when I put vegetables out for them. To be fair, I over-feed them to demotivate them to escape the coop. I guess they can be picky.
They can be picky! I’ve also tried pasta and they loved that too. I’ve noticed they eat the beans more the softer and more overcooked they are. I used to feed them peas in a whole grain feed mix I made and they always left the peas, eating everything else first. Eventually they will get hungry enough to eat it all though!
They only produce a certain amount of eggs in their lifetime! You can also add back some eggs to give them more protein. Start by using leftover breakfast eggs. Great video!
I agree with a comment on this video. I heard that dramatic change in feed does mess with the birds. I've been around different types of farming and I noticed that big changes in feeding changes things for example I saw my father in law go from feeding good quality hay to letting them graze in a wheat field. The started scouring and milk production fell of significantly on his dairy. But gradually changes seemed to really help with that
I’m thinking of trying the rice and beans for our chickens. Thanks for the video! Do you know if it would be helpful to add some salt to the rice and bean mixture?
Your best bet would be to make your own, that way you know you can trust the source. Just burn some untreated wood in a cone shaped pit and at the bottom you should find a decent amount. Crush it up some and toss it in their coop and they will dig, scratch to break it up even more and take what they need.
@Once Upon a Tiny Farm whoa, I'd do some research on that. Charcoal will bind with nutrients and prevent chickens from uptaking them. Unless you need to put biochar in their diet for a specific reason, it's not advised to just add it to their food. All animals are like this, charcoal will bind with necessary nutrients.
Mine have layer feed, but every day I give them my "Bougie Bird Mix". It's beans, macaroni, olive oil, red pepper flakes, and sprouted lentils. Plus they get handfuls of weeds I pull, mint, lemon balm, and fresh oregano. I'm going to add more sprouts to my line up. Don't want the girls to get bored with their food.
Store bought u can't buy in bulk unless you go thru it fast enough because the downside of store bought it looses it's nutrients sitting im not sure about if u air tight store it away i think it can help but not much
Thank you for sharing, I feed my chickens with rice and beans too. Just wanted to ask you where did you buy chicken feed for that great price. I paid $1.58 per pound. Thank you!
If I buy it from a store it’s usually from tractor supply and it’s around a dollar a pound. The best price I got was making my own whole grain mix sourcing grains in bulk all organic from azure standard. That was far less than a dollar per pound
Dang! Great idea. The beans supply the protein and the rice provides the carbs! The combination could maybe benefit from an additional vitamin source e.g., some broccoli, but aside from that its a great idea! Inexpensive as well. Nice vid.
Let my girls free all day scratching and eating bugs and I prepare pinto beans with oatmeal for a weak also cracked corn plus any green veggies and kitchen leftovers No food in a sack from any store 26 girls and 3 boys They are happy and healthy
This is the way Im moving as well. Thank you so much for sharing! How do you store the beans and rice? I see it in a food grade bucket, does that fit in your fridge? Or do you keep it out? How do you keep it from spoiling?
When I first trialed this it was winter so I was storing the rice in our shed in a bucket but it was only 3 days worth at a time. Freezing them in batches for different days would also be a good option and maybe you could make a weeks worth at once and take them out to thaw the night before. Currently I’m cooking each days portion fresh and I think they like that best.
Everyone keeps saying that but I haven’t had that become a problem. I never feed them fresh egg shells though they’re typically dried out over a few days first
@@onceuponatinyfarm Yup, might is a mighty word....could happen might not....could be breed, might be feeding schedule. I have noticed that if you use eggshell as a regular calcium boost they eat it regularly if mixed in with food.
How do you store the cooked rice & beans batch once you cook it? Does it need to be refrigerated/ warmed up again before serving? Also, have you tried lentils? I have heard some beans / peas can be toxic for chooks..... THANKS 😊
I have started just cooking 1 cup beans, 1 cup rice and doing that every day so there’s no storage needed and this has been feeding my flock of ten just fine. I’ve never heard of pea being toxic many feeds include it, beans are ok as long as they’re cooked
They probably want the soldier fly larvae as much for the fats/oils as for the protein in them. Fats have to be present in a feeding for the chicken to absorb fat soluble vitamins.
Mixing your own feed is not as simple as giving them just rice and beans. I mix my own feed and it has around 8-10 different ingredients depending on availability and season, plus the supplemental calcium, and vitamins. Balancing the amount of protein, fat, fiber and carbs takes some work and it is literally math. That being said I'm roughly paying 40-50 cents a pound. This would be cheaper if I was able to purchase bulk ingredients. You panned over the rice and beans and the beans were 2.59 per pound and rice 1.00 per pound. So with just two ingredients plus the BSF which is between 18.95 to 6.90 per pound you are not actually saving anything and spending more money on a weaker diet for your chickens. The reason the feed you get from the store is cheaper per pound is because they use corn and soy as the bulk of the diet. These videos are a bit of misinformation without a true understanding of what it takes for a chicken to grow and lay in the most healthy way. Is this healthy not really and I'm a bit concern seeing on of your hens with missing butt feathers indicates to me over protein diet most likely the beans and handfuls of BSF. There is plenty of credible information on proper diet for chickens and you and your viewers would be wise to start that path of research.
I agree with you that it’s not as simple as just feeding them rice and beans. I also supplemented with black soldier fly larvae and did feed them regular organic grain feed intermittently during the process. I think rice and beans works best in a situation where your birds can free range and have access to additional nutrition from the fields. I just like how simple the feed can be and how simple it is to make yourself. I also made my own whole grain feeds in other videos and definitely prefer that to the rice and beans diet, the chickens definitely like that better in my opinion. Also the issue with the chicken that lost its feathers was due to bullying and not diet. I had to get rid of that chicken because for whatever reason all of the chickens wouldn’t stop bullying her. Thanks for the thoughtful comment.
Beans/peas and rice is the main thing I feed as well but rather than cooking I spout them. I save money by growing pigeon pea trees and cowpeas. If I don't have enough I buy mung beans. We have a rice farm so there are always sacks or rice around, whole grain with the germ and bran still intact so no nutrients are processed out. I got the beans sprouting down on a 5 day cycle, I stat with mung beans to the 200ml line of a mason jar, soak the for a day, the 3 days in a tray and feed the 5th day. For now I just soak the rice 1 day but will scale down our normal sprouting process and work that out. I have weighed out the spouts on feed day but probably will do that soon to see how much more I am getting out of it, another big money saver. All the sprouts go into the compost pile which in itself is a little protein factory. The sprouting only adds a few extra minutes each day but nothing taxing, and probably more nutrition as well.
I have fussy hens ,they don’t like black soldier fly larvae or kitchen scraps ,they do love parsley ,grass and. clover and boiled sweet potatoes and mealworms ,but found a mealworm supplier who rears them on vegetable and grains offal raised mealworms should never be fed to poultry
Strangely, my chickens can't tolerate beans. 2 chickens died and the other chickens didn't lay eggs for 2 weeks. Now I feed boiled potatoes, rice - also uncooked - mixed with oregano, coconut oil and boiled eggs with their shells. In the afternoon there is salad or banana or papaya. no grains
Oh that’s strange, I wonder if the beans weren’t cooked enough? I’ve heard they can be toxic if they aren’t thoroughly cooked and mine seem to like them best when over cooked and super mushy. But your new mix sounds great 👍
New subscriber here thanks for the video im trying to get my leg horns off of the factory stuff this really help me jus starting my RUclips channel aint much but its a start again thanks brother😄
I was doing this over the winter so I kept it in my shed. Someone commented they freeze the rice and beans and let it thaw the night before and chickens go nuts for it. It would probably be best to refrigerate during summer
Try plain Greek yogurt for egg production. All my hens laid except for 1. She stopped for about 4-5 days an I started the greek yogurt an by the second day she was back laying.
@@Osmosus787 yeah. I have a girl that gets egg bound from too much protein and I started feeding them Greek yogurt 2-3 times per week mixed with different fruits and flaxseed. They devour it and no more egg bound.
Small-qty "organic DYI-feed for chickens", from the hipster-Boutique stores at 2x the price? Seems a bit silly, to me anyways... Mahatma Enriched Extra Long Grain White Rice 20 lb Bag- -$11.74+TX -Walmart, shipped. Great Value Kosher Long Grain Brown Rice, 5lb - $3.98+TX - Walmart, shipped. Dry Black Beans 15oz/1LB, Great Value - 1.48+TX, Goya- 2.28+TX - Walmart, Shipped. Great Value Pinto Beans, 20 lb - 14.94+TX - Walmart, Shipped.
They won’t touch them if they aren’t cooked enough I noticed. They’re smart enough animals to know when it’s safe to eat. I try overcooking them so they’re super soft.
Do you know what the percentage of the amount of protein it is? I understand that chickens cannot handle high protein diet long term. It can cause kidney issues. Just curious. I would love to do this too.
So where do you keep the food? In a fridge? Our temps are in the 100’s right now. I noticed I tried the fermenting the pellet food but the top looks moldy so they won’t eat it
I don’t like fermenting pelleted feed or crumbles because I notice the same thing, I usually only do it with whole grains. Depending on time of year, you could try storing the food either in the freezer in small batches and take them out to defrost the night before, or in the fridge, and during winter I would keep them in the shed
The store I get their food at has only pellets, crumbles or what they call treat food. I don’t think I can afford buying a bag of each@@onceuponatinyfarm
No they hungry chickens eat all day when they eat they will look like they full but thats their pallet full not stomach I would say bout 6 cup per day and invest in feeder so that they eat off the ground. Rice and beans interesting
I am literally starting this feed trial today. I was watching other people doing the same thing. I'm currently buying organic layer feed (the same brand you showed in your video as a matter of fact) and spending a fortune but not REALLY knowing what's going on in that food. I think real food is the way to go so I will be doing my own videos on this. Thank you for sharing your experience. I've subbed your channel.
Thank you! It’s been hard to keep up with to be honest every few days having to cook more batches but I want to get back to it. I have also been spending too much on organic layer feed, and I still might do more of that in the winter months and try to keep up with the rice and beans or pasta and beans diet during the other times of year.
Right. So, right off the bat I can see some tweeks that I'll have to make but I'm really interested in getting this figured out. Also I have considered supplementing with this "real food" to stretch my dollar and make it more enjoyable for my chickens.
@@onceuponatinyfarm
How's it going?! I want to try this.
LOL...found out my chickens don't like beans so there's that.@@Beepbopboop19
@@Beepbopboop19I just started this feed trial again, cooking up 1 cup beans, 1 cup whole grain brown rice each day for 10 birds. My birds stopped laying anyway due to cold and lack of light so it’s a cheap way to feed them during this time of year
I raise mealworms for my chickens and I feed them the darkling beetles that lay the eggs of mealworms. They are getting mealworms and darkling beetles. I have about 20 trays of them at various stages and sizes. I did this because I didn't want to rely on commercial laying feed. I also cook up brown rice and many beans. They also get scraps and during the growing months, my chickens get a lot of leafy greens, weeds, grass clippings, flowers to peck and eat. During the winter months I sprout sprouts for them from lentils, rye, barley, black oil sunflower seeds....all organic, and they love the sprouts. They see the quart jars and come running. I have 14 hens that are 2 years old and continue to give me eggs daily. During the winter, not so much, which is expected.
How can I get started with mealworms?
I feed mine rice n beans at breakfast. Lunch is cabbage, lettuce n mealworms. For supper they get scratch n mash. Ducks and chickens are happy
Your chickens are living a good life 👍
If you cooked the beans and rice in bone broth, it would bump protein and possibly help the shells. I’d just put the bones in the pressure cooker with the rest and skip the making the broth step.
That’s a great idea
Or if you make homemade yogurt, use the whey to soak them!! More calcium, probiotics and nutrients! It works, just 2 days of giving them this feed every hen that was old enough to lay, laid good solid eggs!
Chickens eat cows?
@@main2333 Chickens scavenge. If a chicken finds a dead cow, they will spend all day in the cow. When I butcher the chickens are underfoot looking for scraps whether it be a lamb or another chicken.
@@main2333 any pizza is a personal pizza if you only believe in yourself.
When I was growing up my Mama also saved egg shells and all our leftover fruit which she would grind with a hand grinder Long with corn from our garden for our Chickens
What a great idea I would to add a grinder like that
I have an old mason jar and an old wooden spoon. Eggshells are crushed as soon as they are dry for our plants and chickens.
We use a mixture or layer feed, mealworms, weeds and household scraps. They get very excited with the mealworms.
Try pasta too noticed my birds feathers are so much shinner when I feed them beans rice pasta and beams and scraps I leave there layer feed and scratch out
Hello. Have you noticed a better quality egg feeding this way or?
yeah mealworms is like chicken chocolate ,mine hate black soldier fly larvae,best to find veg and grain fed mealworms ,many are fed offal which can pass diseases to your hens
Sakana is a brand of mealworms for koi,but also great for hens ,they are raised on veg and grains ,can be found on ebay and amazon .
@@Niki-xr6cw I raise all my own mealworms for my reptiles. I know exactly what is in them.
I add seasonings to my hens feed like rosemary oregano sage and garlic powder. I sometimes add sunflower seeds as well. Mealworms for a treat, or sliced boiled eggs and spinach. Apples & blueberries
oo are you preseasoning them? Or does the spices help with their health?
Spices do wonders for all living creatures extreme benefits in dandelion te flowers and the roots and cayenne pepper major benefits im not sure for chicken with that one but i do believe that herbs and spices the way they can work for us most likely can for other living and chicken actually are good at avoiding what is not good for them well its what ive noticed and I've heard from a source i can't remember the name butvim sure u get me @baocwolefashoo3256
Instead of buying soldier flies. Grab a container and cut slits at the top. Fill it with scrap food and the smell stuff works best. Within 28 days you'll get free soldier fly larvae crawling out. The bigger the container the more larvae. #free
I’ve been wanting to try this! I’ve actually saved up old beef and chicken bones and have them in the freezer I intended to put in a soldier fly bucket eventually 👍
My 22 girls get a mix of corn, oats, dry mealworms, and fish meal in both of the feeders for all day
I give them one house meal in the morning, bread, fruit, and veggie scraps, with pasta and beans. They free range from 12pm till dusk.
They are extremely happy birds.
@@heribertocandelaria2140 those lucky chickens are living a good life 👍
Thanks for sharing!! I give my 'herd' of 19 chickens (15 hens, 4 roos!) their organic, nonGMO layer feed, and mix it (periodically) with their scrambled or raw eggs, cottage cheese, yogurt, garlic, cherry tomatoes, cooked sweet potatoes, watermelon, chia seeds, flax seeds, soldier worm larvae, black sunflower seeds, oats, pumpkin seeds, and garden scraps, etc, plus they free range. I kind of mix and match what I give them. I have a big variety of breeds, but am still getting 10 to 12 eggs per day.
Your chickens are living the good life! Thanks for watching
I bake the eggs shells for 15 min on 350 then crush them with a potato masher
My chickens laying eggs they eat cat food ,scraps,whatever bushes they find,wheat and corn feed, as well as bugs and they also dig in the dirt where the cats go poop .rhey sleep in the tree
My friend if you see chickens pecking each other it could be they are crowded or they are bored.Big space is always better.
Egg production will ALWAYS change when you make a big change to their diet. I wouldn't worry about the small drop in egg production for a few days after changing their feed. The best way to avoid this is to mix a small amount of the new feed into their old feed and increasing the amount of the new food each day over a week. Totally not necessary, but it will save your birds stress and keep you in eggs when you change feed.
I’ve realized that too it’s a good idea to mix the new with the old so it’s not such a drastic change thanks for sharing
I cut open a layer hen and all the eggs are forming at various stages leading up to full egg. I'm not thinking changing feed will change if a egg drops or not. Maybe the hen lays 2 eggs in one day after a change in food. But the eggs are already made and ready to go inside her.
Please remember to store your beans and rice correctly; as they can cause illness and death if not properly stored. once cooked let cool to just long enough to reach room temperature then store in the refrigerator. Beans can be a breeding ground for botulism and rice can easily become ripe with bacillus cerus, a bacteria that can cause gizzard erosion, respiratory issues and ulceration syndrome in chickens. Botulism can kill them within hours. Both botulism and bacilla cerus can go unnoticed, as they may not have any color or odor in the beginning stages, but can still be very dangerous. Yes, chickens can die of food poisoning too.
Excellent info !!! 👍
I cook them beans in the winter, cooked outside. During the summer, watermelon and scraps. Autumn, yogurt and scraps. Grass and weeds, banana leafs and Sprouted black sunflower seeds in spring to mid summer.
We do a lot of the same! Good stuff 👍
I did discover that millet provides chickens with the methionine they need also. So that's something to consider adding.
I’m planning to grow a whole garden to supplement the chickens feed this year. Might have to add millet as well. I already planted a few rows of wheat for the birds!
Great vid. There are a few channels talking about this method, but I went one step further. I started farming my yard (little 125x80), growing black eye and pink eye peas, and others. The greens are a great source of vitamins and minerals as well, especially magnesium (this used to be a livestock fodder but fell out of favor - not sure why as its drought resistant and dual purpose). The green create the most amazingly rich orange yokes too. I also give them daikon radish geens, cooked radish here and there, sweet potato greens and raw ground up sweet potatoes, pineapple almost daily and a cover crop mix; clover, chard, vetch, sunflower, weeds, etc and have a maggot bucket. BSF are native here so we get some naturally in the bucket now and then. I supplement with floating catfish food, as it's 32% protein, which makes up for the lack of protein in the beans and leaves; ~6%. Chickens need about 20%. Even the 16% layer feed is to low IMHO.
That’s amazing and something I would love to do!
Good idea on the catfish pellets!
What is BSF and IMHO?
@@billwilliams9362 "Black Soldier Flies" and "In My Honest Opinion"
Thanks for the info!
Good video. thanks for sharing that
For 15 years I raised parrots. When ever they were raising babies, I cooked up a batch of 15 beans and rice. There babies grew fast and it made the process easier for the parents. I am sure it would be good for chickens as well. I am interested in seeing your results.
Grow some sweet potato vines...healthy greens for them...chicken manure for potato growth & loads of sweet potatoes for you
Everybody wins
I actually have a ton of sweet potato vines I’ve been thinking I should trim anyway good idea 👍
I grow sweet potatoes as a houseplant and harvest the leaves regularly. They are terrific in an omelet or sautéed with bacon and onion. I don’t even have to go outside to harvest!
Beans and cornbread are a complete protein. Need to feed together.
Thank you for this! It’s so helpful! I got my first chickens this year and I have 24. They are blasting through the feed at about a bag a week and I’m trying to figure out a more cost effective way to feed them (besides our table scraps). I’ve also watched/heard of the concern over store bought feed. I was looking at bulk pinto beans and brown rice. I guess I will have to see and test out how long it lasts!
You should try it out! I’m about to try a longer trial of this myself because I think feed has become far too expensive
If you haven’t tried fermenting thier feed/scratch, they love it and it adds about 1/3 volume so it lasts a lot longer
We found a way to read our own black soldier fly larvae on our form using Rabbit Manure. I harvest the black soldier, fly larvae and then I take the fries FRASS end up in the garden as a soil amendment.
That sounds amazing and I want to do that! We get so much rabbit manure from our neighbors rabbits I usually just make compost piles with them or incorporate them directly into the garden beds but I’d love to make my own soldier fly larvae
Interesting. But what is the cost comparison? A 40 lb bag of layer feed costs $14 here where I’m at. Beans cost up to $1.00 per pound, bulk!
I’d be buying that layer feed then for that price
Beans and rice/pasta expand a lot when cooked. Plus, supposedly they eat a lot less of the beans than the feed. Plus a lot of people supposedly get more eggs/healthier birds with the beans.
Layer feed is 27 dollar for a forty pound bag where I live! Tractor supply sells a fifty pound bag of cat food which is 34 percent protein and makes a great supplement for the chickens.
The organic layer feed here is almost a dollar a pound and our birds don’t like it.
Hi , have you ever tried adding flaxseed to the rice and beans, awesome what it does for eggs . GOD BLESS
flax seed will raise the protein a bunch, too. If I remember right it's about 30-40%
You seem to be wildly overspending on your beans & rice. For example, Costco has 25lb bags of rice in the $15-$18 range depending on what style of rice you want. The same goes for beans, your rice/bean dry cost should be maybe $0.75/lb. I see you were paying $6 lb for beans and $2 for rice. I call chickens a garbage disposal because all the food scraps that used to go down the drain, now feed them.
Yeah that would be the way to go buying cheaper in bulk to get better prices per pound. Guess it’s time to start shopping at Costco!
Unless you are aiming for organic, or local
Also for protein, fat, and other nutrients feed your chickens dog food. It is super cheap and they love it. I just feed my chickens corn and dog food.
In general, you'll pay more for "ethnic food" in white neighborhoods than elsewhere. The cheapest place to get your grains is the ethnic markets. Halal markets, Asian markets, African markets. You can get really cheap fresh vegetables there as well.
You can buy poultry minerals from an organic supply to add to your homemade chicken food
Wouldn’t sweat the protein, beans are high in protein . The crucial ingredient needed is green leafy grasses or vegetable matter .
Plant based proteins are much less bioavailable than animal sources. Insects provide a better protein for the birds.
That TS organic food from my experience is junk. I was mixing my own feed from whole grains -oats, BOSS, corn, peas, lentils, flax etc. and then like you, went through a period of time where I needed to buy a bag of feed. I bought that exact bag of organic feed. My eggs not only went down in production they also got smaller, almost half the size! When I stopped using it and went back to my own mixed whole grain feed everything went back to normal. I will never use it again. I will try your beans and rice idea though to add variety and maybe even cut down on some cost on occasion. Thank you!
I agree it is junk and making your own feed is infinitely better 👍
We had the same experience. Our birds were not thriving or producing on the bought organic feed. We grow mealworms, duckweed, feed table scraps and the cooked beans and rice, all organic, and they free range over large area with our guardian dog protecting them. Works great!
My concern is the pesticides rice and beans are grown with... Rice is known for arsenic concerns and legumes are one of the many crops doused with glyphosate
That’s always a concern of mine as well, if that’s a big concern to you I’d look to only purchase organic rice and beans which will take away the possibility they are grown with those pesticides
@@onceuponatinyfarm you can also grow your own, well maybe not rice but definitely some beans or peas
He was using organic.
you should add a little kelp to your feed.
It’s on my list to add to future homemade feeds 👍
I want to try this too. We buy layer feed and scratch grains we mix with black fly larvae for snacks and oyster shells. We give them watermelon in the summer, lettuce and recently they finished off my jack o lantern, they love pumpkin. Beans and rice seems nice and easy and cheap to supplement their diet.
I do the same thing most of the time mixing black soldier fly with their regular scratch grains but I wanted to find a lower cost option
During winter please dont let water freeze. Chickens need to consume more water to produce eggs. Just add a boiling cup of water in their pan so its not ice cold.
You’re right! I think I might use one of those heated water bowls this coming winter to prevent it
How about putting a bird bath de icer under the waterer? Maybe even a heating pad?
You need to soak your beans overnight, drain, and then cook. The beans have lectins that make them hard to digest. That might improve their laying. Instapot is too fast cooking to reduce lectins.
Interesting I’ll have to try that
Onion ends? I heard that anything in the onion family was toxic to chooks. Alsochopped apple is ok but no pips, they contain cuanide which kills them but doesn't hurt us.
You're fun to watch. I love your vibe, it makes me want to add more chicks to my farm and feed them rice and beans ❤️🐓
Thank you for saying that! Sometimes it still feels weird and awkward talking to a camera but I’m getting better at it, and you definitely should add more chicks and they’ll eat anything they’re my backyard garbage disposal 😂
@@onceuponatinyfarma year later and we are still pouring back over 11 month old video and still learning new things to try out on our girls . Thank you for sharing and your comments are chock full of great information too ! Love your content 🥰🙏🐓
@@waltershoults8803I appreciate that! Sometimes it feels like no one is watching so getting a comment like that means the world to me 👍
rico rice 20 pounds is aroud 14 dollars in florida and the great value is a good option too
That’s a great deal!
I have too much scraps and they stopped laying. I think they are more f it than their laying mash so be careful not too much. Thanks for the info. Ever tried adding flax meal
I have done flax seeds but not meal
I think you could even leave dome out for flies to lay their eggs on and make Maggots.
Black solder butterfly (BSF) larvae have been used in Indonesia. Because it has a high protein content which can accelerate the growth of poultry animals. We in Indonesia develop BSF larvae from eggs to flies so we always get fresh larvae every day for free😊
That’s awesome! I would like to grow my own BSF larvae as well
Chickens love beef and pork cracklins from rendered meat fats. I freeze it and give it to them for snacks.
I have had my chickens on 3 bean and brown rice for about a week now and I also have been giving them kitchen scraps and oyster shells and their egg production has dropped a ton. We were getting 12-14 a day and now we get 6-8. They also free range so they are getting all the bugs and grass the want. They were also morning layers and now they are laying in the afternoon. I might have to go back to commercial feed.
Yeah I have tried this but have also gone back to a regular organic grain mix, mostly because I don’t have time lately to make the food for them. But I think also mine perform better on a regular feed but just wanted to see how they’d do if I couldn’t access feed for whatever reason.
I've been feeding mine 'broken' rice (rice used for making alcohol) mixed with soybean oil cake (leftovers from soybean press), wheat bran or rice bran, duckweed, wild amaranth, pilosa, kudzu, crushed oyster shell, and kitchen scraps. Also whatever snails, grubs, frogs, geckos etc they catch.
Black soldier fly easy to raise don't over think.
Yes I have been saving up old meat and bones to make my first bucket 👍
I see your setup, I have chickens with almost full use of the property. I cant imagine chickens cooped up on dirt like that.
I have expanded their setup, they now have tunnels that wrap all the way around the edge of our property right behind our garden rows.
I tried this a while back for my chickens, except I used pasta instead of rice. They ate the pasta and left the beans. They also won't eat greens when I put vegetables out for them. To be fair, I over-feed them to demotivate them to escape the coop. I guess they can be picky.
They can be picky! I’ve also tried pasta and they loved that too. I’ve noticed they eat the beans more the softer and more overcooked they are. I used to feed them peas in a whole grain feed mix I made and they always left the peas, eating everything else first. Eventually they will get hungry enough to eat it all though!
Hi Mr Drew
They only produce a certain amount of eggs in their lifetime! You can also add back some eggs to give them more protein. Start by using leftover breakfast eggs. Great video!
I’ve done that too! But I like their eggs too much for eating that I don’t often want to share them back with them lol, thank you!
I feed producers pride from tractor supply and mix cracked corn with it. Have 21 hens and l get 15 to 20 eggs a day
That’s awesome
I agree with a comment on this video. I heard that dramatic change in feed does mess with the birds. I've been around different types of farming and I noticed that big changes in feeding changes things for example I saw my father in law go from feeding good quality hay to letting them graze in a wheat field. The started scouring and milk production fell of significantly on his dairy. But gradually changes seemed to really help with that
I agree definitely better to gradually introduce things
Can I ask how you store the rice,and bean? For the week
I’m thinking of trying the rice and beans for our chickens. Thanks for the video! Do you know if it would be helpful to add some salt to the rice and bean mixture?
Yes I will add different seasonings to it like garlic rosemary and whatever I have available to give additional nutrition
I think you should feed them some bio chair as well. It’s good for there gut.
I would love to do that. Just not sure where’s the best place to source them any ideas what I should use?
Your best bet would be to make your own, that way you know you can trust the source. Just burn some untreated wood in a cone shaped pit and at the bottom you should find a decent amount. Crush it up some and toss it in their coop and they will dig, scratch to break it up even more and take what they need.
@@forced4motorsports awesome thanks I bet that would help some with neutralizing odors in the run area too
@Once Upon a Tiny Farm whoa, I'd do some research on that. Charcoal will bind with nutrients and prevent chickens from uptaking them. Unless you need to put biochar in their diet for a specific reason, it's not advised to just add it to their food. All animals are like this, charcoal will bind with necessary nutrients.
@@forced4motorsports ❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤
I feed my chickens rice and beans daily. I also feed them some layer pellets.mixed with maybe some apples or lettuce
Awesome!
Mine have layer feed, but every day I give them my "Bougie Bird Mix". It's beans, macaroni, olive oil, red pepper flakes, and sprouted lentils. Plus they get handfuls of weeds I pull, mint, lemon balm, and fresh oregano. I'm going to add more sprouts to my line up. Don't want the girls to get bored with their food.
Store bought u can't buy in bulk unless you go thru it fast enough because the downside of store bought it looses it's nutrients sitting im not sure about if u air tight store it away i think it can help but not much
I saw a video, dude uses noodles and beans,same result. Also super easy to make a black fly compost and get them for free
I am planning to make my own black soldier fly bin!
Thank you for sharing, I feed my chickens with rice and beans too. Just wanted to ask you where did you buy chicken feed for that great price. I paid $1.58 per pound. Thank you!
If I buy it from a store it’s usually from tractor supply and it’s around a dollar a pound. The best price I got was making my own whole grain mix sourcing grains in bulk all organic from azure standard. That was far less than a dollar per pound
You can make it from your compost
Dang! Great idea. The beans supply the protein and the rice provides the carbs! The combination could maybe benefit from an additional vitamin source e.g., some broccoli, but aside from that its a great idea! Inexpensive as well. Nice vid.
Let my girls free all day scratching and eating bugs and I prepare pinto beans with oatmeal for a weak
also cracked corn plus any green veggies and kitchen leftovers
No food in a sack from any store
26 girls and 3 boys
They are happy and healthy
Amazing thanks for sharing
So how much water are we talking. How much past the rice did you go???
At least a few inches above but I’ve also gone to the top fill line and that works too
Cook some macaroni pasta and add it...beans about 14% protein. Pasta gives them carbs....beans and macaroni
I’m about to try some garbanzo bean noodles mixed with black beans that has to be plenty of protein for the birds!
This is the way Im moving as well. Thank you so much for sharing!
How do you store the beans and rice? I see it in a food grade bucket, does that fit in your fridge? Or do you keep it out? How do you keep it from spoiling?
When I first trialed this it was winter so I was storing the rice in our shed in a bucket but it was only 3 days worth at a time. Freezing them in batches for different days would also be a good option and maybe you could make a weeks worth at once and take them out to thaw the night before. Currently I’m cooking each days portion fresh and I think they like that best.
That's awesome, but if you don't have a wholesale on it, won't you not gain ?
Yeah definitely have to try to find the rice and beans in bulk for good prices
If you dont not grind your eggshells they might try to eat their own eggs.
Everyone keeps saying that but I haven’t had that become a problem. I never feed them fresh egg shells though they’re typically dried out over a few days first
@@onceuponatinyfarm Yup, might is a mighty word....could happen might not....could be breed, might be feeding schedule. I have noticed that if you use eggshell as a regular calcium boost they eat it regularly if mixed in with food.
I was thinking that same thing.
Is that all you gave them? Just rice, beans and food scraps? Did you give them any feed at all? Oyster shell?
And black soldier fly larvae and crushed up egg shells for calcium
Thanks for sharing.. Interesting..
Good work
How do you store the cooked rice & beans batch once you cook it? Does it need to be refrigerated/ warmed up again before serving? Also, have you tried lentils? I have heard some beans / peas can be toxic for chooks..... THANKS 😊
I have started just cooking 1 cup beans, 1 cup rice and doing that every day so there’s no storage needed and this has been feeding my flock of ten just fine. I’ve never heard of pea being toxic many feeds include it, beans are ok as long as they’re cooked
@@onceuponatinyfarm Thanks for the information! Really helpful ✌😉
The birdies need some Puerto Rican rice. 🇵🇷 😂😂😂
I’d be eating all of their food haha
Thank you. I have lost a few chickens already. Stopped laying, then died. I think it was the feed. God Bless.
Sorry to hear that! It’s something I had to get used to taking care of animals that’s never easy. Best of luck to you
Don't buy tractor supply poison
They probably want the soldier fly larvae as much for the fats/oils as for the protein in them. Fats have to be present in a feeding for the chicken to absorb fat soluble vitamins.
Absolutely, we feed ours a lot of leftover food scraps too which includes fatty meats and they go crazy for it
Omggggg where do you live that the bag of rice is a $1.99
Can we feed the chicken with cooked pady rice ❓ please let me know.
I am not sure I’ve never used paddy rice but I don’t see why not, if humans can eat it why not the chickens 🤷♂️
@@onceuponatinyfarm
Thank you so much for your quick reply
I call soldier flies for my biddies "chicken candy."
Hahaha they love that stuff
So do you have to cook the beans or can you just let them soak for days
From what I’ve read it looks like they need to be cooked first to remove some toxic stuff that could be harmful if they eat it uncooked
how do you store the rice and beans after cooking?
Keep in refrigerator
Keep in the fridge or you could also freeze it in daily potions and let it thaw the night before feeding.
Mixing your own feed is not as simple as giving them just rice and beans. I mix my own feed and it has around 8-10 different ingredients depending on availability and season, plus the supplemental calcium, and vitamins. Balancing the amount of protein, fat, fiber and carbs takes some work and it is literally math. That being said I'm roughly paying 40-50 cents a pound. This would be cheaper if I was able to purchase bulk ingredients. You panned over the rice and beans and the beans were 2.59 per pound and rice 1.00 per pound. So with just two ingredients plus the BSF which is between 18.95 to 6.90 per pound you are not actually saving anything and spending more money on a weaker diet for your chickens. The reason the feed you get from the store is cheaper per pound is because they use corn and soy as the bulk of the diet. These videos are a bit of misinformation without a true understanding of what it takes for a chicken to grow and lay in the most healthy way. Is this healthy not really and I'm a bit concern seeing on of your hens with missing butt feathers indicates to me over protein diet most likely the beans and handfuls of BSF. There is plenty of credible information on proper diet for chickens and you and your viewers would be wise to start that path of research.
I agree with you that it’s not as simple as just feeding them rice and beans. I also supplemented with black soldier fly larvae and did feed them regular organic grain feed intermittently during the process. I think rice and beans works best in a situation where your birds can free range and have access to additional nutrition from the fields. I just like how simple the feed can be and how simple it is to make yourself. I also made my own whole grain feeds in other videos and definitely prefer that to the rice and beans diet, the chickens definitely like that better in my opinion. Also the issue with the chicken that lost its feathers was due to bullying and not diet. I had to get rid of that chicken because for whatever reason all of the chickens wouldn’t stop bullying her. Thanks for the thoughtful comment.
Commercial feed is designed for maximum egg output not necessarily the most natural or healthy
Beans/peas and rice is the main thing I feed as well but rather than cooking I spout them. I save money by growing pigeon pea trees and cowpeas. If I don't have enough I buy mung beans. We have a rice farm so there are always sacks or rice around, whole grain with the germ and bran still intact so no nutrients are processed out. I got the beans sprouting down on a 5 day cycle, I stat with mung beans to the 200ml line of a mason jar, soak the for a day, the 3 days in a tray and feed the 5th day. For now I just soak the rice 1 day but will scale down our normal sprouting process and work that out. I have weighed out the spouts on feed day but probably will do that soon to see how much more I am getting out of it, another big money saver. All the sprouts go into the compost pile which in itself is a little protein factory. The sprouting only adds a few extra minutes each day but nothing taxing, and probably more nutrition as well.
@@quincyberman5629 I like that! I tried growing pinto beans but weeds out competed them
Very nice 👍🏼❤
Oh my goodness, Mijo, give them cockroaches - Heaven!!!!!
Super
I have fussy hens ,they don’t like black soldier fly larvae or kitchen scraps ,they do love parsley ,grass and. clover and boiled sweet potatoes and mealworms ,but found a mealworm supplier who rears them on vegetable and grains offal raised mealworms should never be fed to poultry
Mine love sweet potatoes too!
Strangely, my chickens can't tolerate beans. 2 chickens died and the other chickens didn't lay eggs for 2 weeks. Now I feed boiled potatoes, rice - also uncooked - mixed with oregano, coconut oil and boiled eggs with their shells. In the afternoon there is salad or banana or papaya. no grains
Oh that’s strange, I wonder if the beans weren’t cooked enough? I’ve heard they can be toxic if they aren’t thoroughly cooked and mine seem to like them best when over cooked and super mushy. But your new mix sounds great 👍
How much do you think is needed for four chickens?
I would try to cook 1/2 cup of rice and 1/2 cup of beans per day which is about half of what I’d make for 10 chickens
@@onceuponatinyfarm oh wow! I made about 10 times as much, but I’m going to ferment the rest. Can I give it to them non- fermented also?
@@hallelujah5506 absolutely you can experiment and see how they like it best
@@onceuponatinyfarm thanks for quick response! :)
New subscriber here thanks for the video im trying to get my leg horns off of the factory stuff this really help me jus starting my RUclips channel aint much but its a start again thanks brother😄
Awesome thanks for being here. RUclips is a grind but I love making videos so as long as you enjoy making them just keep going, good luck 👍
Cost per egg vs feed?
Good idea for a future video 👍
Do you keep the r&b in the fridge or outside? It’s very hot here.
I was doing this over the winter so I kept it in my shed. Someone commented they freeze the rice and beans and let it thaw the night before and chickens go nuts for it. It would probably be best to refrigerate during summer
Have you tried giving them fermented bean & rice ?
Hadn’t even thought about it until you mentioned it but now I might have to try that!
Try plain Greek yogurt for egg production. All my hens laid except for 1. She stopped for about 4-5 days an I started the greek yogurt an by the second day she was back laying.
@@Osmosus787 I’ve never tried that but now I might have to give that a shot as well thank you 🙏
They are two legged Billy goat's
@@Osmosus787 yeah. I have a girl that gets egg bound from too much protein and I started feeding them Greek yogurt 2-3 times per week mixed with different fruits and flaxseed. They devour it and no more egg bound.
I get beans and rice from the food pantry and feed mine.
Small-qty "organic DYI-feed for chickens", from the hipster-Boutique stores at 2x the price? Seems a bit silly, to me anyways...
Mahatma Enriched Extra Long Grain White Rice 20 lb Bag- -$11.74+TX -Walmart, shipped.
Great Value Kosher Long Grain Brown Rice, 5lb - $3.98+TX - Walmart, shipped.
Dry Black Beans 15oz/1LB, Great Value - 1.48+TX, Goya- 2.28+TX - Walmart, Shipped.
Great Value Pinto Beans, 20 lb - 14.94+TX - Walmart, Shipped.
Great point about buying in bulk!
My chickens refuse to eat beans! lol. I've tried black beans, kidney beans, Bush beans, lima beans, etc... they love the pasta and leave the beans!
They won’t touch them if they aren’t cooked enough I noticed. They’re smart enough animals to know when it’s safe to eat. I try overcooking them so they’re super soft.
Mine were very over-cooked and soft and so was the pasta .. all mushy mushy!@@onceuponatinyfarm
Do you know what the percentage of the amount of protein it is? I understand that chickens cannot handle high protein diet long term. It can cause kidney issues. Just curious. I would love to do this too.
I would be curious myself! I’m considering doing a longer trial of this diet starting in t he new year and tracking the results monthly
Off grid with Doug and stacy has a formula to figure out the percentage. i just cant remember the video.
Yeah I used their video as a reference for when I tried mixing my own whole grain feed
wash your rice and make "LAB"
That’s on my list of things to try for the garden next year 👍 I bought the JADAM book and want to get into more of that stuff
You can feed them just rice and beans if you free range.
So where do you keep the food? In a fridge? Our temps are in the 100’s right now. I noticed I tried the fermenting the pellet food but the top looks moldy so they won’t eat it
I don’t like fermenting pelleted feed or crumbles because I notice the same thing, I usually only do it with whole grains. Depending on time of year, you could try storing the food either in the freezer in small batches and take them out to defrost the night before, or in the fridge, and during winter I would keep them in the shed
The store I get their food at has only pellets, crumbles or what they call treat food. I don’t think I can afford buying a bag of each@@onceuponatinyfarm
So how much of the beans and rice do you feed per bird?
I’ve followed others that have more expertise in this area but from what I remember it should be around 1/3-1/4 cup of feed per day per bird
Can dry cooked beans and store
Never realized that!
No they hungry chickens eat all day when they eat they will look like they full but thats their pallet full not stomach I would say bout 6 cup per day and invest in feeder so that they eat off the ground. Rice and beans interesting
Thanks brother I just bought a feeder for them to keep it off the ground thanks for watching