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Homemade Chicken Food Help!

If you’re on the lookout for simple homemade chicken feed recipes, you’re going to love this resource for homemade chicken food help.

Have you ever gone out to feed your chickens their morning rations only to find out your bag of chicken feed is completely empty? We got to experience that joy this morning which led us to an emergency homemade chicken food adventure.

So whether you’re wondering how to make homemade chicken feed so that you can be in complete control of what goes into your chickens’ bodies, or you’re looking for last minute help in feeding your chickens because you ran out of food and can’t make it to the store anytime soon, this article was written just for you.

yellow scoop in a pile of homemade chicken food

Emergency Chicken Food

When jumping into the question of how to take care of chickens, knowing how to make homemade chicken food is an important thing to keep in mind.

On our homestead, we encourage the kids to take an active part in as many of the chores as possible. This includes feeding the animals.

Unfortunately, and if you have kids you can probably relate to this, sometimes kids do jobs halfway in an effort to get things done quickly. In our case, this meant nobody gave me a heads up that we were beginning to run low on chicken feed. (Even though I’ve asked them to remind me over and over and over and over again…)

Oh well. Moving on. That just meant that this morning my homeschooled daughter also got the opportunity to conduct her own online research project. How to make homemade chicken food, what a good homemade chicken feed consists of, and how to feed said chicken feed to the birds.

Lucky for her, the first thing she read was that Orpingtons (which is what we raise) are one of the easiest breeds to feed homemade feed because they are not very picky and will eat just about anything.

(However, this doesn’t mean that if you raise another breed you won’t be able to feed them homemade food. I truly believe that if the birds get hungry enough, they will eat just about anything. So feel free to feed any breed of chicken these homemade recipes.)

laying hen and chicks eating homemade chicken feed from a human hand

What Nutrients Need To Be Included In DIY Homemade Chicken Feed?

Backyard chickens need a specific cocktail of nutrients in order to stay healthy. Chickens, especially egg-laying chickens (laying hens), need a ton of calcium in order to stay in tip-top shape, but they also need other nutrients as well.

You’re going to need the correct ratios of:

  • Calcium
  • Protein
  • Vitamin A
  • Vitamin D
  • Vitamin E
  • Riboflavin
  • Fats
  • Zinc
  • Carbohydrates
  • Water

The specific ratios will vary a little bit based on the size of your chickens (bantam vs full-sized) and the purpose of your birds (are they meat birds, egg-laying birds, multi-purpose birds, etc). But for the most part, these are the nutrients you will want to include. 

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You will also want to take into consideration their free-ranging abilities. Chickens who get a ton of bugs and garden greens will have a different feed setup than chickens who live 100% in their run/coop.

I’m not going to go into a ton of detail as chicken nutritional needs is not my specialty. For more information on what exactly your chickens need, this article on poultry.extension is a fantastic resource.

Why Should You Consider Making Your Own Homemade Chicken Food?

There are so many reasons that homesteaders and chicken farmers all over the world might consider making their own homemade chicken food.

One major reason is that homemade chicken food can easily save you a ton of money.

Reason #1 To Make Your Own Chicken Food – Saving Money

Storebought chicken feed is expensive. And buying bag after bag after bag can add up really fast! An easy way to cut costs on chicken feed is by allowing your birds to free-range or by supplementing their feed with homegrown fodder.

Or you can make your own affordable chicken feed by buying all your ingredients in bulk and then making your own!

I have not personally done the math on these cost savings and I imagine the savings vary greatly depending on where you live, what feed you’re already feeding your birds, and what breed of birds you are currently raising. But in general, it’s an accepted idea that homemade chicken food can save you money when it comes to feeding your birds. 

Whether you are raising chickens who are older or are working with younger baby chicks, there are so many ways to save money if you’re willing to put in a little bit of effort.

Reason #2 To Make Your Own Chicken Food – Quality Control

Many people prefer to refrain from unknown ingredients and chemicals when feeding their families. The same can also be said for our livestock.

Do you know exactly what goes into your chicken’s feed? Maybe you’re not too worried about it, which is fine. But if you are worried about knowing exactly what your birds are eating, making your own feed is a good way to keep track of what goes into your birds’ bodies, and therefore what goes into your body.

You can also control GMO vs non-GMO ingredients when you make your own feed. If feeding non-GMO or feeding organic feed is important to you, you’re going to want to make your own chicken feed mix.

Reason #3 To Make Your Own Chicken Feed – Emergency Preparedness

As we all know, we can’t control everything that happens to us in the world. We can’t control local feed store supply chains. We can’t control poultry feed costs. And we can’t control if the infrastructure will even allow us to get to said store in the first place.

If there is a tornado or a hurricane or a freak blizzard, are you going to guarantee you’re going to be able to get to the local feed store? Will said store even be open once you get there?

When we discovered we were out of chicken feed, our one and only car was in the shop. We didn’t expect our car to be back for a week or more. That kind of thing can happen to anybody at any time, regardless of what else is going on in the world. It’s a good idea to at least have the knowledge and the ingredients in case something unexpected should happen and you need to feed your birds.

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Can Ducks Eat Homemade Chicken Food?

If you raise both ducks and chickens, you might be wondering if your ducks and chickens can eat the same homemade food

The short answer is yes. However, there are a few things to keep in mind.

Chickens and ducks have slightly different nutritional needs. For example, ducks need more niacin than chickens.

Niacin is an essential vitamin that helps ducks grow healthy feathers. So, if you’re going to feed your ducks DIY chicken feed, you’ll need to add some brewers yeast to the mix. This will give them the extra niacin they need.

Horse Brewers Yeast Supplement Size: 20 lbs (0.83Horse Brewers Yeast Supplement Size: 20 lbs (0.83Family Farm and Feed | Brewers Yeast | Animal and Pet | Young and Adult | Granular | 4 PoundsFamily Farm and Feed | Brewers Yeast | Animal and Pet | Young and Adult | Granular | 4 Pounds

 

Another thing to keep in mind is that if your buying commercial feed, medicated chick feed is not appropriate for ducklings. Ducklings are very sensitive to antibiotics and it can make them very ill. So, if you’re buying commercial chicken feed, make sure it’s not medicated.

Generally speaking, ducks can eat the same kind of food as chickens. However, there are a few things to keep in mind to make sure they’re getting all the nutrients they need. By following these simple tips, you can ensure that your ducks stay healthy and happy.

Feeding Birds Homemade Feed Mix

How should you feed your birds their homemade feed mix? Why, however you want, of course!

Many backyard chicken farmers like to control the amounts their chickens get and feed them a little bit every day, or perhaps twice a day. Other homesteaders are into working as little as possible and give their chickens access to a huge amount of food at one time and then just make sure this feed never runs too low.

We prefer to do the second option. We like spending as little time as possible on a regular day doing chores so we tend to do bulk work at once and then do it again a week or so later. That works for us but that doesn’t mean it will work for you.

Things you need to consider when determining when and how to feed your chickens include:

Access By Other Critters

Will other birds, rodents, etc have access to your chickens’ feed? If so, you’re going to want to either remedy this situation or only give your chickens what they can eat in a set amount of time. 

Allowing other critters access to your chickens’ feed will cost you extra money, introduce pests to your homestead along with the other issues that come with that, and also potentially endanger your birds as they are exposed to foreign diseases.

It’s generally a good idea to lock down your feed so only your feathered friends can access it.

Exposure To Weather/Elements

Do you keep your chickens’ feed in a place that is completely protected from wind, rain, and so on? If not, you’re going to want to feed them less at a time so that you waste less food should the weather turn unexpectedly bad.

Your Own Birds’ Temperments

While many birds can have free access to their feed with no problems, some birds will have pecking and cannibalism issues when there is food to be fought over. Other birds will overeat and become dangerously overweight because they won’t control themselves when the food is around.

Keep an eye on your birds to see if they are happier and healthier with free access to food or without.

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Regardless, you should always give your birds free access to fresh, clean water.

bags of homemade chicken food

Easy Homemade Chicken Feed Recipes

For our emergency chicken feed recipe, we opted to just dump 2 parts of whole wheat to 1 part of rolled oats into a bag and give that to our birds. They have plenty of access to bugs and we didn’t have any of the herbs or veggies on hand that are recommended for homemade chicken feed.

While this is not recommended for long term feeding solutions, we plan to only use this homemade feed mix for a week or so. It shouldn’t hurt our birds for that short amount of time.

Here are some other good homemade chicken feed recipe options for you to consider.

Garden Betty’s Homemade Chicken Feed Recipe

Garden Betty has a homemade chicken feed recipe here that calls for the following ingredients:

  • oat groats
  • black oil sunflower seeds
  • hard red wheat berries
  • soft white wheat berries
  • kamut
  • millet
  • whole corn
  • lentils
  • sesame seeds
  • flax seeds
  • brewer’s yeast
  • kelp granules (or kelp meal)
  • oyster shells (free choice)
  • grit (free choice)

Check out her website for exact ratios as well as her reasoning for using these ingredients.

The Prairie Homestead Chicken Feed Mix Recipe

The Prairie Homestead shares a recipe on her website that includes the following ingredients.

Check out her website for exact ratios as well as the whys behind each ingredient.

The Happy Chicken Coop Feed Mix Recipe

The Happy Chicken Coop also has this recipe online that might work better for some homesteads. 

  • Corn (cracked corn or whole corn)
  • Field peas
  • Wheat
  • Oats or barley
  • Fish meal
  • Salt or mineral salts
  • Flaxseed
  • Kelp
  • Crushed Eggshells (free choice)

Check out her website for exact ratios as well as the whys behind each ingredient.

Read Also – What Does Cracked Corn Do For Chickens?

Cheap Chicken Feed Recipe From The Frugal Chicken

If you’re worried about the cost of all these exotic ingredients, you might prefer this inexpensive chicken feed recipe from The Frugal Chicken. This recipe calls for sprouting your whole grains, which is a great way to enhance the nutritional content in your feed ingredients without having to spend a ton of money! 

(Sprouting grains is so beneficial for humans and animals alike – but more on that in another article.)

  • Wheat
  • Peas (split peas work)
  • Mealworms
  • Oats
  • Sesame Seeds or Sunflower Seeds

Check out that website for exact ratios as well as the whys behind each ingredient.

And there you have it! My emergency response to my chickens running out of their food. Hopefully you are better prepared than I was, but oh well. It could have been worse! At least I had some ingredients on hand!

Have a great day and happy homesteading!

Website | + posts

Charlene has been dabbling in and learning about the homesteading lifestyle for almost 20 years. She recently started a real-world homestead with her extended family and is excited to share 20+ years of knowledge and experience with the world!

While she certainly doesn't know everything about homesteading and is learning more every day, she is excited to learn and grow along with YOU!

Charlene blogs about about homesteading at https://secretlifeofhomesteaders.com/.

Share the wisdom!

Cara ~ Vintage Style Gal

Sunday 23rd of July 2023

Great info, thank you for sharing with Whimsy Home Wednesday. I have a friend whose dream is to have a homestead so I will be sharing this with her.