How To Mix Your Own Chicken Feed

If you’re using simple homemade chicken feed recipes, you’re going to need to know how to mix your own chicken feed.

Are you a chicken owner who is looking to cut costs by mixing your own chicken feed?

If so, you’re in luck!

Deciding to make your own chicken feed is a good decision, but you might be a bit lost on how to make your own. Luckily, the process is pretty easy.

All you need to do is gather the ingredients and tools. From there, mix the ingredients up and store them properly. The entire process is much less time-consuming than you may think.

In this blog post, we will teach you how to mix your own chicken feed using ingredients simple and easy-to-find ingredients.

Keep reading to learn exactly how to make your own chicken feed.

So, what are you waiting for? Let’s get started!

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Why You Should Mix Your Own Chicken Feed

When looking at how to take care of chickens, knowing how to mix your own chicken feed is a good thing to consider.

Before we dive into mixing your own chicken feed, it’s important to understand why making your own chicken feed is a great choice.

The most important reason to mix your own chicken feed is because making your own chicken feed ensures maximum control over what your chickens are eating. As a result, you can ensure that your chickens are only eating the healthiest and most nutritious diet based on their unique needs.

This is especially the case if you care about feeding your backyard birds only organic ingredients. When you mix your own bird feed, you can make sure that your chickens are eating incredibly healthy food.

 

Another benefit of mixing your own chicken feed is that you can easily adjust what your chickens are eating based on their needs and the season.

Chickens need different nutrients based on their ages, their stages in life, or the particular time of year.

Instead of buying a whole new feed, you can slowly incorporate new ingredients to make sure your chickens have a well-balanced diet.

Of course, mixing your own chicken feed isn’t without its drawbacks. It is slightly time-consuming, but it isn’t anything insane and easy enough to complete in minutes. It can also sometimes be pricey, though not always.

And either way, you know you are getting high-quality food, making it well worth the price.

About Chicken Nutrition

The next thing to know before mixing your own chicken feed is what chickens need nutritionally speaking. You will need to create a recipe that includes protein, fat, carbohydrates, and other vitamins and minerals to ensure your chickens get everything they need.

A chicken’s diet should be about 16-18% protein for hens and 20-22% for roosters and growing chicks. The sources of protein can come from things like soybean meal, meat meal, or even insects.

 

As for fat, a chicken’s diet should be about 3-5%. This helps with healthy plumage and skin as well as keeping your backyard chickens warm in the winter.

Some good sources of fat include things like sunflower seeds, flaxseeds, or even fish meal.

Carbohydrates make up the rest of a chicken’s diet and should be around 70-80%. This can come from grains like wheat, oats, or barley.

 

Vitamins and minerals are essential for a chicken’s diet as well. This includes things like calcium for strong bones, phosphorus for healthy cell development, and sodium for a healthy appetite.

These can come from sources like oyster shell flour, limestone flour, or kelp meal.

How To Mix Chicken Feed

Now, let’s dive into the real point of this article, how to make homemade chicken feed.

The good news about making chicken feed DIY is that it is easy, easily customized, and straightforward.

Feel free to customize the recipe a bit based on the ingredients you have access to and your flock’s needs.

Gather Your Ingredients

The first thing you’ll need to do is gather the ingredients to go inside the feed. You will need a base, additional protein, and additional ingredients for consistency and minerals.

Here are the ingredients you’ll need, organized based on purpose within the feed:

Chicken Feed Base (Carbohydrates)

• 8 lbs corn
• 8 lbs field peas
• 6 lbs wheat
• 1 lbs oats or barley

 

Additional Protein

• 1 oz fish meal or mealworms

Additional Ingredients For Vitamins and Minerals

• 1 oz salt or mineral salts
• 1 oz flaxseed
• 1 oz kelp
• Crushed eggshells or Oyster shells
• Grit (dirt, rocks, sand, etc)
• Diatomaceous earth

 

If you want, you can also add dried mealworms to the recipe, but this is not necessary. They are more of a treat for your chickens.

Other Items You’ll Need

In addition to the ingredients, there are a few tools you will need for preparing, mixing, and storing the feed:

• Grinder
• Steel, galvanized bin with lid
• Scoop

 

Instructions For Mixing Your Own Chicken Feed

Now that you have everything you need to make your own chicken feed, it’s time to throw it all together. If you purchased these items in whole form, it’s best to grind them down first. This will make eating the food a lot easier for the chickens.

If you do not want to purchase a grinder or do the grinding manually, you can always purchase the ingredients already grinded down. This offers less control over the mix, but it is still a great alternative if you don’t want to grind the ingredients yourself. If you opted for mealworms, don’t grind these down.

Once all of the ingredients are an appropriate size, mix them in a steel, galvanized container. Mix it up well to make sure all of the ingredients are distributed equally. Use the scoop to pour the feed into your coop’s feeder.

Storing Your Chicken Feed

After you have made your own chicken feed, it’s important to store it properly so that pests and rodents do not infiltrate the area and contaminate your chicken feed.

Select a steel container that comes with a lid. Steel is good because it keeps bugs and rodents out.

 

Ensure that the container can be airtight sealed when not in use. Then, place the airtight container in a cool, dry location.

Mixing your own chicken feed is a great way to ensure your coop stays happy and healthy. Although it is a bit time-consuming and expensive, it isn’t too bad, and it is well worth your effort.

If you’ve never mixed chicken feed before, we recommend using our recipe above as a comprehensive base. This recipe ensures your chickens will get the nutrition they need.

Don’t be afraid to mix up the recipe a bit and customize it based on your chicken’s needs. Especially if you have a hardy bunch, you can easily customize the recipe based on what you have in your area.

More Resources About Raising Chickens

In addition to learning what chickens eat, there are more things to know about taking care of chickens.

Here are just a few resources for you:

• Prepping Chickens For Cold Weather
• Best Chickens For Cold And Hot Weather
• Tips For Dealing With Frostbite In Your Chickens

Can Ducks Eat My Homemade Chicken Feed?

When it comes to ducks and chicken feed, there are a few things you need to know.

Ducks need extra niacin, so you’ll want to add 5% brewers yeast to make chicken feed appropriate for ducks.

You also don’t want to buy medicated chick feed if you’re planning on feeding it to ducklings. All in all, ducks can eat the homemade chicken feed, so long as you make a few adjustments first.