How to Make your own Chicken Feed

Raising chickens can bring a host of rewards, from gathering daily fresh eggs and providing hours of entertainment to controlling your own feed supply and helping out the environment. Those who take the extra steps to make their own chicken feed can reap even more rewards by reducing feed costs and optimizing feed ingredients depending on their chickens needs. This article will provide a step-by-step guide on how to make your own chicken feed. 

Before making any home-made feed, it is important to research a local source of grains. Look for grains that are grown or bought locally and are free of herbicide and pesticide. Organic grains are the optimal choice for making homemade feed. Furthermore, buying in bulk is an easy way to save money and have your chosen grains on hand whenever you need them. 

The next step is to grind the grains. Coarsely grinding the middle size grains will help to reduce the sorting time by the chickens as they search for what they like best. Additionally, processing grains through a mill or grinder can help chickens extract the necessary protein and energy more easily. 

Once the grains are ground, it is time to add the supplements. Nutrient rich supplements such as dried ground seaweed, fish meal, kelp meal and brewer’s yeast can help fill the void of missing proteins and trace minerals. If desired, adding fruits and vegetables to the mix can also provide additional protein and minerals. 

Making the actual feed will come next. Depending on how much feed is needed and how often it needs to be made, many hobby farmers and small-scale producers use a kitchen scale or measuring spoons or cups to determine the quantities, typically a 2:1 or 4:1 proportion of grain to supplement, respectively. Mixing supplements into the grain can be done by hand or with a kitchen mixer. 

Once the feed is made, it should be offered in multiple feeders to lessen waste and promote healthy eating. Make sure there is at least 2 inches of space between the top of the feed and the top of the feeder, as this will help to minimize waste or kicked out feed. 

What to put in your home made Chicken Feed Mix

When making your own chicken feed, you will require several ingredients. You'll need grains such as wheat, barley, corn, and oats, as well as several other ingredients, including:

-Fats and proteins: Proteins and fats both provide energy for chickens. This can include fishmeal, cooked eggs, skim milk powder, and some vegetable oils such as canola or corn.

-Minerals and vitamins: This can include supplements like eggshell powder, oyster shell powder, kelp powder, brewer’s yeast, and dried herbs like thyme and oregano.

-Fiber: This is essential to help chickens maintain their digestive health. You can add bran, alfalfa meal, or leafy greens like kale to your feed.

Chickens love veggie scraps

It's important to note that it's generally not recommended to feed chickens more than ten percent of total feed ingredients that are not grains. This is to help ensure that the chickens receive an adequate amount of energy from their feed.

When it comes to mixing these ingredients, the amount of each ingredient you add will depend on the age, breed, and needs of your chickens. Generally, adult chickens need an equal combination of protein and carbohydrates. You can achieve this by mixing together equal parts grains with equal parts of protein supplements and fats and oils.  For chickens that are younger or require more protein, you can adjust the ratio and add more protein.

Once you've mixed all the ingredients together and can no longer discern the individual components, it's best to let the feed sit and settle for at least 24 hours before feeding.

Talkin' Turkey, Wild, Farm Raised and more...

Wild Turkey flock outside our Gate 

Who doesn't love Turkey?   We have a unique situation in that our farm is next to a 11,000 acre wild life refuge.  So we don't just have turkeys come by... we have herds of turkeys for neighbors.

What have we learned? 

Turkeys are the ultimate herd animal.  They will follow  in a line to cross a stream or driveway.  There can be 30 turkeys on one side.. all pushing on each other but they will line up and cross one behind the other.  This is especially funny to watch when it is a dirt road in the middle of thousands of acres... you would THINK they could cross as a bunch.. certainly would save time.

But when they are farmed this herding his handy.  Free range turkeys move from pasture to pasture  to graze and follow the leader.  Or the ATV.

Bringin in the Turkeys

Turkeys are social.   We rescued a turkey from a local shelter.  At the time i suppose we thought we might have it for dinner the following thanksgiving but it became a pet.   Since it had free roam of the place it quickly decided to divide its time between the chickens in our yard and wandering out the gate to see what the wild turkeys were doing.   And of course given the herd thing we awoke one morning to 70 turkeys who had followed our turkey home for the night and were roosting here and there.   If you have read this far that means they were inside our castle walls... and 70 turkeys make a lot of turkey poop.

When selecting a turkey for your table.  Always get to know your local farmer who raises them humanely and sustainably on pasture.  They have a good life and spend a great deal of time getting to weight and being a 'bird'.    And take our advice...don't get your own live bird... trust me.. you will have a pet.  They live a long time and end up weighing over 30 lbs.. that is the size of a small dog!


Atv photo credit Smith Meadows

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Follow the Castle Gardener.   Perfecting permaculture and organic practices that are NO WORK and can be done by a farm girl with painted nails...

3 Things if Chickens Could Talk - 'You are SO NOT in my Club'

We love Chickens.  And each and every one has a unique personality.  Here are 3 things we have learned that they say over and over again in their unique way.

What we hear them say........

Bossy Chickens

'You are SO not in my club'   Chickens come with temperaments and unique personalities that  they  keep for their lives.   So you have the nice ones, the meek ones, the ones who always tattle on everyone.  The ones who sulk and yell 'no fair'.  And the ones who just go their own way.   In a yard.. just like a school yard, chickens establish a order of who is in charge.  They also establish where each chicken sits (literally) in the hen pecked hierarchy.    NOTHING disrupts a yard as much as introducing a new chicken or a group of chickens.  The hierarcy is most noticeable when it comes to going into the coop (or clubhouse as we call it) at night.  The established hens go in first and sit in their same boxes.  Then the rest in the proper order.  We have to catch the new hens and force them in for the first few days  and the noise in the coop when we close the door is loud and hysterical for at least a week.   Older in charge hens never really accept the new club members and distinct clicks form in the yard.

We have some that hide their eggs

'I took a road less traveled'   Our favorite hens are the misfits.  Well misfit is the wrong word.. These are the ones that just dont' follow the general path and certainly not the rules.  Most hens absolutely love a routine.  They want to get up, go out of the coop, work their way around the yard, roost in the same spot go back into the coop in a particular order, sit in the same box and get irritated at the same other hens the exact same way day after day.  But then there are the loners.  They go in and out of the coop when they will, they lay eggs during different hours whenever they like (unlike our 'normal hens' who lay nightly in the same roosting box).  Our loners will lay outside  in hidey spots.  They roost in many different locations during the day almost as if they are always trying to get a different view on world things.

You know you are loved when.....

'No REALLY
I like you best'
From time to time a chicken will decide that they just love you.. or the dog or a particular other hen.  From then on every time they see the object of their affection they will come running.  They want to sit on your lap, or peck right beside you as you dig or sit on or follow around the dog.  Just watching it is abundantly clear that all is good in the world and there is love.

More about our chickens here  and here.

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Follow the Castle Gardener.   Perfecting permaculture and organic practices that are NO WORK and can be done by a farm girl with painted nails...

2 Things Broody Hens and Road Rage Drivers have in Common

What to do with a Henzilla....

We are the first to admit we have a THING for chickens.  They are funny, smart and very helpful in their daily garden bug eating chores.  Chickens come with all kinds of personalities and just like with people you can get the one from time to time that is just a pain.

Enter the Broody Hen...

You can't plan ahead to NOT end up with a Broody Hen.  A hen goes broody when she stops laying and plops down on a nest.  Hers, others, a pile of rocks... she just sits...  and generally gets mean.  In our case we have noticed ... 

 Our Broody hen has a lot of things in common with drivers with road rage...

1.  100% of the time her needs matter more than yours.  It doesn't matter if you are feeding right on time (going the speed limit).  She is upset and wants to be first to the food.  When we open the chicken tractor for the night she wants to be first in.. and heaven help anyone who gets in her way.  (prior to this while outside  she will sit on a pile of rocks and yell an anyone who comes to close... sound familiar?) .


2.  She doesn't know when to stop.  If she decides she is irritated she will hen peck and chase the other chickens.. even off of eggs they have just laid.  Similar to a Road Rage Driver who decides to follow you when you turn off or wants to drive beside you and harass you.   There is a reason Broody Hens are called henzillas.

What to DO

There isn't a good fix.. When we get a chicken we make a commitment to her to keep her for her lifetime so we just take the good with the bad and let her be.  Not all hens go broody btw and we are lucky we only have one.   Sometimes we will slip a package of frozen peas under her cuz cooling her egg region can help it pass but in general not much to do.  And it doesn't happen every year.

Our Advice? MAKE THE BEST OF IT!

What a broody hen can do is sit a nest... and that is what they really want to do.  So sometimes when our hen goes broody we order a few eggs and let her do her thing... (we order eggs cuz they come fertilized so they will hatch and she raises different varietal chicks .. we don't keep roosters).   This is a win win for everyone and in our case she is a great mother.  Some broody hens will peck the eggs and break them, some will kill chicks (think henzilla)  but ours is fine.. when she gets broody she just wants chicks... So our barnyard motto is  'alright already here have what you want.. now stop honking your horn!.  

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Follow the Castle Gardener.   Perfecting permaculture and organic practices that are NO WORK and can be done by a farm girl with painted nails..

The ONE secret to a great Free Range Chicken Dinner

Nothing is better than Fresh Farmers Market Chicken

There is  nothing as amazing as a Chicken dinner that is cooked just right. Everyone has a recipe and everyone has a secret ingredient or technique including us so read on....

Our local Farmers Market makes a compelling case for never buying any meat that isn't fresh, local and humanely grown.  The animals are healthier and the meat just tastes better.  We have an amazing organic free range chicken farmers at our market who always has a range of whole chickens that are fresh and ready to cook.  The benefits?  Besides the fact that the chicken are fresh and never frozen (the first thing that makes them taste better), they haven't been fed a bunch of hormones, antibiotics or arsenic which can stay in the meat (like commercial mass produced chickens) and they are not dipped in chemicals after they are processed (which is done on mass produced chicken processing lines).

Ok... we get the fresh part you might say.... but  what is your secret to cooking them..?  Like many buyers i would look through the chickens and pick out the biggest one to take home to cook. My farmer would always tell  me the little ones taste better and i would laugh and think he was just trying to sell me until he convinced me to do a taste test.  I bought two whole chickens... one was the largest he had and the other a smaller bird just over 3/4 a pound.    Cooked them up and guess what...?  He was right... the smaller birds were more tender and there was more skin and fat % so the bird was juicer.  Now I always buy two smaller birds and cook them together.  Here is how i do it.

Organic Chicken with Thyme and Lemon

• Select two small organic chickens
• Wash and dry them completely
• Salt and pepper the outsides
• place 1/4 cup of lemon zest and 1 tsp of fresh chopped thyme split between the birds in the cavities
• separate the skin from the breast carefully and place chopped 1/4  tsp of thyme and a pinch of zest under the skin on each side.  
• Select 12 small 3/4 inch red potatoes
• Preheat oven to 425 with a cast iron skillet in the oven
• Place bird breast side down in the skillet and cook for 20 min.
• flip bird pouring  juices out of the bird into the pan, add potatoes, and cook for an additional 20 min or until the skin is golden.  Reduce heat for 5 min more.  
• Remove from heat and drain juices into the pan, place on a plate and let rest for 10 min. 

THEN

• Spoon out the potatoes to a plate being careful not to break them.
• Heat the juices in the pan with a tiny amount of flour (or cornstarch) and splash of white wine - the sauce is a sauce, not a gravy so don't make it too thick.  Boil it down whisking it till it is a consistency you can spoon over and drizzle the chicken with.   You CAN add a drop of lemon but be careful...
• Serve with the drizzle over the chicken and potatoes... ENJOY .....

Photo credit Craig Rippens

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Follow the Castle Gardener.   Perfecting permaculture and organic practices that are NO WORK and can be done by a farm girl with painted nails..

Yummy Healing with Anti-Inflammatants: Ginger, Turmeric and Garlic

Lately we've been doing some research into healing Psoriasis and Eczema with foods.  As with so many other diseases, inflammation is one of the problems that leads to these two uncomfortable conditions.  There are so many great foods that help reduce inflammation.  In particular, super greens, herbs and cruciferous veggies, as well as most other vegetables and fruits.



However, there are three tasty seasoning agents that are powerful inflammation fighters: ginger, turmeric and garlic.  We call this the triple punch.  These three foods individually are powerful healing agents.  When used together...wow!


In fact, ginger, turmeric and garlic are often combined together in dishes in certain parts of the world and indeed they do marry beautifully.  We wondered if we could create a quick BBQ rub featuring these three flavors and which could be used on a variety of poultry, seafood and meats.

As always, our goal goes beyond just healing.  We are after the highest levels of food pleasure--after all we are not doing penance to heal.  We desire to bring enjoyment and health into everyday family life.  Plus we are balancing our quest for deliciousness with the desire to feed our families quickly and efficiently.

To make our recipe, pull our your food processor, fire it up and start tossing in the spices!!  You'll be creating a thick paste.  Once you have the paste, you can throw it in a plastic bag with your favorite protein.  Be sure to squish it around and shake it up well until all the meat surfaces are covered.  You can then put it in the fridge to marinate for several hours or overnight.  Or you can let it sit out on the counter at room temperature for about a half hour before BBQing it on the grill.

By the way, if you're the sort of person that organizes and preps food in advance, you can make up the rub after a big supermarket shop and place the marinading bags full of chicken, shrimp or whatever, into the freezer.  Later, when you pull them out to defrost, the marinade will be sinking in and adding delicious flavor.

In the fall and winter, look for fresh whole turmeric root at your farmer's market or local supermarket.  At other times of the year, you'll just have to settle for ground turmeric in spice jars

Turmeric Tip:  Studies show that turmeric reduces the effects of carcinogens from BBQing by as much as 40%, so it's probably a good idea to include it in all marinades and BBQ rubs.

Ginger, Turmeric and Garlic Rub

Great on Shrimp and Chicken

Ingredients:

• 1 thumb sized chunk of fresh ginger
• 1 t turmeric
• 1 garlic clove
• rind from 1 lemon
• 1/4 t onion powder
• 1/4 t dried coriander
• 1/4 t dried cilantro
• 1/4 t fennel seeds
• pinch of red pepper (just a tiny bit unless you love spicy food)
• ground black pepper to taste
• 1/2 t pink Himalayan sea salt

Put all the ingredients in a food processor and process to make a paste.  Makes enough rub for a small protein meal for 4 people.  Double the recipe for more generous portions or a larger crowd.

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Follow Gourmet Chief and Master Gardner Sue Pipal.  She writes at Eat Thrive Heal

What IS it about Backyard Chickens? Why you should start Raising them Right now.....

There is a movement afoot to bring poultry back into Urban Yards.  Yes Chickens are cute but is there more to it than that?

5 Important Reasons  to have Chickens right now.....


1)  The Eggs are safer and better from your own chickens.  It is a fact.   The chickens you raise are healthier, they eat free range so you know what is making the eggs.  

 Consumer Reports,  in a 2013  study, tested large amounts of chicken from national grocery stores and regional markets in 26 states and found 65 percent of the samples were tainted with fecal contaminants. Enterococcus turned up on nearly 80 percent of the samples, followed by E. coli on more than 65 percent.

Consumers should be concerned about antibiotic resistants in Chickens. About half (49.7 percent) of chicken samples tested positive for at least one multidrug resistant bacterium, and some samples contained more than one multidrug resistant bacterium.

Drugs given to chickens to promote rapid growth can leave residue in chickens including  trace amounts of arsenic  according to Johns Hopkins Center. This is something to be aware of since it can cause  issues such as cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes, adverse pregnancy outcomes, and other problems.   Last year three of the four arsenical drugs used on poultry were banned by the FDA, but only after four years of petitioning.

Home Eggs are just Better 

Chickens in factories are caged inhumanely and fed to produce the most eggs possible.  Hormones come into play in addition to antibiotics.  Trapped in a small cage they are
fed processed chicken feed that may contain GMOs.  Home grown Chickens graze on bugs and can be fed on veggies from your garden.  The Chicken Feed you supply can be checked to be non GMO. The eggs you get will look different than the ones you buy in the store.  More yellow and with a higher amount of Omega 3 and other nutrients.
Also remember Eggs themselves are porous.    So, if they come from factories they are treated and refrigerated.  But with Eggs from your own chickens you smear a little oil on them and leave them on the counter.  That is what they do in Europe. 

2)  They Make less noise and mess than a dog.  And eat a LOT of bugs
Author Pat Form states  that a single dog makes more waste daily than 10 chickens. The decibel level of chickens is about the sames as a conversation.  But your dog doesn't  eat bugs and leave fertilizer (their poop is full of nitrogen) in your yard while they are eating pounds of bugs each season.


3.  They are Smart and respond to good care.  Chickens are great pets and make xcellent teachers for your children on how to put something into a system to get something out.

4. If you HAVE to eat one they will be antibiotic free and free range. If they are old they are at least a good soup stock.

But Don't Chickens Carry disease?  And is it simple  to raise them? 

5.  Chickens are clean. They do not carry disease or attract pests.  All they really need is a little pile of diatomaceous earth to roll (dust) in.  That will keep their skin mite free.  Their eggs, when they come out have protective coat on them and  do not need to be washed. 

But is it cheaper to buy Eggs in a store?

Good hen feed in bulk comes out to about $50 per chicken/yr. They lay about 20 dozen eggs.  So realistically it is break even on 3.00 a dozen store eggs. .   BUT the eggs are so much better for you and more vitamin rich than store bought.

enjoy....

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Follow the Castle Gardener.   Permaculture and Organic Gardening tricks from a farm girl who has painted nails