What To Feed Your Chickens
There are a few options of chicken feed you can choose from, crumbles or pellets are the two different forms you can buy “premade” at any farm store, and different brands will have slightly different ingredients and different amounts of nutrients. In the winter you’ll want to feed a high protein feed.
You’ll learn what your chickens like -mine prefer crumbles.
I usually mix together crumbles, scratch grains, Italian seasoning, crushed red pepper flakes, cinnamon, garlic powder, diatomaceous earth, and sometimes nyjer seed.
You can also make your own feed!
I also always have Grit available in a free feeder at all times-this is optional!
BENEFICIAL INGREDIENTS FOR YOUR CHICKENS
Nyjer Seed (high in protein & vitamin A)
Crushed Red Pepper Flakes (high in vitamin C-help fight bacterial infections and boost egg production)
Italian Seasoning (5-7 beneficial herbs that help with respiratory health)
Garlic Powder (helps respiratory health & immune system & internal parasites)
Ground Cinnamon (good antioxidant & helps keep pests out)
Oats (high in protein, vitamins, and good antioxidant)
Brewers yeast (high in vitamins B3, B6, & B12)
Probiotics (boosts egg production, and helps GI health)
Diatomaceous Earth (natural pest deterrent)
What To NOT Feed Your Chickens
Yes, chickens are known for eating almost anything! Surprisingly there are things that chickens can’t eat though…
These are toxic to chickens.
Generally a rule of thumb for chickens are if humans aren’t supposed to eat it then neither are chickens -obviously besides their chicken feed…and chocolate hahaha!
How To Feed Your Chickens
You can feed your chickens two different ways: have a free feeder available filled with feed at all times OR have feeding times where you go give them feed throughout the day.
There are pros and cons to both ways.
I prefer to give them a free feeder where they can get feed if they need it. Others prefer to give them feed, to either feed them by hand to bond with them or to be able to pour it on the ground to entice scratching and pecking.
I learned the hard way that the little chicken feeders they sell at any farm store are awful…unless you have baby chicks.
If you set them on the ground they poop in it and throw the feed everywhere, and if you hang it up off the ground they fly on top of it and dump it and poop in it… you just can’t win with these things. I also was filling them up every day and was using more feed than I needed to. Another kicker way that once we got our goats I had to figure out a way to feed the chickens without the goats getting to their feed, because goats can’t have chicken feed…this was a lot more difficult than you might think, goats like to eat all the time and almost everything they see.
So I got creative, I took a plastic 55 gallon drum, cleaned it, cut the lid out of the top, and cut 4 holes in the bottom of it about 5″ from the bottom -big enough for a 4″ 90 degree PVC pipe to fit in. Place the PVC pipes in facing down and secure them with glue or spray foam. This fits about 5 50lb bags of feed. Therefore I spend a lots less money because they don’t waste a bunch of feed and a lot of time because I’m only refilling this about every 2-3 months depending on the weather and how many chickens I have at the time.
The goats have since head butted the 55-gallon drum so much that it broke the PVC pipes out…so we had to get even more creative. We put the feeder in the corner and made a pallet wall and a pallet door so that just the chickens can get in there. This is on hinges so that we can get the feeder in and out.
Treats For Chickens
- Pumpkins
- Mealworms
- Vegetables
- Fruits -no pits
- Cooked Beans (raw beans are toxic)
- Bread
- Watermelon (seedless)
- Corn
- Cooked Eggs
- Sunflower Seeds
- Egg Shells
- Yogurt
- Greens
- Marigolds (antioxidants -turn yolk a darker orange)
- Cooked Meat
- Crickets
I’ll put the chickens in the chicken tractor and wheel them out to our garden and spread feed and mealworms on the ground so that it incises them more to peck and scratch at the ground to work the soil, if it’s pretty bare.
GOOD SUMMER TIME TREATS:
Frozen Fruit
Frozen Corn on the Cob or Corn Ice Cubes
Feed pan full of Ice cubes, Water, and Black Oil Sunflower Seeds
GOOD WINTER TIME TREATS:
Mash -feed & treats in a pan and covered with warm water
Warm oatmeal with mealworms
Chicken suet cakes
