If you are new to raising chicken then you might be surprised that about 80% of your costs will be feed. Because of this many farmers will use unconventional methods to feed their animals but low quality food is a mistake. The best food that you can provide your animals will reduce the time to market for meat birds and will reduce the time and increase output of egg laying birds.
If you try to replace the food of your birds with alternative methods then you are likely to cause problems for your birds. Although you might not like the idea of commercial feed sources if you are an organic or permaculture farmer you must look at the history of farming and how it has evolved over not only decades but hundreds and thousands of years. If you want good results then you have to follow proper methods. But that doesn’t mean you have to use products that are harmful.
Alternative Food Sources For Chicken
When we are talking about food for your chickens we are concerned with the protein sources they consume. Other supplements such as Calcium are necessary but not what we are talking about today.
Some alternative food sources that are ok for very small flocks are not possible for larger farms. By larger farms that means farms that are large enough to produce enough for sale. A hobbyist farmer with a few birds can use alternative food sources such as Mealworms or Maggots as a supplemental food source. You should also reduce your expectations of birds collecting food from free ranging as this is not a dependable source of protein.
If you are a hobby farmer it is also ok to provide the birds with scraps from your kitchen but you have to make sure they are both good quality and what the bird should be eating. Chickens should not be used as your garbage processors just like you would not be healthy if you ate low quality food.
Growing Your Own Chicken Feed
If you have the proper room then you should be growing your own feed. Corn, Soybeans, Sunflowers and other primary sources of chicken feed can be grown relatively easily. You will still need to add your supplements of vitamins and minerals but the bulk of your feed can be and should be produced by larger farms.
The problem with growing your own feed is that it takes money to buy or lease the extra land, raise the feed stocks and then process and dry it and store it for an entire year. This can be quite a task and it could be beyond the skill set of many chicken farmers. This could results in losses but the benefit can be worth the risk and effort.
Buying Premade Materials And Mixing Your Own Chicken Feed
This in many cases can cost less than growing your own raw materials. It will really depend on what sources you have for raw materials and when and how you store them. If you were growing all of your own feed stocks then you would have to store it for an entire year until the next harvest. Even if you live in an area where you can grow more than one harvest of feed you will still need to store it for an extended period of time. The same will be true if you are buying at the lowest cost which is at harvest. Farmers that grow feed stock will want to sell it when it is harvested because it means less storage costs. Also because many farmers are selling at the same time the price will be lower.
Again like growing your own raw materials you must factor all the costs and your ability to do what is required.
Buying Premade Chicken Feed
This sounds counter intuitive but buying fully processed bag feed might be the cheapest way to feed your flock. There are many factors to consider. Are you raising chicken year round or only in the warmer months. Do you have enough birds to justify the cost of processing and storing your own feed stock?
The most important part of feeding your birds is feeding them well so that production is at its best. If purchasing premade food is the best situation for your farm then don’t shy away from it just accept that this is the best for you and then concentrate on other factors.
That is also important is your time.
Time, Effort and Ability are the biggest factors of success on a farm. If you can’t do something yourself then you will need to hire someone to help. That might mean hiring someone as a daily farmhand or it might mean hiring out the work of other things like producing your feed.
Final Note
If you are just getting started in chicken farming for sales then you will have a lot of considerations to make. It is only through knowledge and experience that you can make these decisions. You must not get caught up in trying to duplicate the unjustified ideas of people that aren’t in your position. Take advice from professional farmers. Start a small flock for personal needs which you can then expand for production.
Take notes on everything you do in a way that you can easily review. Measure the amount of feed that you need to give each bird and what your production levels are. Free Feeding is a good way to understand how much feed is needed and it is a good way to speed your chicken to production. Free Feeding is always having feed and water available and not feeding on a schedule. You may fill feeders at specific times but they should not run out before you refill.