What are some creative feed sources for your #chickens at any time of year? I'm looking to reduce my feed bill as close to zero as I can
#grownostr #permaculture #homesteading
Discussion
Ferment your feed. But also, lots of scraps. You'd be amazed how little they can't have.
Do you just cover the feed with water for a day or two? Yes, I have fed them some gross stuff and they know what not to eat. Someone told me to not give them onions, but they just don't eat those from the scrap bucket. I figure it adds to the compost anyways.
No such thing as a free lunch but there are some beneficial hacks to try. I dont always ferment but i do soak grain. It expands and so the birds gorge themselves less. Free range s much as possible will benefit more than anything but then you deal with predationand typical damage that chickens do. eg. Getting into gardens and scratching...
I plan on building a run on a hill for compost production. Carbon, weeds, food, ect... get piled at the top. Chickens add nitrogen and move it downhill. I think I will let them out for a couple hours because I want them mostly working the compost. Not sure if I will do a couple paddocks or just let them free range and fence the garden. Once the grasses and weeds grow big enough I'll get the scythe out for material.
I get free spent grains from a brewery near me and spent whisky mash from a distillery near me also a bagel shops old bagels and a cider mills crushed apples
For FREE
I have 300 layers and do 1000 meat birds each year and I only feed 50 lbs of organic grain a day
Spent horse bedding is great stuff too they love scratching through it and find what they want and most horse farms want you to take it 
Nice! I may have a new goal. I'll have to check with the local brewery and organic cidery. I want the apple seeds as well to start some trees, if they aren't that good I could always graft to them. I have some wild apple trees or Pippins that produce quite a bit, so what I don't eat and the deer dont get go to the chickems
I also got an old construction trailer that’s 10‘ x 20‘ I put some hog panels on the framing of it. I put three totes in the middle of it for water for the chickens that runs to siphon water so there’s 900 gallons at any given moment on the trailer, then spent horse manure grain and all of these things and pilot on the trailer. I built some ramps so the chickens can get up on the trailer and they scratch through finding whatever they want. They also can hide under the trailer if hawks come, I keep this in the chickenyard that’s mobile that moves around the farm every time it rains it’s like putting fresh manure on the ground. They also scratch the stuff out of the trailer and onto the ground so that I don’t have to do it.
The other good place is to go to the local school they have to throw away whatever lunches aren’t eaten you can ask them to have it but you’re better off telling them that you’re composting it not that you’re feeding it to livestock
Follow Billy Bond he’s the Permaculture pimp cast. He raises his pigs and chickens, and doesn’t all for free.
I love Billy's content. His chicken tractor on steroids videos are great
I also buy 50 pound bags of black oil, sunflower seeds, and spread it all over my property, and then just harvest whatever is left to feed to the chickens but they have a tendency to go find them as soon as they start dropping
The other cool thing is to start a worm bin or a black soldier fly operation in an IBC tote. You can use any of the spin creams or whiskey mash to feed them and then use them to feed the chickens. You can also get free and fat and stuff from any of the local butcher shops the chickens will eat it just as it is otherwise, you run it through the black soldier flies