Egg-onomics: Breaking Down The Best Feed for Your Flock

Name: Egg-onomics: Breaking Down The Best Feed for Your Flock | Open Video
Uploaded: 2024-05-21T01:10:58+00:00
Duration: 11 min 44 s

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What's up my friends? Today we're talking about chicken feed
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Specifically, we're gonna do a little bit of experimenting because I've been feeding my chickens everything from layer pellets that are like
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specifically formulated to help chickens lay the best eggs to a much more natural locally produced food
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that's literally made from grains like you can basically see everything that's in it and
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they love both and we get good eggs in both and really our goal with this is
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to be able to move toward one making our chickens more cost-effective, but two moving towards self-reliance
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I want to know exactly what I need to grow or be able to source to be able to produce my own chicken feed
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Being able to rely on our supply chain being able to rely on making sure that we're getting you know
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the best ingredients and the best things. It's just not something I feel comfortable with especially after what we've seen over the last few years
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I want to be able to be more self-reliant and that means being able to feed not only my family
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but being able to feed my chickens that also help to feed my family. So today we're gonna do a little bit of experimentation and we're gonna do a deep dive in what is in these
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to try to work toward figuring out what to grow to make our own chicken feed
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Now those of you who have experience with this I would love your input if you can give me any guidance on
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what sorts of things to grow or to source to be able to produce my own chicken feed
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Please let me know in the comments. Let's learn from each other. I think that's something this community does really well and something that I'd love to have happen right here on this channel
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So thank you in advance for that. Let me know in the comments, but today we're gonna do a deep dive into these two chicken feeds
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Alright, so like I said, we have fed both of these different foods to our chickens
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In fact, we fed them a few different kinds of layer pellets a few different brands and frankly
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they seem to eat whatever from what I can tell but one thing we noticed was with this feed
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this is Big D. It's produced here locally and again people here swear by it like I'm in Facebook groups and stuff
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Everybody loves it. They get great eggs from this but we find that we get a lot more of kind of the scratch from this grain kind of
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spread out throughout the coop which really makes us wonder are they just picking out their favorite pieces and
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wasting a lot more food. So anecdotally it feels like we go through that 50 pounds faster than we go through that 50 pounds
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I also don't know if this is just way more nutrient dense like calorie dense and nutrient dense
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because it's been like engineered and processed but also it's engineered and processed. So
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again, I really want to kind of dive into what goes into each of these. This one doesn't actually say on the bag. Sorry girls
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What's in it? So we're gonna have to do a little bit of research to figure out what's inside of it
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This one does say right on the bag what they put into it, which is pretty awesome
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Now we're gonna go ahead and start right now by running an experiment. I'm gonna lay out some of both of these and
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we're gonna put a camera on and we're gonna see what the girls gravitate to most and which of the feeds kind of goes away faster
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So we'll start that experiment and in the meantime we're gonna go do a little bit of research and figure out what the heck they're putting into this
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Come on! You better hurry up or you're gonna miss out. Lightning
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You wanna follow? You better hurry up or you're gonna miss out
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You better hurry up or you're gonna miss out. You better hurry up or you're gonna miss out
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Okay, well, I think the winner's pretty dang clear in terms of the preference for the chickens
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So now let's go ahead and look at these two different products kind of side by side, some of their macros and micros and see
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what they're gonna do. So I'm gonna go ahead and put the chicken in the bag
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I'm gonna put the chicken in the bag. I'm gonna put the chicken in the bag
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They seem to love this feed from Big D that's naturally sourced and locally sourced
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And one of the things I hear all the time is that their chickens are giving them
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the best tasting eggs. Frankly, I've used them all. I've used a few different, like the Purina
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but I've used some other brands. And I've used this layer feed from Big D
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I haven't noticed a dramatic difference in the eggs. The egg production has seemed to be about the same
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I get, during most of the year, about an egg a day from each of my hens
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But, you know, some people seem to notice a difference. So, what is the difference between these
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Well, if I'm looking at these again, the macros and micros seem about the same
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But, when we look at the ingredients, that's where I start to see a big difference
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So, the number one ingredient in the Purina. Grain products. I don't actually know what that means
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Like, products from grain. Like, are we talking about, like, oatmeal? The next one
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Processed grain byproducts. Processed grain byproducts. Processed grain byproducts. Plant protein products
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Again, it's like, products derived from plant protein? Is what that seems like it probably means
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And then I get into, like, calcium carbonate, molasses products. And then, the first one that's just
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well, there's calcium carbonate, and the next one that's, like, just a straight up ingredient
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is oyster shell. And then salt. Right? Like, I get a bunch of
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products or byproducts. And as we go down the list, you know, the top
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ingredients are basically like that. The further down the list I go
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I start to get some, like, organic soybean oil. Vitamin B12 supplement. Let's look
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at the big D. When I look at there's the first ingredient. Corn. Peas
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Soybean meal. So, they've taken the soybean and they've turned it into meal. Like, they've
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crushed it or whatever. Wheat. Then, calcium carbonate, vegetable oil, monocalcium phosphate. Now we're getting into
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some of those things. Sodium chloride, which is table salt. Choline chloride. Now we get
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processed grain byproducts. So now they have some other processed grain byproducts and stuff that they're including
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in there. But that's way down the list. And, as we know, the ingredients list
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is in order by how much of each of these there are. The cool thing is
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is this actually helps us toward our goal. Because my goal isn't just to determine
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which of these two foods is better. I know which one my chickens like more
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But my goal is to be able to produce this myself. Because chicken feed isn't super cheap
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And, if I can't produce it myself, then how self-reliant am I
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Because, like, cool. It's great that I don't have to go to the store to buy eggs
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But if I have to go to the store to buy chicken feed, I'm still reliant on
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the store and I'm still reliant on the supply chain. So that's my goal. And, in fact
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you know, become self-reliant and hopefully save some money. Chicken feed isn't cheap. When I look at this
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right here, like this Purina, right on their website, their price is
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$24.99 for a 50-pound bag. Which lasts a little while, right? Several weeks for my three chickens
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So it's maybe a little cheaper than just buying the eggs. Cool thing is, is this
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locally produced and natural non-GMO layer mix is only $16.50 for a 50-pound bag
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Although, if my chickens like it that much more, then maybe they'll eat it faster
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So I'm saving money already there but how much more could I save if I grew my
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own corn and my own peas and as much of this as
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possible. So now I'm on a mission. I'm on a mission to put together my own
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chicken feed that's as well-rounded and well-balanced a diet as I can produce
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on my own. If I need to supplement with some products that I can't
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really grow very well myself, like maybe oats or straight wheat, that's fine. I don't mind supplementing
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it because those are easy staples that I can store a lot of. I already do store a lot of
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and I can just store a little bit more for my chicken feed. So
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that's where we're headed next. I also know that there are a lot of people that are doing other things
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to help make that feed provide like some of the bacterias they need and stuff
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and there's something people are doing with compost, there's fermenting that a lot of
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people are doing. I'm totally cool to look into all that. If you're doing it
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let me know what's working really well for you and what would you recommend. I really
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really could use your help on this. So please provide it for me. I can look on
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Google but I trust you guys way more than I trust Google. That's where we're headed. Let's
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make our own chicken feed. Let's be way more self-reliant and hopefully save some
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money in the process. And also I hope to see you in our
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next video. And I hope to hear from you because I really want your help
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See you guys next time

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