There are plenty of choices for layer feed that we can purchase from our local farm supply store that your flock will thrive on. However, not all of them can boast a lack of genetically-modified ingredients, and the ones that do are pretty pricey. There’s only so many foods we can give our chickens from our kitchens and without the right foods protein levels won’t be met, which is important for a flock of layers. Here’s how to make chicken feed that is great for layers as well as the rest of your flock, that won’t skimp on protein and won’t affect egg production.
A few years ago, I began studying up on how to make chicken feed for my girls. I created a barebones framework for my feed, which I shared here with you before, but I wasn’t satisfied with just using grain in it.
I was able to achieve the right level of protein for my laying hens, but I didn’t feel that was enough to make it a vitamin, nutrient, and wellness-packed feed. Also, I didn’t want to lose egg production.
How to Make Chicken Feed That is Beneficial to Your Flock
There are a few things to consider when we are mixing our own animal feed: egg production and the ingredients you use to reach the appropriate amount of nutrients needed to keep your girls laying successfully.
Egg Production
Interestingly, the first batch didn’t yield significant drop in egg production during the switch. The most significant drop happened in the first week, and the total drop for the full month was only 11%. I expected the damage to be worse, this being my first time mixing chicken feed.
In April, they laid 66 eggs between the 5 of them. In May, where the switch took place between the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th weeks, they laid 59. There was only a difference of 7 eggs from April to May.
The Ingredients
Chickens need fresh, clean water, and a mix of protein, carbohydrates, fats, minerals, and vitamins. Each ingredient in this recipe was hand-picked based on what it would add to this homemade layer feed recipe, what it would do for the eggs they lay, and whether or not the ingredients are easy to obtain.
With this homemade layer feed, you will be able to maintain your chickens’ health, and ensure that the eggs they lay for you will be healthy, nutritious, and non-GMO.
If you have a local Winco (or other bulk seller), you can get the grains and the garlic powder. Kelp and diatomacious earth can be purchased online. If you want to supplement sometimes with black oil sunflower seeds, you can get those at your local farm supply, or order them online.
NOTE: All of the ingredients I use in this recipe have been checked with this page of the International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-biotech Applications (ISAAA) website for verification that none of them are genetically modified.
Pearl Barley – High in fiber, but low in energy and difficult for chickens to digest. Should be no more than 20% of a chicken’s diet.
Hard Red Wheat – High in protein, good for energy
Millet – This tiny grain is rich in iron and amino acids
Oats – High protein, adds calcium, fiber, and B vitamins to the feed; good energy source
Split Peas – Very high in protein
Kelp – Adds omega-3s to the hen’s diet, making egg yolks that wonderful, deep orange color
Garlic Powder – Thought of as one of nature’s best antibiotics, garlic brings power to the immune system of your chicken
Black Oil Sunflower Seeds – Adds protein, makes feathers shinier, increase egg production, increases nutrients in eggs
Diatomaceous Earth (food grade) – Keeps bugs out of the feed, is thought of as a natural wormer by some
Homemade Whole Grain Layer Feed
Ingredients
- 19 cups split peas
- 14 cups hard red wheat
- 12 cups barley
- 10 cups millet
- 8 cups oats
- 1/2 cup kelp
- 1/2 cup garlic powder
- 1/2 cup food grade diatomaceous earth
Instructions
Mix all ingredients together in a large tub. Cover and store. Feed 1/4lb (about 1/2 cup) per hen each day.
Add black oil sunflower seeds to boost protein every now and then.
Protein: 17.5% (not counting the sunflower seeds)
Crude fat: 2.1%
Homemade Layer Feed Stats
The protein percentage in this mix is 17.5% which is just about where it needs to be according to my research. Laying hens are supposed to have between 15-18%, which makes this feed just right.
This recipe makes just over 28lbs of feed and it cost me roughly $22.50 to make it. Serving size for each chicken is 1/4 lb., which makes this recipe enough for 112 servings. Non-GMO feed at the time this was written was going for about $1/lb, and this new feed cost was .80/lb, which is a pretty good savings at 20%. This is the way to go if you are concerned with what is in your chicken feed.
There could be issue with the amount of crude fat in this recipe. It is 2.1% in my recipe, and on the bag of non-GMO feed that I was using as a guideline, the minimum amount of crude fat was 2.7%. The crude fat level should be higher because some of the vitamins in a chicken’s diet are fat soluble. According to this UGE extension article, fats are the highest energy source in feed. You can always supplement with a suet block or other fatty treats each week.
Sources and Other Helpful Reading:
Feeding Chickens by the Cooperative Extension of California
Feeding Barley to Poultry by Extension.org
Poultry Rations and Feeding Methods – Manitoba Food, Agriculture, and Rural Development
What to Feed Chickens: How to Formulate Your Own Chicken Feed – Mother Earth News
Garden Betty’s Post on Homemade Whole Grain Chicken Feed (see bottom of her post for a very handy feed calculator)
Thanks for posting this! I have been looking into making my own feed again. I found a non soy, non corn, and organic feed on Azure for $29.95 for 40lbs, so been buying that for now which makes it easier on this mama, but, I do like to have some grains and things on hand for my flock to put up for emergencies if I can’t buy the feed I normally do.
Love the new site and am enjoying reading it when I get a chance to!
Thanks Amber! That’s a pretty good price–cheaper than my mixed feed! Azure is so good for stuff like that, and for bulk grains. Great idea!
Glad you are reading, that makes me feel like I’m not talking to myself! 🙂
Yes, I read, but rarely comment :-/ I should though, because I know it’s appreciated. 🙂
Yes it is! 🙂
So I just decided to add cayenne pepper to my girls feed. We have been having a major problem with squirrels and I hear they are not fans of it! Hopefully they will leave the feed alone now and we’ll start getting eggs again! We’ve only been getting 1-2 a day from 11 hens…so there is definitely something wrong out there.
Thanks for this recipe. I will have to try it out. Not sure if I will be able to get all those ingredients at a reasonable price though. Good luck with the egg production. It has been cold here so mine are hardly laying.
Hi Jayne! You can sub out some of the grain for other grains of the same protein level. The DE can be left out if you want to, and the kelp, while expensive (I got it on Amazon), you don’t use too much of it. If you click on Garden Betty blog post at the bottom of my post, she has a feed calculator you can look at that includes protein and crude fat levels for many different ingredients. You may be able to find other just-as-good ingredients for your mix. 🙂
This was really helpful to me, as we have just recently got our first batch of chickens, but the only feed I have found locally has GMOs in it. Thank you for sharing your recipe 🙂
You are so welcome, Gwen! I know the feeling—it seems so difficult to find untainted food for any of us (human or animal) anymore. Glad you could use the recipe! 🙂
Thanks for saving me hours of work researching this. I like the recipe and will start using it, I also wrote a post about it and linked your site to it. You can see it here http://trashtossinghomesteaders.blogspot.com/2015/08/new-non-gmo-chicken-feed-recipe.html
Thanks Victoria, what a nice thing to do. Thank you!
Hi Kristi, I ran across your blog and this post today via a Pinterest “pin.” We have had chickens for 4 years now, and I have always toyed with the idea of mixing grains for our ladies. My concern is that they will pick out the grains they like the best, and leave the others, thereby not getting all the nutrition they need. Has this been your experience with your girls?
Thanks,
Michelle
Yes, Michelle, that is an issue. My girls picked out the split peas and left them, and unfortunately, they were the ones with the most protein! You may have to fiddle with the recipe, perhaps if they don’t like the peas, then next time you mix, mix with something comparable in protein levels to the peas, and the like. Hope that helps!
Could this recipe be made into pellets?
Hi Michelle, I apologize that it took me so long to reply to this. I don’t know if it could be made into pellets….I’ve never tried doing that.
Hi Kristi,
I just came across your post! I love the recipe and will definitely have to try it out! I found all the ingredients for about $0.56/lb. Thank you for the recipe!
You’re welcome, Marissa! Thank you for your comment!
What kind of kelp did you buy? Was it ground or a powder? Also, I don’t show your recipe calls for the black sunflower seeds but you mentioned them in your post. How much did you put in each batch?
Hey Melissa–I bought this kelp on amazon.com. It is granules, but they also have this. (affiliate links, just fyi) I honestly can’t remember how much I put in each batch of the black oil sunflower seeds, but if you calculate it up, IIRC, you can up the protein level easily by not adding all too much. I’ll have to try it again (I haven’t mixed my grains in quite a while).
Did you find a way to increase dietary fats for chickens?
Thanks! Real helpful!
can i change the split peas to whole peas? and also instead of oats could i change them to oat groats?
thank you!
Hello I found this article and was wondering if you have improved on your recipe since it was written?
Hi Justin! No, I haven’t, but I should. This one worked well for a while, but I need to find a replacement for the peas. If I remember correctly, they account for quite a bit of the protein, so removing them would be out of the question, and as it turns out, my chickens would leave those behind and eat everything else. That isn’t to say that others’ flocks would do the same, that’s just what mine did.
I just came upon your post. I am frantically searching for layer feed in their natural form because my hen does not care for mash, pellets or crumbles. This sounds like something she will eat. What kind of oats is best – quick or oat groats? Any substitutes to millets or any other?
I just used regular oats–not quick, I don’t think. If you’d like to substitute anything, all you want to do is make sure that you sub in something with the same amount of protein. I hope that helps!
Thank you
You are so welcome! Thanks for visiting!
Hi, loved reading about your girls. I have 8 chickens and feed them corn with scraps from the kitchen and fresh greens from the veg patch. I also give them various grains like you do and yes they didn’t like split peas or lentils. So I soak the beans, peas and lentils overnight and cook them for 20 mins to soften them. They seem to like them and certainly eat them now. Hope that helps.
Hello! This has all been super helpful!!
One trick I’d like to add here on getting your hens to eat lentils and split peas, that I have had a lot of good results with, is to soak and sprout a batch of both mixed together . Once sprouted they just love them and snatch them up. It has been an easy way to trick them to eat their goodies they pick out since I too had this problem. Plus it has more added benefits nutritionally! Even my rabbits love it!!
Robin
Ooooh—awesome tip, Robin! Thank you so much for sharing it!
Once again, you mention black oil sunflower seeds in the post, but NOT in the list of ingredients…..
How much to add to this recipe?
I consider chickens to be omnivores and to increase the fat, I literally feed them meat scraps and fat from butchering…not chicken…that just seems to be asking for trouble. They also get fish guts from time to time when we go fishing. I have made them special suet from time to time in the winter months with lard, crushed peanuts, walnuts, mealworms and sunflower seeds. With a bit of cracked corn or grits to fill in the gaps.
Hi do you know if this feed could be fermented?
How much does this make when mixed all together
Thanks..I was looking for price information process that could easy to follow..
I have 1 Royal Palm turkey desperate for a mate, 1 Saxony duck whose drake was killed, 2 silkies ?sex, 1 rooster, 2hens a stray Rhode Island Red, which just appeared about 5 days ago, and is not accepted by the others, But the biggest problems other than predators are my two Roman Geese Brothers, who are “ in love” with the Saxony duck (only one that survived predators so far,), and are fighting over her. There is a dominant one and he keeps attacking his laid back sweet brother. It started as just hissing aggression and running him off then he started to attack grabbing feathers and now the fights have become severe. Last night one had the other down and had to be pulled off of him. He laid their for several minutes a had to be picked up and calmed. The aggression continued with me in the middle not allowing contact. ( Markanthony, the aggressor and poor sweet Cesar being beaten up.)
I don’t know what to do. Last night it continued for approximately an hour with me keeping him at bay, and then it stopped and they were in the kiddie pool together. Daisy duck just stands aside and watches. She seems to be in charge of the two love sick geese.
I have tried to get a drake for Daisy and of course females for the boys. Will this help? However no one has Roman geese for sale not Saxony ducks. Or. Royal Palm hens. I have a real stupid question. If I get another breed of duck or geese that will mix up the purity of the Saxony and Roman breeds correct? I’ve seen ducks for sale, never geese, locally. And I’ve tried breeders and not one has Royal Palms or Saxony ducks, chicks, or eggs for sale.
Will the boys fight till death or injury? It’s very sporadic fighting but none the less the attacks are worse each time.
Daisy has made several nests and laid a clutch of eggs of course, as good of a mother she was no hatch and raccoons came and ate most. I tried to destroy the best but she soon went back to it. So I took each days egg. She tried other areas but now just seems to lay an egg wherever she is sitting at the time. Next to the pool or just out in the open wherever. At one time she was a very broody duck which is kind of rare they say.
Well I guess I’ve written too much.
I am so happy to find a site that will actually reply. Others just write their blog but never reply to any questions and are more interested in you buying from their sponsors. Thank you so very much for any help and suggestions you may have and for being there for us first timers. By the way I live in VA near the Blue Ridge Mountains. Thanks.
My chickens will eat all but the peas. I use BOSS instead.
Thank you for your article. Very much appreciated.