Back in the old days when I was just starting out with my own batch of chickens, I had a dilemma.
I needed to find a surefire method of chicken feeding for my new brood of chicks.
Sure, I learned a lot from my folks when I was a kid, but they mostly home-fed the chickens that we had back then. I wanted to experiment with my own brood when I began my own backyard chicken farm, so I went to the farm suppliers and bought myself two weeks’ worth of feed.
Unfortunately, I didn’t get the proper feed and for those two weeks, I had a brood of egg-layers that wandered around the backyard sullenly. Needless to say, my egg supply during that period of time was, well, dismal.
Trial and Error
Now, don’t get me wrong. Feeding your chickens isn’t as hard as I just made it sound, but when you’re starting your own barn, you won’t have a very clear idea of what’s good for your chickens.
This is what makes things a little bit harder. If I remember my days as a neophyte, it was filled with plenty of trial and error sessions (I think I may have lost a bird or two somewhere along the line).
I tried factory-made chicken feed, free-ranging, concocting my own special feed using ingredients that I learned were the best for my birds – and let me tell you, the process can be pretty grueling at times.
The best method of chicken feeding, I discovered, is to find a routine that works the best for you and your chickens, and stick to it. Once you get that routine down pat, you’ll find that you won’t ever have any trouble with feeding your chickens in the future again.
Store-bought or Homemade?
That’s always been a tough decision when it comes to feeding animals. If it were up to them, they’d go find a suitable pasture to graze in, but unfortunately when you’re running a backyard chicken joint, that’s not an option (unless you’ve got a backyard ranch).
So the task falls upon us owners to keep these animals fed and happy.
What are the pros of store-bought chicken feed though? The biggest pro this method of feeding has going for itself is the fact that store-bought feeds are easier to prepare. All you need to do is pour the feed into their feeding troughs, and ensure that there’s enough feed for everybody, and you’re good to go.
Homemade chicken feeding’s biggest disadvantage is the fact that you actually have to prepare the food. Since you can’t just feed chickens table scraps as you would a cat or a dog, the process of making your own chicken feed can be pretty tough. I tried feeding my birds purely homemade chow for a year, and I was more stressed than I ever thought was possible. I lost too much time in coming up with the food for the chickens.
However, the biggest pro here is that you know that your birds are getting the proper nutrition that they need.
If they need adjustments in their chicken feeding routine and nutritional content of their food, it’s easier for you to adapt. And it’s also cheaper since you’re using items that you’d usually use at home anyway, you don’t really end up spending that much more.
Personally, though, I use a mix of the two methods. Store-bought feed is specifically formulated to mesh with the needs of almost any chicken breed, so even if you’re not secure about what the feed contains, you know your birds are getting what they need.
The nutrients they lack, I make up for by making chicken feeding routines that mix store bought feed and homemade chow.
But of course, the tricky part is finding the right method. My suggestion here is – experiment! You won’t discover the method that’s perfect for you and your chickens if you just stick to one way of feeding them.
You might think they’re doing okay, but somewhere along the line, you’ll discover that there were some nutrients vital to keep them as healthy and as happy as possible. It’s more efficient in the long run to have tried out a variety of methods and settling for just one unique method of caring for your chickens.
Happy Chicken Feeding.
