Yes it’s a good quality non-gmo scratch that has black oil sunflower seeds, corn, wheat or oats, etc. mixed with a “layer mash” that’s cheaper but helps them lay more. Not super scientific or 100% the way I’d like it, but they went through a really hard molt recently and were laying nothing for over a month, so I’m just really thankful they’re laying well nowadays, especially heading into winter. We use eggs to trade for fresh raw milk, and a bit of side money that ends up paying for the chicken feed. So keeping the production going a decent amount is really helpful. For about 35-ish chickens we are getting a dozen or more eggs per day. Not bad for birds that are 2 to 3 years old.
@@TomWylie Thanks so much for the info! I would definitely like to find non-GMO feed. It seems like I met a vendor (perhaps at one of the Baker Creek festivals) who offers this in the Springfield area, but I couldn't really stomach their pricing. I thought about seeing if I could get various bags from Azure and mix the feed together, but I haven't looked into that. Where do you find your feed? My chickens tend to stop laying for several months in the winter time usually. I guess I'm not doing something right then. Haha. I don't keep a light on them though.
@@neatnateable I don’t use lights on them either. They are out in a chicken tractor right now but I’m preparing to move them into a hoop house, so they stay warmer and hopefully keep laying. I’ve found they can take the cold temps, but it does draw down egg production. I get mine from Hirsch in West Plains or Thayer. The non-GMO brand they carry now is Nemo and I’ve been happy with it. It’s normally about double the price of the other stuff they sell though. So a bag of non-GMO scratch is about 21, whereas the regular stuff is about 10. But the regular stuff doesn’t have black oil sunflower seeds or near as much corn, and they put in a ton of either Milo or flax (I forget which, but it’s the small reddish seeds). I’ve noticed the birds don’t choose to eat that normally and didn’t do as well on it. So the regular chicken scratch I see very much as a filler that isn’t all that much cheaper than the actual regular layer ration stuff. But the non-GMO Nemo scratch is high-quality and the birds really do well on it. So I think it’s worth it. Before Hirsch switched over to Nemo, they had Beaver Creek non-GMO feed, which was OK and still good quality but contained A LOT of dust, which was annoying and seemed unnecessary. The egg mash is just the Hirsch brand egg mash. For a while I was buying non-GMO feed in bulk from Peterson Feeds in Mountain Grove. It was relatively decently priced when bought in bulk, but still high. I used that to raise our meat chickens but haven’t been able to justify the cost lately. You could team up with a few other families and get bulk quantities so the price would get down, but then you need to be able to store it longer-term. I had trouble with bugs (weavils) getting in all the stuff that I stored for several months.
@@TomWylie Thanks so much for this, Tom. You are right. There are always a variety of things to have to consider. I hear you about mice and weavils getting into the food bags. I'll do some looking around to see if I can find some better feed. I'm with you, I still have mine in the chicken tractor since the place I normally put them in full of junk. I need to get them into their winter area soon.
So basically, the fastest way to mix your feed… is just DONT. I love it
Thanks for the tip! What feeds do you mix together? Scratch and layer ration? What do you soak it in and for how long?
Yes it’s a good quality non-gmo scratch that has black oil sunflower seeds, corn, wheat or oats, etc.
mixed with a “layer mash” that’s cheaper but helps them lay more.
Not super scientific or 100% the way I’d like it, but they went through a really hard molt recently and were laying nothing for over a month, so I’m just really thankful they’re laying well nowadays, especially heading into winter. We use eggs to trade for fresh raw milk, and a bit of side money that ends up paying for the chicken feed. So keeping the production going a decent amount is really helpful. For about 35-ish chickens we are getting a dozen or more eggs per day. Not bad for birds that are 2 to 3 years old.
@@TomWylie Thanks so much for the info! I would definitely like to find non-GMO feed. It seems like I met a vendor (perhaps at one of the Baker Creek festivals) who offers this in the Springfield area, but I couldn't really stomach their pricing. I thought about seeing if I could get various bags from Azure and mix the feed together, but I haven't looked into that. Where do you find your feed?
My chickens tend to stop laying for several months in the winter time usually. I guess I'm not doing something right then. Haha. I don't keep a light on them though.
@@neatnateable I don’t use lights on them either. They are out in a chicken tractor right now but I’m preparing to move them into a hoop house, so they stay warmer and hopefully keep laying. I’ve found they can take the cold temps, but it does draw down egg production. I get mine from Hirsch in West Plains or Thayer. The non-GMO brand they carry now is Nemo and I’ve been happy with it. It’s normally about double the price of the other stuff they sell though. So a bag of non-GMO scratch is about 21, whereas the regular stuff is about 10. But the regular stuff doesn’t have black oil sunflower seeds or near as much corn, and they put in a ton of either Milo or flax (I forget which, but it’s the small reddish seeds). I’ve noticed the birds don’t choose to eat that normally and didn’t do as well on it. So the regular chicken scratch I see very much as a filler that isn’t all that much cheaper than the actual regular layer ration stuff. But the non-GMO Nemo scratch is high-quality and the birds really do well on it. So I think it’s worth it.
Before Hirsch switched over to Nemo, they had Beaver Creek non-GMO feed, which was OK and still good quality but contained A LOT of dust, which was annoying and seemed unnecessary.
The egg mash is just the Hirsch brand egg mash.
For a while I was buying non-GMO feed in bulk from Peterson Feeds in Mountain Grove. It was relatively decently priced when bought in bulk, but still high. I used that to raise our meat chickens but haven’t been able to justify the cost lately. You could team up with a few other families and get bulk quantities so the price would get down, but then you need to be able to store it longer-term. I had trouble with bugs (weavils) getting in all the stuff that I stored for several months.
@@TomWylie Thanks so much for this, Tom. You are right. There are always a variety of things to have to consider. I hear you about mice and weavils getting into the food bags. I'll do some looking around to see if I can find some better feed.
I'm with you, I still have mine in the chicken tractor since the place I normally put them in full of junk. I need to get them into their winter area soon.
So basically, the fastest way to mix your feed… is just DONT. I love it
Yep pretty much! 😂 I always soak the chicken feed anyway, so the process of adding water into the bucket ends up even further mixing the feed 👍