Organic DIY Chicken Feed Recipe

A couple of months ago we switched from buying chicken crumble feed for our hens to an Organic mix of bulk foods.  Since we made the switch our hens have much darker yolks and they want to start eating this feed mix as soon as we bring it out to them.  They are mostly free range bird and had lost interest in the crumble feed, so it seemed like a waste to keep buying it for them.  This recipe is a modified feed recipe from Farhan Ahsan who is the owner at The Poultry Guide blog.  Farhan's original recipe also calls for corn, but we still put out a little bit of scratch grains for our birds. I am thinking to switch to Organic corn when we run out of scratch grains.  Last year I had some luck growing small grained Cherokee popping corn.

Organic Chicken Feed 

• 16 cups of Organic Winter Wheat

• 12 cups of  Organic rolled oats

• 4 cups of whole Organic green lentils

• 1 cup Organic Sesame seeds

• 2 cups Organic brown Flaxseed

• Quarter cup kelp* granules

*I only use Sargasso sea weed from our Florida beaches.  I am not comfortable using seaweed from the Pacific Ocean due to the ongoing radiation releases from the Fukushima Nuclear Plant.  

The great thing about this recipe, is all these ingredients are whole foods that you can also use for the rest of your family.  We buy most of these ingredients in 25-50 pound bags at our local Organic grocery store.  The wheat can be made into bread, sprouted grain bread, wheat grass, or cat grass.  We use the Oats for either oatmeal or no bake cookies.  The lentils are great for sprouting.  The sesame seeds we buy in a bit smaller quantity from Mountain Rose Herbs.

Our 2 birds take about 1/2 cup of this mixture per day, plus garden scraps, weeds and other foods that they forage in our backyard.

Chicken Head Cold Remedy for Chicken with Croaking Noises

Two days ago our sweet Barred Rock hen May had a bad head cold.  Her beak was crusty, and she was making strange croaking noises.  I think she picked up a cold from a wild game bird who was carrying something that May hadn't previously been exposed to.

Moira with our Barred Rock May with the late Arucana Teri (RIP)

I found this youtube video of a sick croaking chicken.  May sounded exactly like this:



She also wasn't eating and just wanted to stand or sit still.  She felt very hot and feverish to the touch.

I checked in Juliette de Bairacli Levy's book The Complete Herbal Handbook for Farm and Stable for a natural remedy for May.  This is the second time I have used her book for a chicken health issue.

I used 2 recipes from her book.  The first was a beak wash.  I used 2 teaspoons of water, 2 drops of Eucalyptus globulus essential oil, and a pinch of fine sea salt.  We cleaned her beak outside with q-tips, and then inside with fresh q-tips.  (The type of Eucalyptus oil was not specified, so probably other species of Eucalyptus would be just fine also, for example Eucalyptus smithii).

photo by Marja Flick-Buijs

The second recipe was for a garlic vinegar paste.  This was made up easily with 2 teaspoons of ground fresh garlic with 1 teaspoon of vinegar.  I used Juliette's recommended dosage which was 1/2 teaspoon, 2 times per day. We checked on May the morning after 1 day of this treatment.  She was more active, her croaking sounds were not as loud, she still felt warm, but not terribly hot or feverish.  We fed her one more dose of garlic and washed the outside of her beak, but she was strong enough that she would not allow us to wash the inside of her beak.  So she only received the one dose on the second day.  Today is day 3 and we are very happy that  she is back to her normal self.

Chicken Pyramid, Chicken Countdown

Chicken Pyramid by Scott and Moira Johnson

Yes, I said Chicken Pyramid.  This is *not* an A-frame.  This pyramid hen house was built by my high genius husband who has no training in carpentry.  My daughter Moira was his dedicated helper, but I'm not ashamed to say Tessa and I hid out in the house after about a day and a half of working on this project.  

No Roosters!  Chicks only!

Of course I did come out to help paint the finished pyramid.

Moira's Sun with the door to the hen house propped open.

Roost and ladder to the nesting area.  I hope they can make it up top easily, or we may have to make a modification.

Egg tower

Two days left until chicken pick up.  The plan is to bring home 2 young hens at the Barberville Farm Swap.   I can't wait to have fresh eggs again.

All photos by Moira Johnson, age 8

I promise to post new chicken photos soon!  Could be Barred rocks, Rhode Island Reds, California Whites, or something else?  It really depends on what we find at the swap.  I've been watching to see what the Barberville area farmers have been posting on their swap Facebook page about what they are bringing to the swap on Saturday..