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 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..  

New Chickens!

After struggling with two Black Star chickens for the last number of months, Moira and I decided we needed to trade them for less adventurous hens. The Black stars, even with their wings clipped managed to jump over our fences and roam. They were consistently laying eggs in the neighbors yard, and last week other neighborhood kids were coming in to our front yard to abuse them. When it was finally time to pack them up to take them to the farm, Moira was very sad to say goodbye to Rose and Helen, but her mood was quite improved when we got to Angels Rest Farm in Ormond beach where she had her chance to choose new birds.



We traded the two laying Black Star hens for four 3-4 month old hens; two for us and two for Moira to sell. Moira choose for herself a Buff Orpington and a Black Australorp. We are hoping to have better luck with these two birds. We already have one Buff Orpington, and she would never dream of hopping a fence. I'm told that Black Australorps are quite gentle as well. The other two that were chosen where a Rhode Island Red and a second Black Australorp. Moira sold those birds yesterday for eight dollars.



If you are looking for chickens or fresh eggs and you live in the Daytona or Ormond Beach area I recommend Angel's Rest Farm. The farm is run by AJ and Peggy who are very nice. Eggs are $2.50 a dozen, and she has many birds to choose from as well as pigs, and goats. You can email them for information at angelsrestfarm@cfl.rr.com.

Thanks to my friend Patsy Shaw for the great pictures and for driving us out there and helping me carry the birds back and forth.