Are you wanting to give your flock the best possible nutrition but you’re worried about crafting your own recipe from scratch? Don’t want to have to source expensive ingredients like fish meal? This quick, easy DIY homemade chicken feed blend is a great way to feed your flock more natural foods while ensuring they still get all the nutrition they need from a high quality pellet.
Homemade Chicken Feed Pellet + Grain Blend
This type of feed is easy to make because you are basically mixing whole grains in with a premium quality pellet so your flock gets a diverse, well-rounded diet. It is more than just adding some scratch to their feed. Our recipe provides a mix of whole grains that together are around 15.1% protein and 9% fat. When coupled with 16% to 18% protein pellets, the hens get a balanced feed that contains the natural foods they crave. The best part is these grains are all naturally Non-GMO!
Homemade Chicken Feed Recipe:
This recipe is given in parts so you can make as much or as little as you need. Simply use the same size measuring cup for each ingredient.
3 parts Commercial Feed Pellets (I use Kalmbach Non-GMO Pellets)
1 Part Black Oil Sunflower Seeds
1 part Whole Wheat Berries (hard red or soft white is fine!)
1 part Whole Oats
1 part Split Green Peas
Directions: Mix all the ingredients together well to create a gorgeous pelleted feed blend. We store our feed and mixes in Vittles Vault brand containers which are rain, ant, and rodent proof.
Calculating Nutritional Values of Homemade Chicken Feed recipes
The chart below can help you determine the percent of fat and protein in your chicken feed blends if you need to substitute or swap out any ingredients:
Hens Get Bored With Plain Pellets
You have probably noticed that hens want to eat just about anything but their commercial pelleted feed. Hunger eventually compels them to eat but not until every scratch grain, treat, stray bug, and blade of grass they can reach has been consumed. If a hen is not eating enough, her laying will drop. Mixing grains in with the flock’s pellets or giving them non-GMO homemade scratch can encourage them to eat, which keeps eggs coming!
What if My Hens Pick Out Only the Whole Grains?
If you’re worried your flock will only eat the whole grains and leave their pelleted feed, you have some options! You can use commercial crumbles instead of pellets, which hens are more likely to eat, or you can craft a homemade chicken feed blend where the grains only make up 10% of the mix. Natural hunger will drive your hens to eat the pellets or crumbles once the whole grains are gone.
BONUS: 10% Whole grain Chicken Feed Recipe:
If you would be more comfortable with the whole grains only being 10% of what your chickens are fed, here is how to create that blend:
1/4 cup Black Oil Sunflower Seed
1/4 cup Whole Wheat Berries
1/4 cup Whole Oats
1/4 cup Split Green Peas
9 cups Commercial Feed Pellets
Directions: Mix the Sunflower seeds, whole wheat berries, whole oats and split green peas together to create 1 cup of the whole grain blend. Mix this 1 cup blend into 9 cups of commercial feed pellets to create 10 cups of the homemade chicken feed blend which only contains 10% whole grains.
Hens Benefit from Food Diversity
While you can feed a hen from a commercial feed bag for her entire life, it is not her preferred way to eat. Chickens crave real foods. If given the chance to free range, she will spend her time eating the tender growing tips of grasses and weeds, pick up any small seeds she finds, scratch for sprouting seeds and soil-dwelling bugs then hunt for protein-rich spiders, grasshoppers and beetles. If a laying hen must be confined to her coop and run, providing a variety of different whole grains and natural foods keeps her well fed.
Don’t be afraid of a hen getting “too much” fat or protein on one day. It is no different than if she discovered a nest of bug larva or devoured an entire egg. It won’t hurt her for one day and can help provide some nutrients and minerals that her body may have needed for peak laying performance.
Split Green Peas Will Sprout!
If you discover your hens are not eating some of the split green peas, don’t fret! Leave them where they lie because a split pea half is a whole seed itself and it will sprout. Hens LOVE these pea sprouts and will gobble them up the moment she spots it. Natural moisture from the ground is enough to cause them to germinate.
New Update: More Homemade Pellet + Scratch Feed Mixes
These have been such a popular way for chicken keepers to experiment with making their own homemade chicken feeds! Here are some additional blends we have tried:
I Hope You Try this Homemade Chicken Feed Pellet + Grain Blend!
If you are brand new to crafting your own chicken feeds, give this custom mix a try! It is a very safe way to experiment with homemade feeds. I think you’re going to LOVE the nest box boost this type of mix provides!
More Natural Chicken Keeping Articles:
Natural Hen Rehydration Drink for Sick or Overheated Birds
Make Your Own Chicken Nest Box Herb Blends
When You’re Ready: Chicken Feed Recipes from Antique Books
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