If a supply chain disruption has resulted in the feed store not having the commercial pellets or crumbles your backyard chicken flock needs, we’ve got some clever alternate food sources that can nourish your birds in the meantime. Some of them are even free! Here is how to feed chickens when commercial food is gone:
How to Feed Chickens When Commercial Food is Gone
Laying hens have specific protein and mineral needs. Adult birds need a minimum of 16% protein in their diet with a reliable source of calcium. Luckily chickens are intuitive eaters, instinctively knowing what their bodies need and seeking out those food sources if given the opportunity to free range, pasture range or backyard range. A hen will spend most of her time scratching for bugs, which are her primary source of protein. While free ranging is a wonderful way to feed your birds, I understand it is not always doable, especially if you have a small backyard. The first step I would encourage you to take is to buy and begin rationing any commercial chicken feed you can. 20% chick crumbles, 18% all-flock pellets or even 30% game bird feed are all acceptable to feed your hens, especially since you will be giving a smaller, rationed amount.
How Much Do Chickens Eat Any Ways?
Adult chickens consume about ½ cup of commercial feed per day. Some heavier bodied breeds may consume a bit more and bantams will consume less, around ¼ a cup of feed per day. But these are commercial feed amounts. A free ranging chicken may eat more or less than half a cup depending on the quality of grasses, grains, berries, bugs and seeds she finds. In general, a standard size hen has a crop that will hold about ½ cup of food.
Chickens are Omnivores
Believe it or not, chickens are omnivores, and can digest a wide variety of foods including meat. (Don’t forget they are cousins to hawks and vultures who subsist by eating raw meat every day!) Garden weeds, spiders, grass seeds, grains and kitchen scraps will all be greedily gobbled up by your hens. You can feed meat – cooked or raw – to your flock and they will gladly eat it. Two hundred years ago a farmer sometimes utilized the rat snakes he found in the nest box, feeding the skinned snake to the hens as a quick source of protein. (The snake must be skinned or the hens will avoid it). At the very least, do not shy away from offering kitchen scraps that may contain a bit of cooked chicken or meat to your hens because this will provide desperately needed protein.
When Commercial Food Is Sold Out:
Pasture Range if Possible
After you have begun rationing your remaining commercial chicken feed, the next step you need to take is to secure a safe ranging area for your flock. Chickens are born to feed themselves. Pasture ranging is defined as any fenced area where the hens can scratch and peck to find their own food. Free ranging is generally understood as the hens having access to a large swath of land where they can range without encountering a fence for multiple acres in every direction. Letting the chickens out in your fenced, grassy back yard is considered pasture ranging and there are multiple things you can do to help ensure your hens are adequately fed.
Use A Hawk Deterrent
Your pasture ranging space needs a fence to keep stray dogs out and something to deter hawks. Use fishing line or red yarn strung in zig-zag fashion over the area to make it difficult for a hawk to dive-bomb in on the hens without becoming entangled. Providing dense shrubbery the hens can hide under will also help, even if you must plant some bushes to do so. Most cats are not a threat to adult hens so do not fear a feline visitor. Cats and chickens generally get along quite well and hawks do not like to take prey near a cat.
Establish A Feeding Routine that gets them fed cheaply
Hens are ravenously hungry in the morning and if let out, will quickly set about finding their own breakfast. Commercial food, bird seed and scratch should be saved and used later in the day to call the hens back to the coop for safety or to be locked up for the night. Chickens are a little less picky about what they eat as sunset approaches so that day’s kitchen scraps and used egg shells are sure to disappear quickly with almost nothing going to waste when offered later in the afternoon. If you find your flock has crops that are only half full as they go to roost, use this as an indicator that they need feeding help from you.
Use a Chicken Tractor
If you have been wanting to build a chicken tractor, now is the perfect time to do it! A chicken tractor can be moved to fresh ground each day and will protect your flock from hawks. Hens can be placed in the tractor in the morning and then let out right at sunset to return to their coop to roost, meaning your tractor can be made of very simple materials. Etsy has some chicken tractor plans you can purchase, including this option that is perfect for small backyard flocks.
Harvest Grass & Weeds as Feed
If pasture ranging your girls is not possible, you still have options. Giving your girls grass clippings, either hand cut or from the mower bag, will help. Freshly pulled weeds can add dietary diversity. Since they won’t be getting many bugs you will need to offer them meal worms or some type of additional seed or feed that contains protein.
Getting Creative when Shelves are Bare
Even if commercial food is sold out, there is still “chicken feed” available if you know where to look!
What to Feed from the Feed Store:
50 pound bags of whole oats intended for horses can be purchased from feed stores and are a wonderful scratch grain for your girls. Black oil sunflower seeds may also be available in bulk. Any whole grain or whole seed mix can be sprouted if you desire, which will provide additional nutrition. (Affiliate link.)
What to Feed from the Pet Store:
If there is a chicken feed shortage, stock up on meal worms, scratch grains, wild bird seed and a bag of cat food that has a small kibble size, such as kitten food. Cat food is around 26% protein while Kitten food is about 30% protein. You can offer 1/2 tablespoon of cat food per hen as a high protein treat to keep your flock nourished.
What to Feed from the Grocery Store:
Wild bird seed, parakeet seed mixes and just about anything from the produce section will be happily eaten by your girls. Ask to buy wilted or unsightly produce from the back, which you may be able to get for free or at a low price per large crate. Cleaning out your fridge and pantry can also produce a number of snacks that will keep the girls fed for a day or two. (It may not be the highest quality nutrition but in an emergency the birds will at least be fed.) Microgreen sprouting seeds or quinoa from the rice aisle can be sprouted to provide good nutrition to your girls, who will love it! (Affiliate link.)
What to Feed from Amazon:
These are all affiliate links.
Here are some quick links if chicken feed is sold out locally but online purchasing is still an option:
Scratch and Peck Specialty Chicken Feed
Mile Four Specialty Chicken Feed
Small Pet Select Specialty Chicken Feed
Chicken Scratch Feed
Game Bird Crumbles (30% protein – mix with scratch or feed less)
Bulk Parakeet Food (12% protein – must supplement with additional protein)
Bulk White Millet (12% protein – must supplement with additional protein)
Bulk Bird Seed (Around 10-12% protein – must supplement with additional protein)
Commercial Seed
Chickens can be fed rye grass seed, sold in bags for lawn seeding, as a scratch food so long as it is pure, raw, uncoated and untreated natural seed with no chemicals added. You’ll find this sold at home improvement stores and most feed stores. Rye seed is known to make chicken poops “sticky” so anticipate eggs being a little messy when laid. Sprout the seed or grow it as a grass for the hens to avoid this problem.
Dumpster Diving (if legal in your state)
Stores throw away shocking amounts of still-edible food and this discarded food can feed your hens if it is legal in your state to remove it from a dumpster. In the dumpsters behind grocery stores, look primarily for produce, seeds, whole oats and whole grain baked goods. Pet stores often throw out cans of pet food and suet cakes for wild birds which are fine to feed your flock in small amounts (about 1 Tablespoon per bird). Bring a small step ladder and plastic totes to carry home your finds. Most stores do not mind you putting their waste to good use but do not leave a mess on the ground and never enter a trash compactor as they go off intermittently, sometimes triggered by your weight inside of it.
Farm Stand Friends
If you have been frequenting a farmer’s market or roadside stand, ask if you can pick up their bruised or discarded produce at the end of the day. A local restaurant may be willing to save veggie scraps for you, too. Network to see what is available from business owner friends and employees. (You will probably have better luck sourcing scraps from independently owned operations as opposed to national chains.)
Compost Piling
In your flock’s pasture ranging area, feel free to start a compost pile. Hens will not eat citrus peels, banana peels, raw potato, onion skins or leafy pineapple tops but they will eat the tiny bugs these materials attract as they decompose. The hens will happily frolic over any compost pile you begin, scratching it down to almost nothing in their quest for insects. Keep adding to it and heaping it back up any ways, knowing you are providing them enrichment that they love!
Garden Weeds & Pests
If you happen to have a vegetable garden (hopefully fenced to keep the chickens from ransacking it), your hens will happily help eat all the garden weeds and nuisance cutworms. Chickens enjoy the leaves from all sweet and hot pepper plants, lettuce leaves, beet and turnip greens and just about anything tender. Offer every weed you pull as the hens will find nearly all of them to be delicious. They also relish the grub worms, cutworms, horn worms and caterpillars that are damaging your veggies so feed them freely. These pests are gut-loaded with the vitamins and minerals from the greens they have consumed and are an absolutely wonderful natural food for your flock!
Neighbor’s Kitchen Scraps
It is easy to recruit the neighbors to help feed your flock. Most everyone would love to trade all their kitchen scraps for fresh eggs from your girls! Let the neighbors know that lettuce bottoms, strawberry tops, cucumber and squash ends, bell pepper seeds, berries and grapes are favorite chicken foods. See if they are willing to also save egg shells for you, since reduced availability of flaked oyster shell may coincide with commercial feed shortages.
This, Too, Shall Pass
I hope this article has been helpful in guiding you on how to feed your chickens when commercial food is gone. Hopefully the shortages will pass and the convenience of commercial feed will return soon!
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