Mixing your own chicken feed.

My chicks seem to be enjoying their food.  Today I started using their chick feeder and they seem to be eating out of it well.

The morning feeding - mash, hard boiled eggs, sprouts, & spinach.
It was too much food for 5 chicks but I needed to try to get the food up high enough that
they could easily get it through the holes in the cover.

The mash is the dry grains, legumes and seeds mixed with some Greek yogurt and water that sat in the fridge overnight to soften so the chicks would be able to eat it more easily.  It was the hardest thing for them to eat last night because I hadn't made any ahead of time so the larger grains and legumes weren't very soft.

Since someone asked, I thought I would show the spreadsheet that I created to calculate the percent protein of their food, as well as the cost.  After researching many, many websites I had a good idea of the types of foods that I wanted to provide the girls that would give them variety and provide the nutrients they need.  However, I was having difficulty trying to determine a way to get the percent protein right.  Starter feed (for chicks) usually has about 20% protein and layer feed has about 16%.  Some sites also suggest giving them grower feed at 17-18% protein starting at about 6 weeks of age.  I wanted something that would make it easy to calculate the percentage protein and the cost as I  change proportions and ingredients.  Here's what the spreadsheet looks like:

I did a ton of research to determine the percent protein of each of these foods.  It was not easy because different sources have differing numbers.  Also, as I buy items (especially the dairy) I'll look at the package and make sure my calculations for that specific brand are accurate.  For example, we usually buy Fage Greek yogurt and I was able to go to their website and calculate the percent protein.

If you need to calculate the percent protein from looking at a nutrition label - take the number of grams of protein and multiply it by 4 (there are 4 calories in each gram of protein) and then divide that number by the total number of calories in that serving size.  For example, 1 cup of Fage 2% Greek yogurt has 170 calories and 23g of protein (taken from the Fage website).  So, 23 x 4 = 92 / 170 = .5412 or 54.12% protein.

To determine the percent protein in your feed mix, you multiply the individual ingredient percentages by the amount of that ingredient that you want to put in your feed.  I used 1 unit to equal 1 pound since most of my ingredients were easy to price by the pound.  However, I now mix them in 1 cup increments since I don't need to store 18 pounds of food right now and it's no more expensive for me to mix in small batches.

So, using lentils as an example - 29.24% x 3 (parts) = .8772.  This was easy to do using formulas in Excel.  Once you do this for every ingredient you plan to use, you add up the total protein and divide it by the total from the part column.  For example, under the starter feed column - 4.10294/18.85 = .2177 or 21.77%.

Because the amount protein, cost column, and the totals at the bottom are all equations in Excel, I can play with the amounts in the part column and immediately know the impact that will have on the percent protein of  the feed.

In addition to the ingredients listed, they also get powdered kelp mixed in their dry food.  It doesn't have a protein content so I didn't include it above.  Kelp gives them their sodium and other helpful nutrients.

If you would like to have a copy of the Excel spreadsheet I use, feel free to send me an e-mail at lynnlivinlarge@gmail.com and I'll be happy to send it to you.  I'll keep you updated as my feed mix changes.

My chicks seem to be enjoying their food.  Today I started using their chick feeder and they seem to be eating out of it well.

The morning feeding - mash, hard boiled eggs, sprouts, & spinach.
It was too much food for 5 chicks but I needed to try to get the food up high enough that
they could easily get it through the holes in the cover.

The mash is the dry grains, legumes and seeds mixed with some Greek yogurt and water that sat in the fridge overnight to soften so the chicks would be able to eat it more easily.  It was the hardest thing for them to eat last night because I hadn't made any ahead of time so the larger grains and legumes weren't very soft.

Since someone asked, I thought I would show the spreadsheet that I created to calculate the percent protein of their food, as well as the cost.  After researching many, many websites I had a good idea of the types of foods that I wanted to provide the girls that would give them variety and provide the nutrients they need.  However, I was having difficulty trying to determine a way to get the percent protein right.  Starter feed (for chicks) usually has about 20% protein and layer feed has about 16%.  Some sites also suggest giving them grower feed at 17-18% protein starting at about 6 weeks of age.  I wanted something that would make it easy to calculate the percentage protein and the cost as I  change proportions and ingredients.  Here's what the spreadsheet looks like:

I did a ton of research to determine the percent protein of each of these foods.  It was not easy because different sources have differing numbers.  Also, as I buy items (especially the dairy) I'll look at the package and make sure my calculations for that specific brand are accurate.  For example, we usually buy Fage Greek yogurt and I was able to go to their website and calculate the percent protein.

If you need to calculate the percent protein from looking at a nutrition label - take the number of grams of protein and multiply it by 4 (there are 4 calories in each gram of protein) and then divide that number by the total number of calories in that serving size.  For example, 1 cup of Fage 2% Greek yogurt has 170 calories and 23g of protein (taken from the Fage website).  So, 23 x 4 = 92 / 170 = .5412 or 54.12% protein.

To determine the percent protein in your feed mix, you multiply the individual ingredient percentages by the amount of that ingredient that you want to put in your feed.  I used 1 unit to equal 1 pound since most of my ingredients were easy to price by the pound.  However, I now mix them in 1 cup increments since I don't need to store 18 pounds of food right now and it's no more expensive for me to mix in small batches.

So, using lentils as an example - 29.24% x 3 (parts) = .8772.  This was easy to do using formulas in Excel.  Once you do this for every ingredient you plan to use, you add up the total protein and divide it by the total from the part column.  For example, under the starter feed column - 4.10294/18.85 = .2177 or 21.77%.

Because the amount protein, cost column, and the totals at the bottom are all equations in Excel, I can play with the amounts in the part column and immediately know the impact that will have on the percent protein of  the feed.

In addition to the ingredients listed, they also get powdered kelp mixed in their dry food.  It doesn't have a protein content so I didn't include it above.  Kelp gives them their sodium and other helpful nutrients.

If you would like to have a copy of the Excel spreadsheet I use, feel free to send me an e-mail at lynnlivinlarge@gmail.com and I'll be happy to send it to you.  I'll keep you updated as my feed mix changes.

My chicks seem to be enjoying their food.  Today I started using their chick feeder and they seem to be eating out of it well.

The morning feeding - mash, hard boiled eggs, sprouts, & spinach.
It was too much food for 5 chicks but I needed to try to get the food up high enough that
they could easily get it through the holes in the cover.

The mash is the dry grains, legumes and seeds mixed with some Greek yogurt and water that sat in the fridge overnight to soften so the chicks would be able to eat it more easily.  It was the hardest thing for them to eat last night because I hadn't made any ahead of time so the larger grains and legumes weren't very soft.

Since someone asked, I thought I would show the spreadsheet that I created to calculate the percent protein of their food, as well as the cost.  After researching many, many websites I had a good idea of the types of foods that I wanted to provide the girls that would give them variety and provide the nutrients they need.  However, I was having difficulty trying to determine a way to get the percent protein right.  Starter feed (for chicks) usually has about 20% protein and layer feed has about 16%.  Some sites also suggest giving them grower feed at 17-18% protein starting at about 6 weeks of age.  I wanted something that would make it easy to calculate the percentage protein and the cost as I  change proportions and ingredients.  Here's what the spreadsheet looks like:

I did a ton of research to determine the percent protein of each of these foods.  It was not easy because different sources have differing numbers.  Also, as I buy items (especially the dairy) I'll look at the package and make sure my calculations for that specific brand are accurate.  For example, we usually buy Fage Greek yogurt and I was able to go to their website and calculate the percent protein.

If you need to calculate the percent protein from looking at a nutrition label - take the number of grams of protein and multiply it by 4 (there are 4 calories in each gram of protein) and then divide that number by the total number of calories in that serving size.  For example, 1 cup of Fage 2% Greek yogurt has 170 calories and 23g of protein (taken from the Fage website).  So, 23 x 4 = 92 / 170 = .5412 or 54.12% protein.

To determine the percent protein in your feed mix, you multiply the individual ingredient percentages by the amount of that ingredient that you want to put in your feed.  I used 1 unit to equal 1 pound since most of my ingredients were easy to price by the pound.  However, I now mix them in 1 cup increments since I don't need to store 18 pounds of food right now and it's no more expensive for me to mix in small batches.

So, using lentils as an example - 29.24% x 3 (parts) = .8772.  This was easy to do using formulas in Excel.  Once you do this for every ingredient you plan to use, you add up the total protein and divide it by the total from the part column.  For example, under the starter feed column - 4.10294/18.85 = .2177 or 21.77%.

Because the amount protein, cost column, and the totals at the bottom are all equations in Excel, I can play with the amounts in the part column and immediately know the impact that will have on the percent protein of  the feed.

In addition to the ingredients listed, they also get powdered kelp mixed in their dry food.  It doesn't have a protein content so I didn't include it above.  Kelp gives them their sodium and other helpful nutrients.

If you would like to have a copy of the Excel spreadsheet I use, feel free to send me an e-mail at lynnlivinlarge@gmail.com and I'll be happy to send it to you.  I'll keep you updated as my feed mix changes.