How to Buy Chicken Feed

Choosing and buying the right type of chicken feed can be difficult without knowing what makes up a nutritious chicken diet. Chicken feed comes in several varieties and forms. Once you get a little chicken feed knowledge, the confusion of your first buying experience is eliminated.

Instructions

What to Buy

1. Buy a chicken feed suitable for your flock of chickens. Find mixes designed for the age, type and purpose of the chicken: broiler mix, layer mix, pullet mix and even specific breed mixes.

2. Choose whole grains such as oats, wheat, barley, sorghum, or the favorite, corn, as a source of calories. Meals made from soy, bone meal, fish and legumes provide an excellent source of protein and fats. Vitamins and minerals are in mixes or purchased separately.

3. Purchase 50 or 100 lb. bags of feed at a time. Store the open bag in a large garbage container to protect from the weather; the feed keeps well if kept dry.

4. Provide a scratch grain for the chickens if they are not outdoor birds with access to pebbles. Many chicken owners use ground oyster shells to aid in good gizzard health for their indoor birds.

5. Buy the individual components and mix your own chicken feed using soy as a source of protein and fat, fish oil for vitamins A and D, yeast for B vitamins and fish meal and kelp as sources of minerals.

6. Order starter mixes in spring. Many feed mills only make this high protein mix during chick season and it sells quickly.

Where to Buy

1. Buy chicken feed in smaller quantities at a local tractor supply store. These places cater to the public and sell pre-packaged grains and mixes.

2. Find the town feed mill by looking for the tallest buildings in town. These cylinder shaped structures are the feed mill's grain storage elevators.

3. Stop at an Amish house that sells fresh eggs or chickens to find out who in the Amish community makes chicken feed. Organic mixes are often available through these sources.

4. Search the online FDA list of medicated feed mills to find the name and address of the nearest licensed facility. Medicated feeds may contain antibiotics or arsenic compounds for rapid growth. These mills also supply un-medicated feeds.

5. Perform an online business search in the white pages using your home address and the keyword "feed" for a list of nearby feed stores with addresses and phone numbers. Many mills don't pay for yellow pages advertisement and don't have websites.

Tips & Warnings

• Provide clean water, with low dissolved solids, for a healthy chicken flock.

• Allow the chicken flock to eat insects, a natural part of their diet.

• Clean the chicken feeders and waterers weekly with bleach and water. Rinse well.

• Ask questions at the feed mill; these folks are happy to help and are experts in local farm animal information.

• Discard any moldy feed; do not feed to the flock.