Inspired by a Jonny Anvil reply - Food Ration

Jonny’s response about Feed suppliers collecting personal information inspired me to ask a question I have wondered about for a while. Do you make up a custom ration for your birds? I use the standard 17% Layer ration (I think it’s standard anyway). I also grabbed up a bag of cracked corn (rather than whole, at the recommendation of the ladies at the feed store). I don’t feed corn as a main meal as it’s my understanding it’s like fast food for chickens. Each morning I mix a handful of oyster shell, handful of cracked corn and handful of bird seed into a bowl and spread it down as morning treats if I don’t have any greens for them. I also do this at night, but with just a handful of corn as I heard a bulky feed like that helps keep the birds warm over night.

Anyway. I’m wondering what else you ad to a custom ration? I’ve heard rolled oats are a no-no, though I’m not sure why. I’d rather manufacture my own feed or do a 50/50 mix of my own mix with the layer ration.

Any suggestions/forumulas?

We have a custom mix ration for our birds.
It is wheat, barely, lentils, soya meal and a mineral/vitamin mix. Also limestone grit for calcium mixed right in.
We also supply a feeder of oyster shell for free picking.
I also feed extra eggs hard boiled back to the birds, shells on and mashed up. As well as any kitchen scraps.
My ducks also get an alfalfa bale in the winter time to pick at and free range in the summer for the most part.

I start off chicks with chick starter, as that is what they are usually used to from the breeder, but I quickly start adding in my chick start mix of wheat, corn, barley, oats, lentils, split peas, millet, and shelled sunflower minis, which I grind myself, grinding less as the weeks pass, and increasing the amount, until they are off the store's chick starter. If I have any, I also throw in quinoa and sesame seeds. At feeding I add grit and a mix of garlic granules, brewer's yeast, and tumeric. After 3 months I start to change the proportions and use black sunflower seeds instead of shelled. Once they are laying I hand out oyster shell once in a while. And they get lots of green scraps and leftover bits of meat. To the water I add apple cider vinegar every morning. It works well for me, but I only have a small flock of 15, which is set to double shortly. I am looking forward to summer when I can let them out of their pens and tractors to free range a little, under supervision of my children. There are too many dogs around to leave them to fully free range. Are they spoilt chickens? Maybe

I’ve heard rolled oats are a no-no, though I’m not sure why.

I have used steam rolled oats as the main food for both cows and chickens. I bought it as a tote bag to cut costs. Both seem to do well. At present I've switched to cob, although mainly feeding this to the cows.

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I have noticed that almost none of our birds eat the Barley...