2017: Week #1

Hello all. It’s great to be at the cusp of spring again. Its probably my favorite season because you experience the vast change of a gray winter turning into a colorful landscape when all the plants come alive again.

The growing season always starts out slow. I’ve mostly been putting planting plans together and checking that I have all the seeds I need. I try to buy all my seeds in mid winter so I am plenty prepared by the time spring rolls around. I will start my first seedlings indoors in the next couple days.

This week I bought Barley, Wheat, Oats, Flaxseed, Bird Seed Mix, Yellow Pea, and Layer Mash to make a chicken feed mix. The table below shows how much of each ingredient is in the recipe. It also displays % protein, mass of protein, cost per pound of feed, and cost per pound of protein. If you haven’t guessed yet, protein is important to pay attention to when making chicken feed. For layers (chickens who are laying eggs) you want 18% protein so they can keep laying those delicious protein rich eggs. Also, it is best to give them a diversity of food types so they get a mix of micro nutrients. My mix comes out to be 18% protein. This batch of feed will weigh 430 lbs, cost about $230, and last 3 chickens almost 6 months.

Feed Type |
# of bags | Total Mass (lbs) | % Protein Mass of Protein (lbs)| Cost Per bag | $/lbs of feed|
$/lbs of protein
Layer Mash 2 100 18 18 15 0.30 1.7
Yellow Pea 1 50 24 12 26 0.52 2.2
Oats 1 50 11 5.5 12 0.24 2.2
Wheat 1 50 13 6.5 18 0.36 2.8
Bird Seed Mix- Sunflower, Peanuts, Safflower 2 80 25 20 28.5 0.71 2.9
Flaxseed 1 50 20 10 40 0.80 4.0
Barley 1 50 12 6 25 0.50 4.2

Bags of Various Grains and Seeds for Chicken Feed Mix

50 lbs of Yellow Peas for the Chickens

Turns out these yellow peas are to big for the chickens to eat. I had to run the entire 50 pounds through my grain mill to brake it down. Next time I will definitely look for some split peas.
Grinding Peas in Mill