Cutting costs is something most of us want and need to do. So, learning about feeding chickens without chicken feed for free or super cheap is probably something you're interested in. We use multiple different feed sources in order to decrease our feed bill as much as possible.
Feeding chickens can get quite expensive. You should always know about how much chicken feed to give your chickens so that you make sure you have enough on hand and know what your feed bill will be like.
But, if you are looking to cut down on expenses or want to add more chickens without adding to the costs you may need to look at some other options to decrease or eliminate your chicken feed bill all together.
Feeding Chickens for Free
Before we jump into the ways you can feed chickens without buying chicken feed, it is important to note that if they don't have a wide variety of different options then they won't get the nutritional balance they need. Therefore, you may want to still offer a small amount of feed for them to eat when they need it.
In our experience, they prefer most of these other options and will utilize these feed sources before diving into a bucket of store-bought chicken feed.
Free Ranging
We love free ranging our chickens - not only does it give them ample space, sunlight and exercise, but it also allows them to go gather their own food. This way they can pick and choose the things they like and need the most.
Growing Fodder or Sprouts
Grow your chickens their own fodder and sprouts. These are highly nutritious and super cheap to get started. Plus, these really help fill in the gaps of missing chicken feed.
Chicken Garden
Give your chickens their own chicken garden. When you are doing garden planning, set aside a section for your chickens. You can simply toss in some seeds for veggies that they can eat and then once they are growing let your chickens in to eat it up.
Compost Pile
Let them loose in your compost pile! We love to use our compost in the garden every year, but I admit we aren't as good about turning it over as we should be.
So, we started letting our chickens into it and they do all the work for us!
Quickly and easily assess your flocks health without missing a step by using this free download: The Chicken Care Checklist.
Garden Cleanout
When your garden is wrapping up for the season - don't spend your time and energy digging everything up. Release your chickens into the garden and let them turn over the soil and eat up all the leftover plants.
Just make sure you remove anything that isn't safe for them to eat first!
Extra Eggs
If you are getting tons of eggs and have been freezing eggs and making recipes that use lots of eggs, but still have leftovers - feed them back to your chickens! We like to cook ours so they don't turn into egg-eaters (when we don't want them to be) before feeding them.
You can even cook the crumbled shells right into the eggs for extra calcium.
Kitchen Scraps
Don't throw out your kitchen scraps! This is one way that we use everything on our homestead - we try to repurpose as much as possible. Feed all those kitchen scraps to your chickens and they will enjoy them.
Sunflowers
Sunflowers can be a great and easy addition to gardens. They are also an awesome source of food for chickens. Buying a whole pack of seeds to grow your own is relatively cheap and you can have huge sunflowers ready for feeding to your chickens in no time.
Maggots + Bugs
You can create your own maggot or worm bucket pretty easily. These high protein bugs are a great source of nutrients for your chickens. And, other than the small start up costs to get the bucket or bin going - is free food.
Fermenting Feed
Although this idea doesn't completely eliminate the need to buy chicken feed, it does significantly decrease it. We always ferment chicken feed and it drastically decreases the amount they need while increasing the available nutrients in the feed. By using this method, we have cut our chicken feed costs almost in half.
If you need more help with taking care of your chickens, check out The Organized Chicken Keeper for a complete system for managing their health through keeping their supplies stocked and coop clean.
