Feeds and Feeding - Raising Poultry - page 89

oats. Try adding them gradually at first. Soak in water overnight or lightly cook; oats are
much more palatable to poultry if soaked or cooked.
MAKE DO WITH WHAT YOU CAN
FIND AND AFFORD
When I reflect back to my college days, I find the old saying “ignorance is bliss” per-
fectly fitting. Funds were limited then and my choice for feed for my small hatching
operation was something the local mill called screenings. Screenings was a mixture
of the material left from cleaning local farmers' dried peas, lentils, wheat, and barley,
and lightly grinding the lesser-quality seeds that were not human food grade. To 250
pounds (113.5 kg) of this mix, I added 50 pounds (22.5 kg) of cracked corn; that was
my breeder ration.
I provided my birds some forage and supplements such as cabbage, squash, and
melons in season, but that was it. No animal products, no soy, and yet I had some of
the best hatches and egg production I've ever experienced.
What is available to you can be limited in certain parts of the country. When I lived
near the Palouse Prairie of Idaho during college, lack of available options meant pay-
ing a great deal for a little corn but having unlimited amounts of wheat, barley, len-
tils, and field peas. Here in Iowa, it's nearly impossible to get wheat, oats are tough
to find, and forget about getting barley. So, when you set out to make your perfect
feed ration, be prepared for a few roadblocks.
Rye is a bit bitter and exceptionally hard, so it's not a favorite of poultry. I have tried
using it for feed many times and it has never worked well. Even after soaking, draining,
and re-soaking another day, it was not suitable.
Corn can be fed whole as it retains more nutrition that way than when cracked. All
poultry seem to love corn. Even though poultry are not supposed to be able to taste
sweet, they relish the corn as if they can. Most birds will pick out corn in any ration.
Corn is a high-energy food and so should be limited during the summer months when
there is plenty of forage and given more often during the cooler times of the year.
Flaxseed has become a popular poultry feed component in recent years, primarily to
increase the omega-3 fatty acids in the eggs. For years studies indicated that flaxseed
was not a suitable poultry feed due to the presence of cyanide-containing compounds
in the meal. Now, however, the extraction process has made linseed meal (as flaxseed
is called after extraction) a safer poultry food additive. The protein content is high —
around 22 percent for pure flaxseed, and 34 percent for the meal.