The Best Chicken Feed

by Isabelle Esch

Welcome to my guide on choosing the Best Chicken Feed for your chickens, an article in my series Raising Chickens for Beginners.

In this article we are going over a few different ways save money feeding your chickens, as well as what is the best chicken feed you need for different chickens.

What kind of chickens do you have? Layers? Meat birds? Chicks?

Whatever kind they are, they need to eat. Shopping for feed can be hard, if you walk into a store they will have all sorts of chicken feed that say they are the best, but is it really that great just because it says it is?

Just because it says it makes them grow big or fast doesn’t mean its actually good for them.

So What is the best chicken feed for your chickens?

There really is no all around best chicken feed, because different chickens need different kinds of feed.

Layers are going to need laying mash with all of the proper nutrients to help with egg production, but they also need to feel full or else they will be agitated,  chicks will need chick starter as well.

Meat birds will grow better with chicken broiler feed, but broiler feed can be expensive.  

I found that giving layers and meat birds a mixture of oats, barley, sunflower seeds, or just birdseed and mash will fill them up without being too expensive.

Chicks can be fed grower when they are 8 weeks and if they are layers they can switch to layer mash when they start to lay, or around 18-20 weeks, depending on the breed.

As for buying the chicken feed, you can buy it straight from grain mills nearby, that is sometimes cheaper, they will probably have all the different kinds of chicken feed you need there.

They will have mixes made especially for different kinds of birds, and most of the time they will be right, but you may want to research before buying and look through the ingredients.

When you buy laying mash, organic is a little more expensive, and sometimes harder to find locally, but it will improve your chickens mood and help have healthier chicks, better eggs, and meat.

If you can’t buy organic chicken feed I still have a rule I like to follow, if you can’t see what’s in your food, don’t eat it.

The same goes for your chickens, the strange brown crumble they sell in stores I always avoid, I also like to see the what is in the feed before purchasing it, if possible.

Fermenting and Sprouting

The best chicken feed for your chickens can cost even less, the seed and grains can be fermented to last longer and fill up your chickens faster.  

Just put it in buckets with enough water to cover the grain plus a little extra and put lids on them.

We always do this in the warmer seasons, and we let the chickens out during the day to forage, and you can give them kitchen scraps too.

They will just about eat anything!

Just be careful not to feed your chickens too much of any one thing.

You can also sprout oats and other grains, just leave them in buckets with enough water for them to soak up, you may have to experiment a little, and wait to see the little white sprouts coming from the seeds.

You can leave them for longer as well, until you start to see green.

As you can see, there are a lot of options for feeding your chickens naturally.

Thanks for reading! Check out the articles in my series Raising Chickens for Beginners and I wish you good luck on your chicken raising journey.

Read More about Post and Beam Barn Kits below.

Jay Bell 40×60 Gambrel Build

Jay Bell 40×60 Gambrel Build

Jay Bell Posted to the Barngeeks DIY Facebook Group 2/27/23 My wife and I moved from New Hampshire to Texas in 2018 after retirement. In New Hampshire we owned an antique home built in 1840 that had a 40’ X 60’ bank barn attached to the house, which was my inspiration...

read more
Barn Interview: John Casper

Barn Interview: John Casper

"Probably the most gratifying part of this whole project is every time someone new; friend, family, associates, what have you, come step through that door for the first time, people I've known my whole life or people I've just met just through work associations or...

read more

 Ancient Jib Pole, A Game Changer for Your Barn Project

Simple Jib Pole saves Your Back and Your Wallet!  My sister and her husband are building an off grid Barn Home, AKA a Barndominium on a raw piece of land, this will be their forever home. Their plan is to do so with as little cost as possible, while maintaining a High...

read more

5 Steps to build a Barn Business and beat Big Lumber

1. Assess the local market.This kind of business is easiest to run in the country, however there might be an Urban Market, in your area. It’s really an appealing product anywhere, you just have to identify what marketing angle works best for your area. You might have...

read more

3×4 chicken coop with solar power

Built this coop from the free plan - reduced the size a bit. It can be moved around the yard - has wheels on a single axle in the centre. Light activated door is operated with solar power

read more

Old red barn paint safety

Hello, We recently bought a rustic house that is finished with beautiful barn siding on the walls. They have quite a bit of remnant red paint. They are from an old barn in Iowa, and I have no idea how old they are. In much of the area, the red color seems to have...

read more