Birds need food that helps em grow and stay healthy. They need 38 different nutrients! Can you beleive that? That's a lot more than what us humans think about when we eat. The most important parts are protein, energy, calcium, and special vitamins. What birds eat changes based on if they're babies or grown-ups, and what job they have - making eggs or growing meat.
Poultry diets are mostly made of grains - about 60-70% of what chickens, turkeys, and ducks eat. These grains give birds energy from carbs and some protein too. But not all grains are the same! Some have more energy, some have more protein, and some have stuff that can make birds feel sick if they eat too much.
I've been mixing poultry feeds for 25 years, and I always tell new farmers: "You wouldn't fill your car with the wrong fuel, so don't give your birds the wrong grains." Each bird type needs their own special mix.
Baby broiler chickens (the ones we raise for meat) need more protein - about 23% when they're small, going down to 18% when they're bigger. Layer hens need less protein (about 17-19%) but they need lots of calcium (3.8-4.0%) to make strong eggshells. Turkeys are hungry birds! They need even more protein than chickens - up to 28% when they're babies.
Here's what different birds need:
| Bird Type | Protein Needed | Calcium Needed | Phosphorus Needed |
|---|---|---|---|
| Baby Broilers | 23% | 1.0% | 0.45% |
| Laying Hens | 17-19% | 3.8-4.0% | 0.45% |
| Baby Turkeys | 28% | 1.2% | 0.60% |
| Meat Ducks | 19-22% | 0.65% | 0.40% |
Most grains don't have enough protein by themselves, so we mix them with things like soybean meal or add extra amino acids like L-Lysine and DL-Methionine. These are like protein building blocks that help birds grow strong.
Corn is the king of grains for chicken feed! It gives more energy than other grains - about 3,300 calories in each kilogram. That's why most big chicken farms use mostly corn in their feed. When birds eat corn, they get lots of energy to grow fast or make eggs.
But corn isn't perfect. It doesn't have much protein - only about 8.5%. And the protein it does have is missing some important amino acids like lysine and methionine. This means we can't just feed birds corn alone. We gotta mix it with other stuff.
I remember visiting a farm in Iowa where they tried feeding just corn to save money. The chickens looked terrible! Their feathers were falling out, and they grew super slow. This happened cuz they didn't get enough protein.
Corn does one thing really well - it gives birds a nice yellow skin and egg yolks. This happens because corn has natural yellow-orange stuff called xanthophylls. People like yellow chicken skin and bright egg yolks, so this is a good thing! Corn has about 25 mg/kg of xanthophylls, much more than wheat or sorghum.
Many farms use corn gluten meal as a way to add more protein. This is made from corn but has 60-70% protein! It's what's left after they take out the starch to make corn syrup. It's a great protein boost that still has all the yellow color from regular corn.
Another corn product is DDGS (Dried Distillers Grains with Solubles). This is what's left after making ethanol fuel from corn. It has about 27% protein and lots of good fiber. We can use up to 15% DDGS in chicken feed.
One problem with corn: sometimes it gets expensive! When there's a drought or too much rain, or when lots of corn goes to make ethanol, prices go up. That's why smart farmers know how to use other grains too, so they can switch when prices change.
In hot weather, corn is better than wheat or barley because it has less fiber, so it makes less heat when birds digest it. I've seen birds eat 10% more feed in summer when using wheat instead of corn - that costs farmers money!
Wheat is the second most used grain for chicken feed, and in some countries like the UK and Canada, they use more wheat than corn! Wheat has less energy than corn (3,153 vs 3,300 kcal/kg) but more protein (13% vs 8.5%). This can be good or bad depending on what ur trying to do.
I switched one of my client's broiler farms from corn to wheat last year when corn prices went crazy. We had to change the whole formula, but the birds still grew good. The meat was a bit less yellow, but the feed cost went down 7%!
Wheat has a special problem tho - it can make sticky poop! This happens because wheat has stuff called "pentosans" that soak up water and get gooey. If you use lots of wheat, you should add enzymes called xylanases that break down these sticky parts. Most commercial feeds with wheat already have these enzymes mixed in.
Barley and oats are cheaper than corn or wheat but have less energy. Barley has about 2,795 kcal/kg - that's 15% less than corn! But barley has good protein (11-12%) and less fat than corn, which can be good for layer hens that might get too fat.
The big problem with barley and oats is they have these things called beta-glucans. These are like chewing gum in the bird's gut - they make everything sticky and slow down digestion. If you use more than 20% barley without adding enzymes, birds will grow slower and have wet, sticky poop.
Here's how these grains compare:
| Grain | Energy (kcal/kg) | Protein (%) | Main Challenge |
|---|---|---|---|
| Corn | 3,300 | 8.5 | Low protein, expensive |
| Wheat | 3,153 | 13.0 | Sticky droppings |
| Barley | 2,795 | 11.5 | Beta-glucans, low energy |
| Oats | 2,700 | 11.0 | High fiber, beta-glucans |
You can use a mix of grains instead of just one type. This is called "risk spreading" in the feed business. If one grain gets expensive or has quality problems, you're not stuck! The 40 common feed ingredients guide shows how different ingredients work together.
For layer hens, we can use more barley - up to 40% if we add the right enzymes. Turkey growers can handle more barley too because turkeys have stronger digestion than chickens. But for fast-growing broilers, we usually keep barley under 20%.
Adding feed yeast can help birds digest these tougher grains better. Yeast has good protein and helps the gut work better too!
Did you know that grinding up all the grain might not be the best way to feed birds? This was a big surprise to me when I first learned it! Chickens and turkeys have a special stomach called a gizzard. It's like a muscle that grinds up food. If birds eat some whole grains, their gizzard gets stronger and works better.
When I started feeding 30% whole wheat to my broilers (instead of ground wheat), I saw something amazing. The birds grew 7.7% more from the same amount of feed! Their gizzards got bigger and worked better, so they got more nutrition from all their feed, not just from the wheat.
Whole grains work like nature's grinding stones inside the bird. When the gizzard gets stronger, it grinds all feed better, and it also causes more digestive juices to be made. These juices help break down all the food better. Birds with good gizzards get more energy and protein from the same feed.
There's a smart way to use whole grains - start small and add more as birds grow. For baby chicks, use no more than 5% whole grains. Their little gizzards can't handle more. Then add 5% more each week. By the end, big broilers can handle up to 50% whole wheat or whole barley!
Here's what happens when you use whole wheat versus all ground feed:
| Measurement | All Ground Feed | 30% Whole Wheat |
|---|---|---|
| Gizzard Weight | 28g | 42g |
| Feed Conversion | 1.82 | 1.76 |
| Feed Cost/kg Gain | €0.98 | €0.91 |
| Growth Rate | 100% | 104.3% |
Using whole grains also saves money on grinding costs. It can lower feed mill costs by $8-12 per ton! And it uses less electricity, which is good for the planet - about 15% less CO2 is made.
Some really cool farms use what's called "choice feeding." They give birds separate feeders with whole grains and protein feed, and let the birds choose how much of each to eat. Smart birds will balance their own diet pretty well! I've seen this work great on small farms, but it's harder to do in big operations.
Using Saccharomyces cerevisiae (a type of yeast) helps birds digest whole grains even better. The yeast helps good bacteria grow in the gut, which improves how birds use the feed.
The production flow chart shows how whole grains can be added at different points in the feed making process.
Grains alone won't make birds grow good or lay lots of eggs. We need to balance grains with proteins and other important stuff. Think of grains as the fuel and protein as the building blocks for muscles, feathers, and eggs.
Most grain-based diets need extra protein from things like soybean meal, fish meal, or meat and bone meal. The exact mix depends on what's available and what costs less.
Even when we add protein meals, we often still need to add specific amino acids. The most important ones are methionine and lysine, which are often missing. We add pure L-Lysine HCl and DL-Methionine to make up what's missing. For broilers, we usually need L-Threonine too.
I once had a farmer who didn't want to "waste money" on these amino acid supplements. His birds grew 15% slower and needed 12% more feed! Adding the right amino acids is like putting the missing pieces in a puzzle - everything works better when all the pieces are there.
Different grains need different supplements:
Birds also need minerals. Calcium is super important for egg layers - without enough, they lay eggs with thin shells that break easily. Phosphorus helps bones grow strong, and is often added as dicalcium phosphate.
For egg layers, we use this formula to figure out the right calcium:
Most farmers add big pieces of limestone or oyster shell for layers. The birds can eat these when they need more calcium, usually in the afternoon when the next day's egg is forming its shell.
Adding L-lysine to grain-based diets helps birds grow better and use less feed. And the benefits of lysine feed additives go beyond just growth - birds have better immune systems too!
Enzymes are like tiny scissors that cut up the parts of grain that birds can't digest by themselfs. Adding the right enzymes to feed is like giving birds a secret weapon to get more nutrition from the same grains. This is one of the biggest breakthroughs in poultry feeding in the last 30 years!
Different grains need different enzymes:
I remember when enzymes first became popular in the 1990s. We could suddenly use 40% barley in layer diets with no problems! Before enzymes, using more than 20% barley caused wet droppings and poor growth. Enzymes changed everything.
Here's what the right enzymes can do:
| Enzyme | Used For | Benefit | Typical Inclusion |
|---|---|---|---|
| Xylanase | Wheat, Rye | 3-6% better feed use | 1,200-1,500 U/kg |
| Beta-glucanase | Barley, Oats | 8-12% better feed use | 500-800 U/kg |
| Phytase | All plant feeds | Replaces 0.1% phosphorus | 500-1,000 FTU/kg |
| Protease | Protein meals | 2-4% more protein value | 200-400 U/kg |
With good enzyme use, we can replace some expensive ingredients with cheaper ones. For example, adding phytase means we can use less dicalcium phosphate, saving money and reducing pollution from excess phosphorus in chicken poop.
Most commercial poultry feeds already include enzymes, but if you mix your own feed, you can buy enzyme premixes. These are usually added at very small amounts - just 0.01% to 0.05% of the total feed.
When using wheat, barley or other high-fiber grains, adding choline chloride helps birds process fat better. Choline is like a traffic director for fats in the body. The ultimate guide to choline chloride uses in poultry explains this better.
A complete approach to feed additives can help birds get the most from grains, even the cheaper or less digestible ones.
Sometimes corn and wheat get too expensive, or you might not be able to get them where you live. Luckily, birds can eat other grains too! Let's talk about some options that work well for chickens and turkeys.
Sorghum (also called milo) is a great choice in hot, dry areas. It has almost as much energy as corn (3,263 vs 3,300 kcal/kg) and a bit more protein (9% vs 8.5%). The biggest difference? Sorghum lacks the yellow color that corn gives to skin and egg yolks.
I worked with farms in Texas and Africa where sorghum was the main grain. The birds grew just as well as with corn, but we had to add marigold extract to get yellow skin and egg yolks. New types of sorghum have less tannin (a bitter substance) than old types, so birds like eating it better.
Rice can be used in poultry feed too, especially in Asia where it's plentiful. Broken rice (the pieces left after milling for human food) works great for birds and is usually cheaper than whole rice. It has good energy (3,200 kcal/kg) but very low protein (7%).
Triticale is a cross between wheat and rye. It has high protein (15.4%) and good energy (3,110 kcal/kg). It's easier to grow than wheat in some areas because it needs less fertilizer and resists disease better. Birds like it almost as much as wheat.
| Alternative Grain | Energy (kcal/kg) | Protein (%) | Special Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sorghum | 3,263 | 9.0 | Low in yellow pigment |
| Rice (broken) | 3,200 | 7.0 | Very low fiber, good for baby chicks |
| Triticale | 3,110 | 15.4 | Watch for ergot toxin |
| Rye | 2,900 | 12.0 | Limited to 20% for adults, less for young |
| Cassava | 3,200 | 2.5 | Must be processed to remove toxins |
Rye is cheaper than wheat but has substances that can make feed taste bad and cause sticky droppings. We usually limit it to 20% of adult bird diets and less for young birds.
In tropical areas, some farms use cassava (also called tapioca). It's mostly starch with very little protein, but has good energy. The trick with cassava is it must be properly processed to remove toxins called cyanogenic glycosides.
For small farms, sprouting grains can increase their nutrition value. I've seen sprouted barley with 12% more usable protein than regular barley! But sprouting is hard to do for large farms.
Dicalcium phosphate is even more important when using alternative grains, as some have less available phosphorus than corn or wheat.
The essential nutrients in chicken feed guide explains what birds need regardless of which grains you use.
Let's get practical! How do you actually mix these grains to make good chicken feed? I'll share some real formulas that work well, based on my 25 years of experience.
For broiler chickens (meat birds), we change the mix as they grow. Here's a simple starter diet for baby chicks up to 3 weeks old:
Broiler Starter (0-3 weeks)
This gives about 22% protein and 3,000 kcal/kg of energy. For a wheat-based version:
Wheat-Based Broiler Starter
For laying hens, calcium is super important. Here's a mix for hens in peak egg production:
Layer Diet (Peak Production)
If you want to use more alternative grains, here's a good mix for grower broilers (3-6 weeks):
Multi-Grain Broiler Grower
This gives about 20% protein and 3,100 kcal/kg. Using multiple grains spreads your risk - if one grain has quality problems or price increases, you're not completely dependent on it.
For small farms, here's a simpler formula that works well with local ingredients:
Simple Farm-Mixed Feed
You can learn more from the chicken feed ingredients guide.
When making your own feed, always check with a nutritionist or use a computer program to make sure you're meeting all the bird's needs. Small mistakes can cost a lot in lost growth or egg production!
Corn is best for tiny chicks because it's high in energy and easy to digest. Using 5-10% whole wheat helps develop their gizzards. Avoid barley and oats for birds under 3 weeks unless you add the right enzymes.
No! Birds need a mix of ingredients. One grain alone won't provide all the nutrients they need. Even with supplements, using at least 2-3 grain types usually works better and can be cheaper too.
For young chicks (0-2 weeks), grind fairly fine (1-2 mm particles). For older birds, coarser grinding (2-3 mm) works better and costs less. Including 10-30% whole grains for birds over 3 weeks old improves gizzard function and feed use.
It depends on your market. Birds don't care if grain is organic or not! But if you're selling organic eggs or meat, you must use organic grain. The nutritional differences are small, but organic production helps the environment.
Check for mold, weird smells, or bugs. Moldy grain can make birds very sick or even die. Good grain should smell fresh and clean. If you're not sure, mix a small amount in warm water - bad grain will smell sour or musty.
Yes! Sprouting increases vitamin content and can make some nutrients more available. It works best for small flocks, as it's labor-intensive for large operations.
Kitchen scraps can be a nice treat for birds but shouldn't replace proper grain-based feed. Most scraps don't have enough protein or balanced nutrients. I tried this once with my backyard flock - they loved the treats but laid fewer eggs and looked less healthy. Kitchen scraps should be no more than 10-20% of what your birds eat.
Grain choice has a huge effect on yolk color! Corn gives dark yellow-orange yolks because it has natural yellow pigments (xanthophylls). Wheat and barley give paler yolks. If you switch from corn to wheat, you'll see lighter yolks in about 7-10 days. Some farmers add marigold extract or paprika to wheat-based feeds to keep yolks yellow.
Yes! The grains birds eat can change how they taste. Corn-fed chickens often have yellower skin and slightly sweeter meat. Wheat and barley give less color but some say a more "chicken-y" flavor. I've done blind taste tests with chef friends - they could tell which birds ate which grains!
Watch the markets and buy when prices dip. Use a mix of grains so you can adjust based on price. Add enzymes to get more value from cheaper grains like barley. Use synthetic amino acids like L-Lysine and DL-Methionine to reduce protein needs. Consider adding some DDGS or corn gluten meal when they're priced right.
Yes! Turkeys can handle more barley and oats than chickens because they have stronger digestion. Ducks do well with whole grains earlier than chickens. Quail need higher protein levels, so they do better with wheat than corn as the base grain.
Absolutely! Too much barley or oats (over 40%) without enzymes causes sticky droppings and poor growth. More than 20% rye can cause digestive upset. Some sorghum varieties have tannins that taste bitter and slow growth if used too much. It's always about balance!
In hot weather, lower-fiber grains like corn work better because they produce less heat when digested. In cold weather, more barley or oats can help birds stay warmer. I've seen feed intake drop 5-8% in summer when using high-fiber grains in hot climates.
Yes! Poorly stored grain loses nutrients and can grow mold that makes toxins. Grain should be kept dry (less than 14% moisture) and cool. Check stored grain often for bugs, mold, or heating. I lost a whole bin of corn once by not checking it enough - it got hot in the middle and was worthless for feed!
You can! Many small farms grow corn, wheat, or barley for their flocks. The challenge is getting the right balance of nutrients. You'll still need to add protein sources (like soybean meal or meat and bone meal), minerals, and vitamins. For very small flocks, the effort might not be worth the savings.
Choosing the right grains for your poultry is both a science and an art. The science part is knowing what nutrients birds need at each stage of life. The art is mixing available ingredients to meet those needs at the lowest cost.
After 25 years of formulating poultry feeds, I've learned that flexibility is key. No single grain is perfect for all situations. Smart farmers use a mix of grains, add the right supplements, and adjust as birds grow and ingredient prices change.
For commercial operations, working with a good nutritionist and feed testing lab makes a huge difference. A small improvement in feed efficiency can save thousands of dollars a year on a big farm.
For backyard flocks, focus on high-quality commercial feed as your base, and use whole grains as healthy treats that help the gizzard work better. Your birds will be healthier and more productive.
Remember that feed is the foundation of bird health and performance. You can't fix bad genetics or poor management with good feed, but even the best birds won't perform well on poor feed. Get the feed right, and everything else becomes easier!
Whether you're raising millions of broilers or just a few backyard hens, understanding grain choices gives you the power to grow healthier birds more efficiently. And in today's changing world, that knowledge is more valuable than ever.
