Chickens:Cheapest Layers Pellets : Feed, Grain etc

Wortle

Hi. Its nearly a decade since I kept chickens and even then I never broke even if you counted housing costs.

I have been looking into keeping them again and am aghast at 20 kg bags of layers pellets ranging from £5 to £8 depending where you live. Please could people join this thread and quote the prices they are paying locally, the brand and weight if they know it and where they are buying it from.(Name and postcode perhaps)

So can anyone help me drive down the costs please?

My nearest store has

Layers pellets:20 kg,Farmgate £7.20, Redpost Eq (TQ9 6NG, Devon)


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moo2moo

My local independent - Butlers, White Gate Farm, Hope £6.50 per 20kg bag (Heygates Layers).

Farm and Pet Place, Chirk. £7.30 25kg Dr Greens Layers pellets

I keep my costs down by hatching my own chicks otherwise I'd be paying per bird at farcical prices. A pair of Lavender Auraucanas was spotted yesterday for £65, whereas I paid £45 for an immaculate secondhand incubator which gives me 75% success rate with fertile eggs. I keep my costs down in the summer by feeding grass clippings which are delivered by one of the local gardening businesses when they're passing. In autumn they get lots and lots of bruised and wind damaged apples from the neighbours orchard.

Wortle

So you get 5kg free compared to my 20kg price.

I think I've been missing a trick if hens eat grass clippings, presumably you would need to up the protein with some caterpillars and slugs then! Never tried apples either. Those tips will certainly help drive down costs.

girlracer265

Mole Valley Farmers 25Kg - £6.25

emiff6

If your birds can range freely and pick up what they like from vegetation, insects, and ground, they shouldn't need layers pellets.

When I kept bantams, they had the free range of one and a half acres of garden and pony paddock, and I fed them whole wheat, which at that time was £3.20 for 25kg (about 12 years ago), plus oyster shell for the calcium. They all laid an egg a day in season on that, which was plenty for us for everyday use, baking, and putting down in isinglass for the months they don't lay. Oh, and I never had trouble with slugs eating plants!

If your hens are free range, try to feed them later in the day - they will be less hungry because they have already filled up on everything else. It doesn't save much, but every little helps.

emiff6

moo2moo wrote: »

A pair of Lavender Auraucanas was spotted yesterday for £65.......

Aren't these just the most beautiful birds? I had Araucana crosses, and everyone used to be amazed at the blue-shelled eggs.

Flibbertygibbet

Mole valley farmers layers pellets now 8.15 for 25kg in South west.
Can anyone improve on that?

celerity

(argh, typed out my reply and the forum lost it - I *hate* it when that happens )

Brief summary: We've been advised from many sources not to give chickens grass cuttings, as it can cause them to become crop bound.

Diclaimer: We are not poultry experts, we are just hobbyists who have kept pet chickens for about four years.

For anyone worried, I advise them to do their own indepenent reading.

/\dam

happy_gardener

£7.60 for 25kg layers pellets...in County Antrim, Northern Ireland

grahamc2003

£9.50 for 25kg 'Humphries' layer feed, West Sussex. Mine also eat plenty of grass, and one did get a problem from eating very long grass. She stopped laying, looked puffed up and unwell for several days, then a sausage shape of dirty knotted long grass appeared (not sure which end it came from!) and a day or two later she was right as rain, laying daily, and she's a 4 years old.

celerity

By "grass cuttings" I mean grass which you've mowed. There's nothing wrong with chickens eating grass that is rooted to the ground, as they can rip off bits to their liking. The argument against cuttings is that they can't, so are more at risk from eating a long blade which gets stuck.

/\dam