Today I made a natural feed for our chicken layers. Normally, I just go straight to the market and buy commercial feed for them. But this time, I have free time. Our chilli drying business had to stop because the price of fresh chillies suddenly shot up and drying them was not doable now. So I decided to make one when I noticed that our Moringa trees needed some pruning. After the pruning, I collected all the leaves, which will be one of the main ingredients in the chicken feed.
Ingredients
-Rice bran
-Molasses (a sugar by-product)
-Moringga leaves/Water spinach/Azolla
-Ash
-Salt
-Copra Meal (Coconut by-product)
-Water
I used green, leafy vegetables as the main source of protein. My favorites are moringa leaves and water spinach, which grow fast and can be acquired almost for free. We've grown a lot of Moringga trees around, and there is a lot of water spinach in nearby swamps and rivers. Moringga leaves also have a high calcium content, which helps harden the egg shell. Rice bran is for carbohydrates, fats, and protein. Copra meal, a by-product in coconut oil making, is mainly for fats and minerals. Molasses, a by-product of sugar making, is for the fermentation process together with water, salt, and ashes. Probiotic drinks are also optional.
This is actually a fermented feed that uses rice bran as the base feed. Rice bran protein content is not enough, especially for laying hens. The usual protein source is soya meal, but this is an expensive ingredient, so I usually use Moringga, water spinach, and azolla, or a combination of those, depending on availability.
Simply combine all the ingredients. I used the ratio by weight as follows:
40% Rice bran
40% Leaves/Vegetables
10% Copra meal
5% Ash
5% Salt
Mix 2–3 cups of molasses in a pail of water (16–18 liters). A 50-kilogram feed needed 8–10 pails of this mixture of Molasses and water. The feed should be wet enough to start the fermentation process. After combining and mixing all this, put it in a container and seal it. The fermentation process lasts three weeks.
The fermented feed is easy to digest, has more nutrients, and is very loved by the chickens.
Happy farmimg.
Yay! 🤗
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