9 Practical Tips for Feeding Your Pastured Poultry (PPT106)

Feeding your pastured poultry is a huge topic, and it can quickly overwhelm you. As a beginner to pastured poultry, I provide nine tips for feeding your flock that can help you get off to the right start. I'll cover universal feeding advice as well as specific information for meat birds, layers, and turkeys. All this advice can summed up into a larger objective statement.

Buy the highest quality (not the cheapest) feed you can and make it a mission to understand the nutrition requirements of each type of poultry you raise based on it's age. The episode covers the beginner level approach to selecting feed and doesn't dive into the actual nutrient levels.

Request your Feed Guidelines Cheat Sheet at this link, and it will be emailed to you. The cheat sheet referenced in the podcast episode outlines how you can feed your flock. It primarily matches the feed type and protein level by the poultry species and age.

1. Don't buy cheap feed
2. Pasture's role in feeding your birds
3.  Tips for Sourcing Feed
   • buy from local independent mill first
   • know feed types: organic, conventional, non-gmo
4. Feed chickens based on age and type
   • How to feed a broiler
   • How to feed a layer
   •  Make a turkey starter ration from a broiler feed
   • hard boiled eggs for turkeys
5. Provide enough feeder space so that everybody eats
6. Water consumption drives for feed consumption
   • Will you drink your chickens' water?
7. Feed supplements - grit and oyster shell
8. What influence does feed have on production: lay rate and feed conversion?
9. Tips for feeding Cornish cross
10. Bonus Tip: Watch out for this sure fire sign of Mycotoxins