Feeds take a great portion of the budget in chicken rearing, but this can be lowered by making your own feeds.
There are 4 categories of feed components and these include energy, proteins, vitamins, minerals and premixes. To make 100 kg of chicken mash, you need 40 kg of ground maize, 10 kg of wheat bran, 20 kg wheat pollard, soybean meal 18 kg, fish meal 9 kg, lime stone 2 kg, common salt 0.5 kg, methionine 0.5 kg, lysine 0.02 kg an coccidiostat 0.003 kg. Ensure that the soybean used in feed formulation should be roasted.
Growers and layers mash
To make 100 kg of growers mash, you need 35 kg of ground maize, wheat bran 10 kg, wheat pollard 28 kg, soybean meal 15 kg, fish meal 7 kg, limestone 4 kg, common salt 0.5 kg, premixes 0.3 kg and coccidiostat 0.03 kg.
For 100 kg of layers mash, you require 35 kg of ground maize, wheat bran 4 kg, wheat pollard 35 kg, soybean meal 9 kg, fish meal 8 kg, limestone 6kg, common salt 0.6 kg, methionine 0.02kg, di calcium phosphate 0.5 kg, premixes 2 kg.
Chicken mash contains about 19 to 20% protein and for local chicken, it should be offered from when the chicks are a day old up to when they are 8 weeks old. Growers mash contains between 16 and 17% protein and should be offered from the 9th week up to when the chicken starts to lay while layers mash contains 15 to 17% protein and should be offered to hens when they start to lay.