Did you get chickens in order to save money at the grocery store, then find you were paying more for their food than you were for eggs?! We did too. Lucky for all of us, we found ten easy ways to save money on chicken feed. Most of these solutions are free or cheap and require very little work on your part.

There’s an abundance of free chicken food out there, you just need to know where to look…

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Read on for 10 easy ways to save money on chicken feed!

1. Free Ranging:

Letting your flock out to free range is the number one way to cut down on feed costs. Chickens are hard wired to search for their own food outside. They’ll pick at grasses and weeds, dig for worms, and even hunt down larger prey like mice and lizards.

Free ranging is very easy on you, all you have to do is open the door and let them go wild. The chickens will do all the hard work. Best of all it’s completely free, and your flock will help to keep the pest and weed level down in your yard.

2. Farmer’s Markets:

Hit up the farmer’s market within the last hour of operation and you’ll find tons of vendors throwing out stacks of produce. These fruits and veggies (and sometimes bread) may be unsellable for some reason or another, but are usually perfectly good for your chickens.

Vendors will often toss this produce in a pile behind their stand or by the trash cans. Ask if you can take some home for your chickens and they’ll more than likely be glad for the free haul away service.

3. Grocery Stores, Restaurants, and Shops

Making a simple phone call to the local bakery or a favorite restaurant can save you tons of money in chicken food. Thousands of pounds of food are thrown away weekly, simply because it’s a little mushy, bruised, or stale. Again, these foods may not be sellable to patrons, but your chickens will love it. You can drive up to the dumpsters and check it out, but it would be a better idea to call the manager beforehand.

Getting permission first will not only keep you out of trouble, but grocers are often willing to set aside food for you if you simply ask. They get the pleasure of knowing the food isn’t going to waste, and you get free goods for your birds, win-win!

4. Grow Fodder:

Fodder is incredibly easy to grow and so nutritious for your chickens. It’s especially helpful to grow fodder in the winter, when grasses and plants are hard to come by for your flock. Fodder shouldn’t be used as a replacement for chicken feed, but rather as a cheap and easy supplement to their feed. It will provide valuable nutrients and fiber for you flock.

This article lays out step by step how to grow fodder for your chickens:

Black Fox Homestead: How to Grow Fodder for your Chickens

5. Ferment their Feed:

Fermentation is the hot new thing in health lately, but did you know you could ferment your chicken feed? Fermentation helps to break down the food, making it easier to digest and increasing the probiotic and enzyme content of the food, making it healthier for your birds.

This post on fermenting chicken feed is very informative:

Natural Chicken Keeping: Fermented Feed

6. Make your own feed

Your average commercial chicken feed is mostly made up of cheap filler, such as corn or soy. It’s not the most nutritious blend for your flock, and you need to supplement with fresh produce or free ranging for healthy birds. While organic and non-GMO poultry feed does exist, it’s usually very expensive, and why hand your hard earned money over when you can do it yourself?

Making highly nutritious chicken feed at home can save you money and improve the health of your flock. If you can find a source for bulk grains and seeds, you’re already halfway there.

Our friends at Whistle Pig Hollow have a great post on making chicken feed: Homemade Chicken Feed Recipes

7. Grow a Chicken Garden:

There are tons of easy to grow plants that are beloved by chickens. Consider growing a garden just for your chickens to cut down on feed costs.

Chickens especially love these:

• Pumpkins/Squash- very well adored by chickens and very nutritious
• Leafy greens- lettuce, kale, mustard, and arugula are easy to grow
• Tomatoes- Grape tomatoes are fun, toss them in the coop and watch your chickens play keep away!
• Sunflowers- These are easy to grow and you can chop off the whole flower head and toss it into the coop

8. Supplement with Hearty Treats:

You can buy huge bags of treats at the feed store or on Amazon for really cheap. Supplementing the flock’s feed with these hearty treats will fill them up and provide much needed protein on the cheap.

Mealworms

Mealworms make excellent treats for chickens. They’re high in protein and the birds simply adore them. You can even go the extra mile and raise them yourself to really see some savings!

Black Oil Sunflower Seeds

Black Oil Sunflower Seeds are our chickens absolute favorite treat. A 50 pound bag lasts us more than six months and is very inexpensive at our local feed store. Sunflower seeds are very nutritionally dense and a little bit goes a long way with your chickens.

To save yourself the cost of this treat, try growing them yourself! Sunflowers can grow practically anywhere and require very little care.

Flock Block

The Flock Block is another treat we always have on hand. One of these will last our flock several months, and its not only full of nutritious seeds, it keeps them busy in the boring winter months. You can buy a flock block, or if your birds go through them too quickly, you make your own flock block really cheaply.

The Prairie Homestead shows you how in this post: DIY Flock Block Substitute

 9. Feed them your weeds:

Most of the weeds in your yard are very well liked by chickens. If you don’t want to let them out to free range in your space, you can at least pick some treats for them.

The following weeds are well loved by chickens:

• Plantain
• Dandelion- leaves and flowers
• Chickweed
• Clover
• Lambsquarters
• Chicory

10. Feed Kitchen Scraps

Wilted lettuce, mushy berries, stale bread, unappetizing leftovers… don’t let this food make its way to the trash can! Feed it to your chickens as a snack. Giving your flock the weekly kitchen scraps can put a big dent in your chicken feed costs.

For a complete list of good and bad chicken snacks, read our post: Chicken Treats: What’s Hot, What’s Not