Henhouse Morning Mix
From the moment that our first day old chicks arrived here at 1840 Farm, I was hooked on chicken keeping. We built their coop by hand, using repurposed materials when possible, planning the best we could for the chicken keeping adventure that lay ahead. We tended to the pullets through the first few months of a very cold New England winter. We loved every cold minute of it!
Months later, on a snowy February day, something absolutely magical happened. We discovered the first fresh egg waiting for us in the nest boxes. Our son, who was a toddler at the time, declared it our first “homegrown” egg. It was a proud moment for all of us, filled with the excitement made possible by months of planning and years of wanting to bring livestock back to the landscape of our farm.
Years have passed, yet the excitement hasn’t faded a bit. Each egg is still a reason to celebrate. To ensure that our girls continue to provide us with a steady supply of fresh eggs, we do all that we can to keep them healthy and strong. We prefer natural methods of boosting their immunity and providing them with the nutrition they need. My favorite technique to accomplish that goal is to provide our hens with a nutrition packed start to their day.
I first tried this method after reading Fresh Eggs Daily: Raising Happy, Healthy Chickens…Naturally. The concept was simple and brilliant. By incorporating several healthy supplements into our flock’s morning ration, we could easily provide them with a nutritional boost and enjoy watching them excitedly gobble it up each morning.
1840 Farm Henhouse Morning Mix
We offer this mix to our hens along with a steady supply of their layer feed. Our hens love it and I love knowing that it is packed with the nutrition they need and the taste they love. Because we don’t rely on this mix as our flock’s exclusive diet, I can make subtle changes to this mix based on the seasons and use approximate measures for the components without worrying about our hens getting all of the base nutrition that they need.
During molting season, I add extra sunflower seeds and a healthy dose of dried mealworms to the mix in order to provide our flock with a boost of protein. I blend these components by hand and store them in a pest proof container in the same manner that we store our other animal feed.
10 pounds poultry layer pellets or crumbles
2 pounds raw old-fashioned oats
2 pounds Black oil sunflower seeds
2 cups dried, crushed egg shells
1/4 cup Probotic powder
1/4 cup food-grade diatomaceous earth
1/4 cup garlic powder
Thank you for the extra information and giveaway opportunity!
Cheers, izzi~avis (and I am soooo enjoying my egg basket!)
Thank you for letting me know that you are enjoying your basket. You’ve certainly started my day off in a delightful direction!
Thank you for the information and the giveaway.
You’re welcome!
I think I’m going to L <3 VE visiting here. 🙂
I have 5 laying hens, 1 rooster & 34 chicks that are 2.5 months old.
I have a flock of 17 which includes three roosters!
Sharing my sons ten chickens!
I have 6 hens … it has been a wonderful experience!
We have roughly 100 great ladies and a handful of roos 🙂
I’ve been raising chickens for 20 years and still learning so much from you and Fresh Eggs Daily!
The giveaway is such a great way to get information out to all of us chicken enthusiasts!!! I have 47 chickens and 2 of them are roos. I love them all and it is so therapeutic for me to just sit and watch them do their thing. My pullets will be laying soon and I am having such a hard time trying to decide what colors would look best in my egg basket. I honestly love every picture of the baskets that you have made. Thanks again for all of the valuable chicken info 🙂
Thank you for sharing your information with all of us!
I don’t have any yet, but really want to and have been reading all I can about the subject and plotting my start! I have the supplies to build the coop and have learned so much from your sites and blogs….thank you so much! Early spring is my start date!!
I love all 3 of these blogs and facebook pages. I have a Lucky 13 flock. It was supposed to be 14 but one Black Australorp turned out to be a rooster so I rehomed him. He was so beautiful, though! The girls and I would be delighted to win one of the great items you are giving away. Thanks!