I have a lot of success feeding my chickens Milo grain, and Profat dog food. I find that they have a a good layer of fat when I butcher them. It is an interesting thing, they don't seem to need as much feed when they are on this diet. In fact our chickens routinely leave feed when I feed them this way. They don't need that much of the profat either. I thought it interesting that a friend of mine tried feeding this, in fact she posts here regularly, but her husband worried because they weren't eating as much, and they left a lot of the dog food. However, I find this is the highest laying ration I have ever used. We had a good friend who was in her eighties living with us for awhile. She told me that milo maize was the standard ration for chickens before and during the depression. According to her, the chickens always laid well on milo maize. She wanted to add protein so she added a little Profat dog food to her ration. She converted me, when I was feeding tons of mash and getting few eggs, and she was feeding this, and getting eggs every single day not matter what the time of year or what the weather. She gave me her chickens, and when I tried to change the ration back to mash, egg production went in the toilet. It may not make sense, but I don't care if it makes sense so long as it works. And this ration works.

Little Bit Farm

-- Little Bit Farm (littlebit@brightok.net), October 07, 2003

Answers

Milo is simply grain sorghum. What I planted this last year I bought down, at the feed store. It grew great and had an awesome variety of colors, and types. It really made a lot of seed. I was very impressed! You can order pure strains of sorghum from RH Shumway. You can find them here:

RH Shumway

-- Little Bit Farm (littlebit@brightok.net), October 11, 2003.

It is always unwise to feed any animal a single grain, and nothing else. Any small bite high protein dog food would work here. Otherwise scraps can make up the difference. However, it is important to remember when feeding meat scraps to give the chickens table quality food, and only give them what they can clean up in a few minutes. Food that sits in the chicken pen can be subject to bringing disease right into your eggs, as well as causing limberneck(botulism) in your chickens. I feed some scraps but prefer the dog food for it's convenience. However, years ago Milo and scraps were the standard chicken feed.

Little Bit Farm

-- Little Bit Farm (littlebit@brightok.net), November 29, 2003.

What is milo grain? It sounds like a great way to go, but I have never heard of it.

-- Joanie (ber-gust@prodigy.net), October 08, 2003.

Joanie, I remember reading that Gene Logsdon grew milo on his homestead near Upper Sandusky to feed his chickens. I'm racking my brain cells to remember which book it was, but can't come up with the name right now.

Don't they grow milo in the plains states like Nebraska, etc.? If G.L. grows milo, I'm sure we could probably grow a small patch in our gardens or along our fields for chicken feed. But where would we get the seed? I don't think I've ever seen milo seed anywhere around here. This would be something to find out.

Vicki

-- vicki (thga76@toast.net), October 11, 2003.

They put it in birdseed mixes, sometimes. It is the fat round grain that birds do not like much. It yields well and is vigorous. It can have too many nitrates if it suffers from lack of moisture. It doesn't need a LOT of water, but if it wilts it can have too many nitrates in it. Nitrates are a carcinogen.

-- Terri (hooperterri@prodigy.net), October 12, 2003.

I tried MIlo, for the second year,, cant get any of it to even come up here

-- Stan (sopal@net-pert.com), October 12, 2003.

Well, my opinion is that a plant can only make too many nitrates if it is being overfed, usually with chemical plant food. It is also possible with manure, but much less probable. So far i haven't had any trouble with cancer in my chickens. I am not too worried about this. I don't fertilize chemically at all, and I am even judicious with my use of manure. This is especially less likely to happen if using homemade compost either through a sheet composting method, or a traditional pile method. Personally I think you are much more likely to get nitrate poisoning from either the water you drink( if from a city source), or from over nitrogen fed grocery store produce.

Little Bit Farm

-- Little Bit Farm (littlebit@brighterok.net), October 13, 2003.

Hi, interesting post about the milo and?profat dog food. Have not heard of that one before, do you get it local or is it a national brand? Thanks, Barb

-- Barb (sullivanhollow@yahoo.com), October 21, 2003.

Yeah...Can you just feed milo alone? And they have this ration at Big R that is for just layer chickens...I'm needing a name of a brand, so I can know what to look for. Or should I experiance with the chickens?

-- Aly Smith (HermitCrabALY@aol.com), November 28, 2003.